Banks made his name on the 1766 natural history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771), visiting Brazil, Tahiti, and, after 6 months in New Zealand, Australia, returning to immediate fame. He held the position of President of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He advised King George III on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and by sending botanists around the world to collect plants, he made Kew the world's leading botanical gardens.He shows up as a shadowy background figure in the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey–Maturin series (which is well worth reading for history, science, and maritime adventure; the first in the series is Master and Commander) and there are several good biorgraphies.
Banks advocated British settlement in New South Wales and colonisation of Australia, as well as the establishment of Botany Bay as a place for the reception of convicts, and advised the British government on all Australian matters. He is credited with introducing the eucalyptus, acacia, and the genus named after him, Banksia, to the Western world. Approximately 80 species of plants bear his name. He was the leading founder of the African Association and a member of the Society of Dilettanti which helped to establish the Royal Academy.
I came across a public domain version of his The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks [Journal from 25 August 1768-12 July 1771]. Some of the daily entries capture the quotidian nature of life aboard a sailing ship married to the opening of the world mind through science and exploration.
Linn. is Linnaeus the Swedish botanist/biologist/zoologist who
laid the foundations for the modern biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.In their first week of sail:
1768 August 28.I love the reconciliation between formal knowledge and vernacular knowledge reflected in that last entry. There was much that was popularly known (such as Mother Carey's Chickens as heralds of bad weather, and the existence of the Gulf Stream, known by sea captains but not by scientists till Franklin) that was still not legible to formal science. People like Banks began that process of not just discovery but of capturing what was already known beyond the halls of academe.
Little wind today; in some sea water, which was taken on board to season a cask, observed a very minute sea Insect, which Dr Solander describd by the name of Podura marina. In the Evening very calm; with the small casting net took several specimens of Medusa Pelagica, whose different motions in swimming amus'd us very much: among the appendages to this animal we found also a new species of oniscus. We took also another animal, quite different from any we had Ever seen; it was of an angular figure, about 3 inches long and one thick, with a hollow passing quite through it. On one end was a Brown spot, which might be the stomach of the animal.
Four of these, the whole number that we took, adherd together when taken by their sides; so that at first we imagind them to be one animal, but upon being put into a glass of water they very soon separated and swam briskly about the water.
1768 August 29.
Wind foul: Morning employd in finishing the Drawings of the animals taken yesterday till the ship got so much motion that Mr Parkinson could not set to his Pencil; in the Evening wind still Fresher so much as to make the night very uncomfortable.
1768 August 30.
Wind still Foul, ship in violent motion, but towards Evening much more quiet: Now for the first time my Sea sickness left me, and I was sufficiently well to write.
1768 August 31.
Wind Freshend again this morn; observ'd about the Ship several of the Birds calld by the seamen Mother Careys chickens, Procellaria Pelagica Linn. which were thought by them to be a sure presage of a storm, as indeed it provd, for before night it blew so hard as to bring us under our Courses, and make me very sea sick again.
Mother Cary's Chickens were at that time indeed classified as Procellaria pelagica though later reclassified as Hydrobates pelagicus. It is popularly known as the European Storm Petrel.
As they move into September, there are some entries that show just how much was yet to be discovered. New creatures were simply a skein net away.
1768 September 1. Coast of SpainCalls to mind the sentiment evoked by John Keats (a contemporary of Banks)
Still Blew, Mother Careys chickens had not yet left us, but towards night wind slackened so that we were again tolerably easy; by our reckoning we must make some part of the coast of Spain before Morning.
1768 September 2.
This Morn about 7 saw the coast of Gallicia between Cape Ortegal and Finisterre; weather tolerably fine, so that we could use the casting net, which brought up two kinds of Animals, different from any before taken; they came up in Clusters, both sorts indifferen[t]ly in each Cluster, tho much fewer of the Horned ones than of the others. They seem to [be] two species of one genus, but are not at all reducible to any genus hitherto describd.
1768 September 3.
Blew fresh this morn. We were employd all day in describing the animals taken yesterday; found them to be of a new genus and of the same with that taken on the 28 of August Calld the genus Dagysa from the likeness of one Species to a Gem. Towards Even wind fair Settled tolerably fine.
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
by John Keats
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
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