Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ten violent westerlies which stretches southwards from the fortieth
parallel. Day after day the ship raced along with the wind at her back
or on her quarter, over a sea scattered with monumental boulders
of ice. The stiffened sails had to be handled frequently by men bal-
anced on the slippery yards working with numb fingers. How the
offwatch crew must have cursed these seemingly senseless proceed-
ings and what a relief it must have been when Cook, at last, ordered
a change of course to the north-east and ran for New Zealand. When,
on 26 March,
Resolution
anchored in Dusky Bay she had travelled
over 10,000 miles in 122 days without a sight of land.
Cook allowed a month's respite in this wildly beautiful spot of
fjords, steep forest-clad slopes and ribbons of falling water. He made
contact with the shy local people and joined his officers on hunting
expeditions. The off-duty seamen enjoyed themselves fishing and
catching seals on a nearby island. Everyone ate well and enjoyed the
varied diet of fish and game birds. Lieutenant Clerke, eating seal-
meat for the first time, pronounced it 'very little inferior to beef-
steak'. The scientists had plenty to occupy their waking hours. There
were charts to be made, specimens to be collected and drawn, astro-
nomical readings to be taken and the chronometers to be checked.
The Admiralty had provided Cook with four of these instruments
and he tested them stringently. Before the voyage he was a con-
vinced supporter of astronomical reckoning but he gradually
changed his opinion. Two of the chronometers failed to last the
course and a third was aboard the
Adventure
but the fourth, a copy of
one of John Harrison's timepieces, made by Larcum Kendall of Furni-
val's Inn Court, London, in his opinion 'exceeded the expectations of
er, everyone enjoyed the stay in Dusky Sound - although any haven
would probably have seemed paradisal after the experiences of the
last few weeks. At the end of April
Resolution
weighed anchor and
