"Soundings" Spring 05
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Issue Two, Spring 2005 A Quarterly Publication for the Naval reenactment community by SOUNDINGS the members of the Royal Navy & Marines Living History - 1775 to 1814 IN THIS ISSUE: rigate Richmond proudly announces the launching Fof “The Corvette Wolfe”, a War of 1812 era Royal Creating The Instrument: Navy Ships Company. The website for our fledgeling Captain Sir The Transformation of James Cook organization is based on the flagship of James Lucas YEO in North American Waters, 1758-1767 the British Royal Navy’s 1814 naval squadron on Lake Ontario. Much of the inspiration for by Victor Suthren a fresh water Naval group grew out of the membership • Two Book Reviews in the Midwest who saw a natural blending of our com- -To Rule the Waves mon love of the Royal Navy and the superb action that -Between Two Flags took place so close to our homes. The site (stillunder construction) is accessable from... •18th Century Rope works http://www.hmsrichmond.org/corvettewolfe/ Corvettewolfesite.htm • 2005 Events Soundings has been well received and this issue in particular has been blessed with scholarly articles and reviews that I’m sure everyone will find interesting. The Adobe® Acrobat format has allowed for the demo- cratic dissemination of information across the business world and I believe can be the tool to bring together You are not without a voice! important information about the age of sail and explo- We are proud members ration that makes the 18th and 19th century so interest- of the NMLHA. ing to us today. TheNavy and Marine Living History Association, Inc. (NMLHA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corpora- Vic Suthren’s article goes to some depth to explain tion dedicated to the promotion of an awareness of America’s nautical history and to the support of our James Cook’s early experiences in North America It living history member units who portray the sailors outlines how his natural curiosity about geography and and marines of the many countries. distances laid the ground work for his success at his As members, you are welcome to participate. global explorations to come. To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NMLHA/ If you have a design towards crafting an article about and visit the website at.. http://www.navyandmarine.org items relevant to the of sail of the 18th and 19th centu- ry, please email me and I will post it for the fall edition. Wishing all my mates a wonderful summer.. Craig Fisher Frigate Richmond. T Trsfrmi Jm C Nrt Amrc Wtrs, 1758-1767 by Vir Str When James Cook arrived at Halifax and combined that science with existing naval in the Spring of 1758, he was a chartmaking techniques to produce chartwork and capable but undistinguished marine surveys of a wholly new level of accuracy. Sailing Master in the Royal His participation in the ascent to Quebec in 1759 of Navy, serving in HMS the Royal Navy fleet carrying James Wolfe’s troops, Pembroke, 64 guns. Over his key role in the success of that ascent, and his the next nine years, as preparation of charts resulting from that voyage his active professional and other survey work on the Nova Scotian and life developed in the waters Newfoundland coasts as the Seven Years’ War ended of coastal Canada and Newfoundland, he was led to his selection to undertake a major survey of transformed from a simple warrant officer into the West and South coasts of Newfoundland. The a competent navigator, innovative chartmaker extraordinary quality of this work, coupled and surveyor whose superior skills led him to with concurrent demonstrations of his be selected to command the first of three epic astronomical observation skills, led voyages of oceanic exploration, and a role in the to his selection in 1768 to command forefront of European scientific and philosophical HM Bark Endeavour on her Pacific investigation of the Pacific. Cook’s experiences voyage, on behalf of the Royal on the coasts of Nova Scotia, the Gulf and River Society and the Royal Navy, when both Saint Lawrence, and on the coast of Newfoundland parties could not agree on another suggested were, it can be argued, the anvil on which the steel commander. of Cook’s abilities were shaped. Those abilities would lead him to be later recognized as one of the The examination of James Cook’s most competent participants in the 18th Century’s period of North American European burst of seaborne exploration and service arguably reveals that the scientific inquiry into the Pacific development of Cook’s innovative after the close of the Seven chartmaking and surveying skills Years’ War. and other qualities which led to the selection for the Pacific voyages, Cook’s emergence came as a direct consequence of his as a surveyor experiences in North American waters, and and chartmaker began that the period 1758-1767 was not only the most with his chance formative for his life, but arguably for British and encounter with the European exploration of the Pacific in the remainder Dutch-born military of the 18th Century. surveyor, Samuel Van Hollandt, at Louisbourg in the summer of 1758. Cook learned from Van Hollandt the techniques of land surveying, Cook had entered the Navy in 1755, for reasons of his Pembroke’s ships’ company had been so incapacitated own and much to the astonishment of both the Walker by scurvy that the ship had remained at anchor in brothers whose employ he left, and the Royal Navy, Halifax as the remainder of the squadron with which who were only too pleased to receive him into pay. she had crossed sailed northward for the assault on the At the time of his entry into the Navy he was a highly Fortress of Louisbourg. The genesis of Cook’s almost competent coastal mariner who had learned his trade obsessive concern for the health and cleanliness of his in the Walkers’ colliers along the treacherous crews has not been fully documented, but it may North Sea coast and on a few passages have arisen from his experiences in the tidy, to Ireland and Norway. His practical well-kept ships of the Quaker Walkers seamanship was unmatched, and compounded by the dismay at first combined with his physical and seeing how a transoceanic vessel personal qualities to produce like Pembroke could be rendered promotion out of the ranks of incapable of service by scurvy, the common seamen within which usually did not hold for a month of his joining the coastal vessels. Navy. His scholarly self- instruction in mathematics Pembroke finally embarked and the scientific bases of her convalescent seamen from navigation were not yet the hospital at Halifax and developed to a similar sailed north along the iron, degree, however, and it evergreen-clad coastline of would only achieve a equal Nova Scotia to join the fleet level of competence with under Vice Admiral Richard his physical seamanship Boscawen, which had carried when he had the benefit of the assault troops of General additional encouragement Jeffrey Amherst to Louisbourg. from perceptive commanders Pembroke arrived at the fleet’s such as Hugh Palliser of Eagle, anchorage in Gabarus Bay, south and, in particular, John Simcoe of of the fortress, on June 12, 1758, to Pembroke, under whom Cook first learn that a successful landing had came to North American waters. been made on June 8, and a slow but steady investment of the fortress The arrival of Pembroke at Halifax Portrait of Captain James Cook RN was underway. The task of the fleet in the Spring of 1758, with over by John Webber (c. 1752-1793 was largely to provide support to twenty of the ship’s complement National Portrait Gallery the troops ashore, which proved a ill with scurvy, brought Cook to a challenging task in the abnormally harbour that arguably he was to know better than any squally and tumultuous weather that swept over the in his career save his collier home port of Whitby, as anchorage. Over 100 boats from the various warships from 1758 until 1762 Cook was based at Halifax, first and transports were lost in the powerful surf that swept as Master of Pembroke, and then of Northumberland, the single landing beach, at what later came to be 64 guns. The latter vessel remained on station at known as Kennington Cove. Halifax with a small squadron when the armada that had carried James Wolfe to Quebec returned to Britain. The transatlantic passage had been Cook’s longest, and It was just off this beach that the most significant the table. It was a concept that grasped Cook’s event occurred in James Cook’s transformation imagination immediately, and he extracted from from an undistinguished Master into something far the agreeable Holland a promise to instruct Cook more took place. On July 27, 1758, one day after in the technique the next day. On returning aboard the French garrison had surrendered, Cook came Pembroke, Cook reported his encounter to Captain in to Kennington Cove beach with Pembroke’s John Simcoe, who not only approved of Cook’s longboat, on unrecorded business ashore. As Cook initiative but requested that Holland be brought arrived, his attention was drawn to the figure of an on board the vessel to impart the instruction to engineer officer in the grasslands just off the beach, Simcoe as well as Cook. Although Cook would employing a strange device and apparently making later benefit from association with other highly some kind of observations of the cove. Intrigued, competent surveyors during his stay in Canada, Cook approached him, and asked what he was such as J.F.W.