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

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

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

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

*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]