Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Drake and Raleigh was dropped as being unnecessarily provocative
to the Spanish.)
The projectors of the new voyage assumed that it would be con-
ducted in the same spirit of cordial cooperation between scientif-
ic and naval establishments that had marked the cruise of the En-
deavour. Accordingly, Joseph Banks's offer to lead the scientific team
was happily accepted. And that lit the fuse of a series of disasters
which rocked the expedition and continued to trouble Cook long
after its conclusion. Perhaps because of the adulation he was receiv-
ing, Banks had begun to develop autocratic tendencies. He took it
upon himself to plan all aspects of his new venture and when anyone
remonstrated with him he relied on his intimacy with the court and
personal friendship with Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty,
to get his own way.
Without reference to Cook - or to anyone else - Banks accumu-
lated a prodigious amount of equipment and a large suite of servants
and scientific assistants. Then he personally redesigned the Resolu-
tion to accommodate his luggage and personnel. A second deck had
to be built and, atop that, a roundhouse. Cook suffered all this in the
name of friendship and because Banks was so powerful but every
visit to the shipyard caused him more alarm, particularly when he
observed his flagship to be swarming with sightseers: 'scarce a day
passed on which she was not crowded with strangers who came on
board for no other purpose but to see the ship in which Mr Banks
was to sail round the world.' 18 The result of the alterations was dis-
astrous. Charles Clerke, one of Cook's lieutenants, told Banks with
brave directness, 'By God, I'll go to sea in a grog tub, if desired, or
in the Resolution as soon as you please, but must say I think her
by far the most unsafe ship I ever saw or heard of.' 19 As if to con-
firm this judgement, the Resolution behaved so badly when she was
moved from Deptford down the estuary that the pilot refused to take
her beyond the Nore. Her increased superstructure made her so top-
 
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