Joseph Banks and the meanings of maritime exploration in eighteenth-century Europe

ABSTRACT

Joseph Banks became a major promoter of maritime exploration because of the success of James Cook’s Endeavour voyage. This paper places Banks’s efforts at making maritime exploration a scientific pursuit in the context of a more general semantic shift that changed the meaning of maritime exploration throughout Europe during the eighteenth century. It then looks at how Banks influenced both the objectives and the public portrayal of maritime exploration, seeking to reformulate its purpose and to raise its profile. The article argues that in forging a new role for himself as a publicly acknowledged scholar and public figure, Banks prompted a wider public to engage with the ongoing intellectual appropriation of the world. It suggests that the reconfiguration of maritime exploration affected both scientific modes of operation and the relationship between science and society.

KEYWORDS:

• Joseph Banks
• voyaging
• exploration
• Europe
• media
• Pacific
• James Cook

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Katherine Parker (London) and Jenna M. Gibbs (Miami and Washington, DC) for their generosity and much-valued comments on previous versions of this article.

Notes

1 Joseph Banks to Edward Hasted, Feb. 1782, in Chambers, ed., Indian and Pacific correspondence, vol. 1, 313.

2 James King to Joseph Banks, Oct. 1780, Natural History Museum: Dawson Turner copies of Banks correspondence, 1: 304; quoted after Mackay, ‘Myth’, 112.

3 Gascoigne, Science; Gascoigne, Joseph Banks.

4 Marshall and Williams, Great map.

5 Relevant publications include Pratt, Imperial eyes; Wilson, New imperial history; Calder, Lamb, and Orr, eds., Voyages and beaches; Safier, Measuring the new world; Kennedy, Reinterpreting exploration; Lincoln, ed., Science and exploration; Miller and Reill, Visions of empire; Despoix, Monde mesuré; Liebersohn, Traveler’s world.

6 ‘Exploration, n.’, in OED.

7 On the ‘doctrine of discovery’, see Miller et al., Discovering indigenous lands.

8 Beaglehole, Voyage, cclxxxliii.

9 Bourguet, ‘L’exlorateur’.

10 ‘Colombus’, in Zedler, Universal-Lexicon, vol. 6, 717.

11 ‘Entdecken’, in Adelung, Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch, vol. 1.

12 Hawkesworth, Geschichte; Hawkesworth, Relation.

13 De Brosses, Histoire; Dalrymple, Account.

14 ‘Discovery, n.’, in OED.

15 ‘Cook (Captain James)’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 5, 389–427, at 397.

16 Kennedy, Last blank spaces, 6.

17 Bourguet, ‘L’exlorateur’, 187–289.

18 van der Merwe, Science.

19 ‘Cook (Captain James)’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 5, 389–427, at 412.

20 ‘Geographie’, in Zedler, Universal-Lexicon, vol. 10, 924.

21 Drayton, Nature’s government.

22 Williams, Naturalists at sea.

23 Parker, ‘Contentious waters’.

24 Thomas Falconer to Joseph Banks, 16 Apr. 1768, in Chambers, ed., Indian and Pacific correspondence, vol. 1, 11.

25 Gascoigne, Science, 198.

26 Craciun, ‘What is an explorer?’; Craciun, ‘Oceanic voyages’.

27 Camino, Exploring; David, Malaspina expedition.

28 Winkler, Imperium.

29 ‘L’entreprise la plus grande, la plus noble, la plus utile peut-être que puisse faire un souverain, la plus capable d’illustrer à jamais son nom, est la découverte des Terres australes.’ De Brosses, Histoire, 4–5.

30 In a letter to his brother, he wrote: ‘Enfin, j’ai donc réussi a mettre le coeur au ventre a quelqu’un de la Nation.’ De Brosses, ‘Additions aux Terres australes’.

31 Bideaux and Faessel, eds., Voyage, 5–44, at 19; Marcil, ‘Ambiguous Reception’.

32 Dunmore, Journal; Gaziello, L’expédition de Lapérouse.

33 ‘Dossier Tahiti’, in Bideaux and Faessel, eds., Voyage, 395–445; Hammond, News from New Cythera. On the discovery of Tahiti more generally, see Salmond, Aphrodite’s island.

34 Maupertuis, Briefe.

35 [Matra] Journal. A copy in the British Library with the original dedication contains a note, most likely taken from an auction catalogue, stating that the journal had in the past been attributed to various authors, including Banks and Solander (shelf mark 10028.g.32).

36 ‘Die Zeitungsschreiber waren also auf gewisse Weise gezwungen, Mährchen von dieser Reise zu ersinnen, und ihren Lesern solche von Zeit zu Zeit mitzutheilen, um sie nur bei guter Laune zu erhalten  …  Man stelle sich eine Menge nothleidender Armen vor, denen nach einer ausgestandenen Hungersnoth endlich der erste Bissen Brodt zugereicht wird.’ [Matra] Nachricht, VI.

37 George Ashby to Joseph Banks, 4 Jan. 1772, in Chambers, ed., Indian and Pacific correspondence, vol. 1, 73.

38 Hetherington, ‘To make him Known agreably’, 225–37.

39 Joseph Banks to John Montagu, c. 30 May 1772, in Chambers, ed., Indian and Pacific correspondence, vol. 1, 119.

40 Memorandum by the Navy Board, 3 June 1772, in ibid., 125–6.

41 John Montagu to George III, 20 June 1772, in ibid., 133–40.

42 Joseph Banks to Charles Green Say, June 1772, in ibid., 131–2.

43 Hawkesworth, Account; Hawkesworth, Geschichte. On the critical reception, see Edwards, Story, 85–6.

44 Johann Friedrich Schiller to Joseph Banks, 14 Nov. 1773, in Chambers, ed., Indian and Pacific correspondence, vol. 1, 156–8; Johann Karl Philipp Spener to Joseph Banks, 26 Feb. 1774, in ibid., 160–3.

45 ‘Il seroit bien doux pour moy, bien agréeable pour le public, si … vous voudriez Monsieur me donner des armes pour combattre l’erreur. Vous en avez de bien puissantes entre vos mains!’ Spener to Banks, 26 Feb. 1774, in ibid., 162.

46 J. Neck to Joseph Banks, Jan. 1772, in ibid., 69.

47 William Cawthorne to Joseph Banks, 29 Nov. 1771, in ibid., 49.

48 Unknown correspondent to Joseph Banks, 29 Nov. 1771, in ibid., 51.

49 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 06.178, George Robertson to Joseph Banks, 1 Jan. 1772.

50 Ibid., Series 06.180, Joseph Scothern and William Wortley to Joseph Banks, 11 Jan. 1772.

51 Ibid., Series 06.141, Sigismund Bacstrom to Joseph Banks, c. Mar. 1771, and Chambers, ed., Indian and Pacific correspondence, vol. 1, 37–8.

52 Hendrik Bauerman to Joseph Banks, 26 Mar. 1773, SLNSW, PSJB, series 06.142.

53 Jonathan Davidson to Joseph Banks, 14 Jan. 1772, ibid., series 06.151.

54 Jacques Philippe Bruguiere to Joseph Banks, 4 Apr. 1772, ibid., series 06.145.

55 Altick, Shows of London, 29.

56 On the sociability associated with exploration, see Russell, ‘Entertainment’.

57 From the growing literature on this topic, see Lilti, Invention; Czennia, Celebrity.