The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf

Author:Andrea Wulf [Wulf, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-27147-1
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2008-04-06T16:00:00+00:00

Details of the Endeavour's cabin layout after the alterations. Note Banks's cabin next to the Great Cabin.

Once the alterations were complete, Cook sailed the Endeavour from Deptford to Plymouth, arriving there on 14 August, three days after Collinson's death. From here he dispatched an express letter to Banks and Solander, asking them to leave London immediately to join the rest of the crew, which was already on board. Banks and Solander received the message on their way to the opera with Harriet Blosset and her family. Rumours had been circulating that Banks had promised Harriet “to expect he would return her husband,” but no official announcement of an engagement was ever made. Although Banks had written to a friend doubting that “matrimony” would bring lasting happiness, Harriet, as another guest noticed, was “desperately in love with Mr. Banks” and had apparently promised to live in seclusion until his return. For his part, Banks did not even tell Harriet about Cook's summons because, as he later explained, “[t]he Ceremony of taking Leave I have always considered a Painfull and unnecessary Struggle.” Not knowing of her adventurous admirer's impending departure, Harriet enjoyed the musical evening and the entertaining dinner, while others observed how Banks drowned his emotions, and maybe his fears, in alcohol.

A couple of days later Banks and Solander arrived at Plymouth. The Endeavour was swaying with activity as ant-like lines of sailors shifted provisions and materials along the gangway on to the vessel. There were timbers, canvas, nails and tools for emergency repairs; boxes of red and blue beads, little mirrors and other decorative items as gifts for the natives in the South Pacific; as well as twenty tons of biscuits and flour, 10,000 portions of salted beef and pork, and almost 8,000 pounds of sauerkraut—pickled cabbage—to fight off scurvy on the long journey. 1,600 gallons of spirits and 1,200 gallons of beer were loaded to keep the crew happy. In addition there were the best telescopes and a collection of the finest equipment for navigation as well as an astronomical clock and a portable observatory, provided by Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Most of Banks's luggage was already on board. It had taken days to load, as it consisted of hundreds of specimen bottles, sheets of paper, presses, portfolios, pigments for drawing, lenses, razors, knives, chemicals for preserving, wax and several sorts of salt in which to keep seeds. Banks had ordered all manner of nets, trawls and hooks for catching seaweed, corals and fish for the endless months on the ocean. The men carried new aquatic microscopes, telescopes and an armoury of guns and pistols as well as a natural history library of more than 100 volumes. All of this was packed into wooden chests with locks and hinges, tin cases, and specially made wainscot boxes, in order to protect it both from prying eyes and stormy weather. For the Great Cabin, Banks had brought a bookcase and a writing bureau. It “almost frighten[s] me,” Banks wrote of the paraphernalia that made him the best-equipped naturalist ever to set foot on a ship.

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