[[1]]
H.M.S. Erebus Chatham
July 28 1839
My dear Father
From Capt[ain] Ross's*1 arriving here only yesterday I was unable, before this either
to proceed North or to write & tell you when I might be able if leave could be
processed but even this I cannot do yet. Captain R[oss]. came down & did not stay
on board 5 minutes Mr McCormick*2 seeing that I did not like to speak to him when
he was so hurried very kindly went ashore after him & applied for me, but without
any further success than that he would think of it & tell me on Monday when he will
return here & decide, his objections are, because the Surgeon & Capt[ain] of the
Terror are both to be absent & he wants Mr McCormick & me to go together to
Shropshire at a later period, when one of them should return. If he grants me leave,
the later it comes the better as then you can bring Mary Harnett[?] South with you.
He was very angry at finding the ships in such a backward[?] state as they are, from
the Dockyard hands being suddenly taken away to work upon a new steamer that is
to be afloat in 6 weeks!! after her commencement. The Terror is nearly ready for
sea & is still
[[2]] lying alongside our hulk waiting for the Erebus alone which will not be out of
Dock for a fortnight it is feared.
Six days are all Capt[ain] Ross says he can possibly grant me, for all the Officers are
applying for leave. Mr McCormick returned last week from Devonshire, & finds that
the Government are very loth to make such large grants for the Natural History
department, & Sir W[illia]m Parker says he does not see what Nat[ural]. Hist[ory].
has to do with the Expedition at all, which has annoyed Capt[ain] Ross exceedingly.
Any thing that they won't supply my Surgeon will make up from his own pocket; he is
very Zealous indeed in the cause & offers me every encouragement. Immense
quantities of Medical Stores have been sent down & I have been very busy noting
them. In the way of Medical duty I have very little to do as far as regards the Erebus
but the men of the Terror are so much inferior in constitution & morals that there are
5--1 of them ill, to what there are of our men. There are besides a whole swarm of
women & children on the lower deck of the hulk, who are a perpetual annoyance. All
our mess is now fitted out including knives dinner breakfast & tea sets, covers, 2
British metal side dishes, cruets, decanters, glasses, pickle stands, &c &c &c for a
four years voyage: we are congratulated on having done it cheaply & well, but I can
hardly think so, when it will come to about £40 apiece including what we have eaten
drunk & used since May 1st. This I should tell you includes expenses of every kind
as also pickles, Hams, Teas, Coffee, Wine (which is not drunk every day) & all the
other items which Mamma would include under her department of household
victualling, for 5 persons. I have lately been looking over my expenses since I left
Glasgow & they run
[[3]] somewhere in this manner. On leaving I had £15 & soon after drew £20 besides
£20 that I gave to Pamplin with that £35 (a full acc[oun]t of which I have) I travelled
down, paid my expenses in London examination fees & one or two bills &c &c.
Since arriving here, I have drawn £100, of which, Instruments, mostly from Weiss[?],
cost £20. Clothes uniform &c &c for 4 years £50. The other £30 has been spent in
incidental expenses or gone into the mess money, for the Ass[istan]t Surgeon &
second Master are expected, (from receiving most pay) to defray the first expenses
& receive the several shares from their other mess mates afterwards. Most of my
mess mates are very poor their double pay amounting to only £100[?] & our
advances will I understand not be given us until we reach the Nore. Mine will then
amount to £119.. odds. which is my advance pay for 6 months commencing on my
joining the ship i.e. from May 18th -- Nov[embe]r 18. It will then be 3 months more
before I can draw another quarterly viz on Feb[ruar]y 18. My unpaid expenses now
are about £20 at the Slop shop where I procured my bedding, furniture for cabin,
soap, crockery for cabin, carpeting sail cloth, shoe brushes &c &c. About £10 for
boots & shoes, gaiters & chamois leather Jackets & drawers for four years voyage.
A few pounds for stationery pencils &c &c say £3 -- Ten more for incidental
expenses & lastly there will be my journey into Scotland. and £10 to be added to the
£30, I have given for past mess money will, when the mess traps are paid for, clear
me provided I lend no more, which I should like to do to poor Dayman if he requires
it, out of my advance pay, in which case he will
[[4]] get the lone[sic] of money in Chatham, pay his bills, I will repay his usurer from
the Nore & he will again repay me when he can which he must do before the ship is
paid off for all debtors creditors bills are, at the paying off of a ship, deducted from
the pay. Not but what I feel sure he would square with me long before that for he is
very economical. I have come to the determination to refuse messing in the Gin
room even *3 if the officers should invite one £100 will not cover these expenses for
mess traps & provisions alone. Since the beginning of this month we have had such
bad weather that I have not had a walk ashore for a long while, this climate is much
worse than Glasgow. I have dined twice at Dr Davies since I was first introduced as
also with some other most agreeable persons here through Mrs Richardsons
introductions.
*4 The
Mrs Wavell to whom Mrs Kay so kindly gave me a letter is gone to Hastings so
I have not seen her yet. I cannot thank Mrs Kendall enough*5 for the kind interest[?].
She has taken in me. Her brother is gone on leave at present I do not doubt he will
be a great favorite[sic]. Dr Smith I see sometimes, his health is very bad, he is most
kind to me I spent the other day with him. He lent me Darwin's Journal a most
inimitable work & which with your leave I should like to get. I have been reading up
very hard the old voyages of [James] Cook, [George] Anson, [John] Byron &c &c. I
find I have plenty to do in this bad weather. I am very anxious to know
[[5]]*6 whether the letter I wrote to William will do at all it cost me much trouble & was
I fear after all a failure. I cannot write advice when I need so much myself &
especially when his failing is one I am little likely to fall into very much from my own
more selfish disposition. I shall write again if I have one days time between
obtaining leave & starting.
Your Affectionate Son | Jos.D. Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Sir James Clark Ross (1800--1862). British naval officer and explorer known for
his exploration of the polar regions. Captain of the Antarctica expedition of 18391843, comprising the vessels HMS 'Erebus' and 'Terror'. Joseph Dalton Hooker was
the expedition's assistant surgeon on the 'Erebus'.
2. Robert McCormick (1800--1890). British Royal Navy Surgeon, explorer and
naturalist. Surgeon on board the H.M.S. 'Erebus' during Ross' Antarctica Expedition
of 1839--43. He was also instructed to collect zoological and geological specimens.
Joseph Hooker served as assistant surgeon to McCormick during the voyage and
collected botanical specimens in his spare time.
3. 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 reads "To | Sir
Wm. J. Hooker | Glasgow| N[orth].B[ritain]."
4. The text from here to "Mrs Kendall enough" is written vertically down the left hand
margin of page 1.
5. The text from here to "anxious to know" is written vertically down the right hand
side of page 4, crossing with the existing text at the top and bottom of the page.
6. The text from here to the signature is written vertically up the left hand side of
page 1, crossing with the horizontal text.
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