[[1]]
Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope.
March 28th,1840.
My dear Grandfather *1
Having promised to write to you from St. Helena I dare say you expected ere this, to
have received a letter from me, my promise was not intentionally broken but having
delayed till the last moment that you might hear the latest news of the expedition, I
was unexpectedly thwarted in my purpose about an hour before the letter bag
closed, by being asked to visit a man on board a ship in the roads. In my letter to my
father I explained what my duties were on board, & as you once requested me to let
you know what routine I followed on board when I should be settled, I shall describe
a common days work to you, premising that the fine weather we have had, was
much more favourable to working than the Antarctic Sea will in all probability be.
Except in the want of exercising at arms, quarters & other strictly military duty the
ships are regulated in true man of war style. The Captain lives alone in his cabin in
solitary grandeur, inviting some of his inferiors at times to dine with him. The 3
Lieutenants, Surgeon, Purser & Master, form another, the gunroom mess, Wilmot
the Artillery officer whose duty it will be to conduct the observatory here for 3 years
messed in the gunroom. Our mess, consisting of the 3 Mates (or passed
Midshipmen*2) the second Master & myself form the third mess. The Warrant
Officers, Boatswain, Gunners & Carpenter also have a small mess place. At ½ past
7 all turn out to breakfast which is over at ½ past 8, after breakfast the sick are
attended to, there are never above 4 on the sick list at a time often not above one or
two so that even adding those who have ailments not requiring them to be put upon
the list this seldom takes up above ½ an hour. From 9 when I take the Dewpoint
until 12 I am my own master. during this time I have some calculations for the
captain to make in a sort of Meteorological Journal, besides my German lessons. At
12 the hands are piped to dinner. I take the Dewpoint again, dine & after dinner go
to draw as by that time the towing net has has generally yielded something. We
never take tea, but sup at ½ past 7 from which time to 11 or 12 I am most generally
drawing or describing in the Captain's Cabin, the evening between 6 -- 9 being the
most productive time for Marine Animal culle[?], my work sometimes does not begin
till then, & when it does, it is often no joke, the specimens being minute & they will
not keep to be worth examining next morning -- This is my general routine of sea life,
any thing but monotonous, besides which at times there are my Journals to make
up[,] notes to copy, plants to change & the like. The "Terror" is a worse sailor than
we are & always astern so we seldom communicate, about once a month or so at
sea, when the boats are lowered & we exchange calls.
[[2]] The other day we lay becalmed for some time near shore, when the Captain
commenced dredging with the net in 200 fathoms of water? I of course
superintended with him, & with one haul we drew up 30 different kinds of animals,
corals. shrimps, crabs, red blooded worms, sponges & no sea weed or any trace of a
submarine vegetation, which grievously disappointed me. The Captain sounds every
day in the deep sea, with 2 -- 500 fathoms of line & draws up water from different
depths of which he takes the temperature & specific gravity, this is hardly ever
omitted. The ships in the mean time are hove to & we communicate our longitude,
latitude, magnetic variation & slip to the "Terror" by signals, she exchanging hers to
us. It would be a most interesting sight for anyone to see two ships hove to in the
middle of the Atlantic, with flag signals flying alternately at their mast heads, all the
ships company stamping along the decks with a thick sounding line to any tune the
fiddler strikes up, he has favoured us with Rob Roy very much of late. This sounding
in 500 fathoms is hard work as the line requires to be very thick & strong:-- whale
line generally is used & when wetted by immersion requires all the men to haul it up
again. Self registering thermometers, & peculiar bottles for bringing the water up
from any depths, Massey's*3 & other logs &c. are attached to it. The water from a
great depth when brought up is very cold, & foams exactly like soda water & is much
less salt than the surface water. We have three or four times tried for bottom with an
immense length of line but hardly ever fully succeeded[,] once we did & then gained
the bottom with 2477 fathoms!!! The line prepared was 30,000 feet long & of three
different kinds, that next to the sinker (of 3 cwt) was just strong enough to hold it, an
intervening thicker kind was prepared of what is called spun yarn & the remainder
was whale line, a strong small rope. -- Of course very little of the line was rewound
again, it breaking on the attempt to haul it up.
In my letter home I told how kindly I had been received by Mr Muir's family, it
seemed as if there could be no end to their attentions for not content with feeding me
during my stay they sent me on my departure so many oranges & grapes that I did
not know what to do with them, most refreshing they were in the hot weather, when
we ate them in prodigious quantities. I also told my father of Mr Johnstone who
visited me one day on
[[3]] board who I met afterwards with his wife & some relations at Mr Muir's. They
invited me to spend a day (which was fixed upon) with them but then our abrupt
departure of course frustrated my intentions. On passing through the Tropics we
had the most delightful weather rather hot I must own but with very little rain. Our
long cruise from the Cape de Verde to St Helena, upwards of 70 days soon ate into
our provisions, first our cheeses, hams potatoes rice, salt fish went steadily & surely
till we were thrown alltogether upon ships provisions consisting of Beef, Pork &
biscuit, for breakfast, dinner & supper. The Beef is atrociously bad salt junk that has
been in cask for 40 years & perhaps more. The salt pork is very good but too fat so
that we had to take up more than our allowance to get a meal. The biscuit is good
enough in its way. Our tea has grown mouldy with the damp. A gill of grog each day
(the best rum) is the only other allowance granted by the Navy, we had further 1oz
of pickles & 1oz of lemon juice to every man daily to keep the scurvy out of our
bones. On Christmas Day some fresh preserved provisions meats were given out &
we all dined in the gun room. On New Years day the Captain gave us all a party.
On Sundays, the Captain & one out [part of mss missing] our mess dine in the
Gunroom & the Captain occasionally gives din<ners>. himself. On Sunday mornings
we all assemble to Divine service on the lower deck except the watch & officers
required to keep the ship. The Captain reads the service the Purser acting as clerk.
-- A pulpit is rudely put up or rather a reading desk covered with an ensign. Since
arriving here we have lost the artillery officer who is to take charge of the Cape
Observatory & with him 5 men & 2 women who had a passage given them with us &
I'm very sorry to lose Wilmot, but the men having previously occupied the sick bay
their departure has given that place up to us Naturalists & a great comfort it is as it st
is spacious & hitherto I have been very much at a loss where to lay out my plants not
liking to take advantage of the Captains cabin for so extensive a job & our berth
being too full during the day to grant me room enough. Hitherto I have always laid
them out & changed them after my messmates have turned in which often kept me
up very late after my excursions, further until the Captain had reduced his cabin into
order I had no place to put my collections & they used to get soundly kicked about
the lower deck: now however I have a nice cabinet where there is nothing to fear but
the
[[4]] universal dampness of the ship. & a few cockroaches which did me some little
damage eating out the stems of some plants & leaving the leaves. I have just laid
my hands upon Mr Johnson's card. Andrew Johnson is his name & he passed on
board with a Miss Hudderston, Ellis, & Reid & one or two other ladies, he has a very
pretty place the "Palle" near Funchal. I was much concerned at hearing from Mr
Bowie of the Ludwigsburgh Garden*4 of Allen Cunningham's*5 death. The Duke of
Bedford's too I heard off too.
By the bye I have been much disappointed at not being able to *6 get any German
books at Cape Town. I have been boring over a little grammar, Donatti's. Will you
send over to Van Diemen's Land*7 any odd books you can in German, especially my
3 vol[ume] bible, you gave me years ago & a dictionary. -- I have asked my father for
a book of Nee's*8 (Phil[osophy] Bot[any) which is in English Latin & German.
Believe me my very dear parent as usual | Jos D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Joseph Hooker (c.1754-1845). Joseph Dalton Hooker's paternal grandfather.
Manufacturer in Norwich, who came from a prominent Exeter family which included
Richard Hooker the famous16th Century theologian. He devoted much of his time to
studying German literature and the cultivation of curious plants.
2. A "passed midshipman" is a term used in the 19th Century to describe a
midshipman who had passed the lieutenants' exam, and who was waiting for a
vacancy. While awaiting promotion they often elected to become master's mates,
high ranking petty officers who assisted the master with his duties, served on watch
and commanded small boats.
3. A Massey's log is a brass rotor which trails in the water and spins around as it
moves and gives a readout of distance travelled in nautical miles. Edward Massey
was a British instrument maker who obtained at least six British patents on ships'
logs and other nautical measuring instruments between 1802 and 1848.
4. Carl Ferdinand Heinrich von Ludwig (1784 -- 1847). German born pharmacist,
businessman and patron of the natural sciences. Started Cape Town's first botanic
garden.
5. Allan Cunningham (1791 -- 1839) was an English botanist and explorer, primarily
known for his travels in Australia to collect plants. From 1814-1816 he and James
Bowie also collected plants in Brazil on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
6. The address of the recipient appears here as the letter would originally have been
folded in such a way that it formed its own 'envelope'. The address is as follows:
"Joseph Hooker Esq. | Woodside Crescent, | Glasgow | N[orth]. B[ritain]." and post
marked Cape of Good Hope.
7. Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the Island
of Tasmania, now part of Australia, named in honour of Anthony van Diemen, the
Governor--General of the Dutch East Indies who sent Abel Tasman on his voyage of
discovery.
8. Christian Gottfried Ness von Esenbeck (1770 -- 1858). Prolific German botanist,
physician, zoologist and natural philosopher. He described approximately 7,000
plant species.
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