A Very Secret Trade by Cassandra Pybus

Author:Cassandra Pybus [Cassandra Pybus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2024-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

‘all things are queer and opposite here’

In October 1839, the Tasmanian Society for the Advancement of Natural Science held its first meeting with Governor Franklin in the chair, and Gunn taking the minutes. The society adopted the platypus as its emblem and a clumsy Latin motto, Quocunque aspicias, hic paradoxus erit, translated by one wit as ‘all things are queer and opposite here’. It was a very modest beginning, ‘few in number as yet’, as Gunn told Hooker, ‘but we are endeavouring to ferret out the Natural History of this interesting colony’. The ‘we’ in this case was himself, with Bedford and Hobson, who were a constant at fortnightly meetings and sometimes the only members attending, other than Lady Franklin who was never actually mentioned in Gunn’s minutes. She was always present, unless out of the colony, inveterate traveller that she was. She personally sent out invitations for membership, leaving no one in any doubt as to who was the force behind the society. In keeping with the modesty of the initial aspiration, the name was shortened to the Tasmanian Society, although Lady Franklin affectionately referred to it as her ‘Platipus Society’.

The governor himself was not a consistent presence at meetings, which was all for the best since he was prone to falling into deep sleep during the reading of papers. According to one occasional member, he ‘snored like a hog and blew like a grampus’. Franklin’s major contribution was reading letters from those of his Admiralty colleagues he had cajoled into becoming corresponding members. The most regular correspondent was his best friend, the physician and naturalist John Richardson, who also happened to be married to his niece. ‘Your letters are most highly valued,’ Franklin wrote to Richardson in February 1840. ‘The scientific parts of them are read every fortnight … to a little party of 6 which meets for the purpose of promoting the Nat Hist of the Col.’ In return, Franklin sent Richardson marine and zoological specimens, including barrels of fish collected by amateur naturalists that Richardson used for a book on the fishes of Australia.

The Platipus Society received a fillip in November 1839 when the ships of the French Antarctic expedition under Jules Dumont d’Urville called into Hobart, having lost twenty crew to desertion, and the ravages of dysentery and scurvy. The remaining crew were still sick and numerous sailors were taken to the hospital, where another six men died. The naturalist Pierre Marie Dumoutier spent a lot of time at the hospital over the next week or so and formed a friendship with Edward Bedford. Lady Franklin spoke fluent French and was enamoured of all things from France, especially the gallantry of their naval officers, and she invited d’Urville and Dumoutier to dinner at Government House. Both the Frenchmen graciously agreed to become corresponding members of her Platipus Society.

d’Urville managed to pull together a viable crew for his two ships, heavily supplemented by deserters from whaling ships and escaped convicts, to sail to the edge of the Antarctic continent.

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