James Cook's Journal of HMS Resolution 1772-75

Foreword by The Earl Mountbatten of Burma

James Cook had returned from his Endeavour voyage a national hero. Unlike his Endeavour companions, however, he did his best to eschew the lionizing process to which an admiring nation was so eager to submit him. For the professional triumph of Cook's return had been shadowed by personal tragedy: his infant son and four-year-old daughter had died during his absence. The newly promoted Commander Cook, therefore, being anxious to spend time at home with his wife and two remaining sons, avoided invitations and company as far as possible.

The Lords of the Admiralty and the Royal Society had in mind at this time another voyage for Cook. Having tasted the adventure of exploration, and having had an audience with his monarch, Cook was willing to undertake a second voyage. He insisted, however, that this time there should be two ships. Accordingly, two Whitby barks were purchased and rechristened Resolution and Adventure.

'not fit for a gentleman to embark in.'
Sir Joseph Banks, upon inspecting HMS Resolution at Deptford

At dawn on the 13th July 1772, the two ships left Portsmouth. Sir Joseph Banks, distinguished botanist of the Endeavour voyage, had been invited to join the Resolution expedition but after misunderstandings in regard to his status and accommodation had withdrawn. The new scientific leader was Johann Reinhold Forster, a celebrated Prussian naturalist of Scottish descent, who was accompanied by his 17-year-old son, the future naturalist and writer Johann Georg Adam Forster. William Hodges was employed as landscape painter and official artist; and two astronomers, William Wales and William Bayly, also accompanied the expedition.

The Resolution voyage took in Cape Town, where Forster enlisted the aid of Swedish botanist Anders Sparrman; New Zealand, where the first accurate charts were drawn; Tahiti, Fiji and Easter Island. Cook and his fellow captain, Furneaux, were the first captains to cross the Antarctic Circle.

Cook's personal achievements on this historic voyage were legion. He found himself at last able to offer final proof to his most persistent detractor, geographer Alexander Dalrymple, that the 'great southern continent' did not exist. He discovered and charted much of the Pacific. Returning with curios, he added immeasurably to our knowledge of primitive life and customs. He perfected the use of the chronometer; and he conquered scurvy, for which achievement he received the Copley Gold Medal. It is not surprising that many authorities rank this second expedition the greatest of Cook's three voyages.

Cook's handwritten journal is far from being a mundane daily account of seas and weather as this colourful extract shows:

'... among the natives whom they saw had the head and bowels of a youth who had lately been killed, the heart stuck upon a forked stick and fixed to the head of the largest canoe, the gentlemen brought the head on board with them...'

This title is limited to 500 handmade numbered copies bound in three quarter maroon goatskin and buckram with gilt tooling and page edges.

In addition to a fine reproduction of James Cook's handwritten journal taken from the original in The British Library, this volume includes a new introduction and chapters on Johann Reinhold Forster and William Hodges depicting superb reproductions of his paintings and drawings.

ISBN: 0 904351 06 8
Price: £475/$795 plus shipping