Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC277
HMS 'Erebus', Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
JDH/1/2 f.9
Hooker, Sir William Jackson
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
20-10-1839
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Correspondence from Antarctic Expedition
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 

JDH informs his Father, William Jackson Hooker, of their safe arrival at Funchal, Madeira. Briefly recounts the voyage past the Lizard & Torbay & losing sight of HMS 'Terror' in a gale. They made good time despite sounding every day to take the temperature of the deep sea water. JDH has not been sea sick but he & the crew find that the positioning of the cabins 'athwartships' exaggerates the rolling sensation disagreeably. JDH has found no 'animalculae', meaning protozoa, in the water & does not expect to until they reach the tropics. JDH keeps a regular journal recording anything of note as well as his natural history diary for the Admiralty. He will send any specimens he makes for his personal collections to his Father. Captain [James Clark] Ross will deal with specimens for the Admiralty incl. both plant collections made by JDH & animals ones made by McCormick. JDH is keen to avoid any confusion over who owns which specimens. JDH is only allowed to go onshore to collect if one other medical officers remains with the ships. Whilst at Madeira JDH intends to visit Mr Muir & Mr [Richard Thomas] Lowe. Describes his impressions of the island of Madeira as seen from the sea, mentioning the volcanic rock, the vineyards, pine capped hills & village of Santa Cruz. He is disappointed to find the island less wooded than he expected but describes it as beautiful at night with a perfect climate & clear blue seas. Adds a note dated 22 Oct [1839] stating he has met with Muir, Lowe, Mr Reilly, Dr Renton & Dr Lippold & will go on an excursion with the latter to the hills.

Transcript

said I do not care to take any for the Admiralty. Now as I have made notes on the spec[imen]s in my journal which may be curious they may apply to me for specimens which were refused when I offered them. The Admiralty coll[ection] of plants I make up myself but the animals etc which I collect I take to McCormick for him to choose from before I keep any for myself. The shore leave is arranged thus, as long as one Med[ical] Officer is on board either of the ships I may go ashore, not else. So among four Med[ical] Officers, there will be plenty of opportunity. The Terror has not arrived yet & as Mr McCormick is now ashore I am of course on board till he returns when I intend to go & call on Mr Muir *3 & Mr Lowe *4 to ask information about collecting anything very good before I collect at random.
On first nearing the Island of Madeira it reminded me most strongly of some of the islands on the West of Argylshire[sic] only the volcanic rocks are much redder & clothed here & there with low brushwood, the tops of the hills are often capped with pines all along the coast are lots of vineyards the now bare poles of which look at a distance like gigantic grapes. S[an]ta Cruz was the first town we saw a wretched little Portuguese village. The ravines are quite like Scotch ones but more sparingly wooded & the faces of the very steep ravines are most admirably like the views in Webb & Berthelot *5 full of actual perpendicular lines which are dotted with trees. Those views came to my mind the moment I saw the realities. The tops of the M[oun]t[ain] are more subdivided into conical peaks than the Scotch hills & are covered with grass. The Island disappointed me very much I expected to find it clothed with large wood whereas there seems only a belt of wood

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Funchal Madeira
October 20th 1839
My dear Father
As there is an opportunity of sending letters tonight to Britain I hasten to inform you of our safe arrival here. We anchored yesterday evening after a passage of 14 days having passed the Lizard on the 7th & Torbay on the 6th. We were a long time detained in the Channel & were very near putting into Torbay when a favourable breeze sprang up. We however lost the Terror in a gale on the previous day & have seen nothing of her since. A crank gun brig arrived here only an hour or two after we did which says a good deal for the sailing facilities of our ship, for she had left Plymouth on the 8th & we have lost about 12 hours by heaving to to sound every day for the temperature of the deep sea water. As usual crossing the Bay of Biscay was the worst part of the passage after leaving the Channel. I have not however experienced the least sickness though the ship rolls dreadfully, her worst fault & which all my shipmates complain of much is our berth being athwartships the sensation of the head being down & the contents of the thorax & abdomen gravitating towards the head at intervals of two or three minutes is most disagreeable. I do not however complain as it is almost

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our only grievance. Our passage has been very monotonous very few birds have been seen & though I have examined the sea water several times I have hardly found any animalculae nor shall I till we come towards the tropics. I have kept a regular journal whenever there is anything of the slightest importance to set down it is written on sheets of this sized paper on one side only. The Natural History part I copy out into my Admiralty journal which I must keep on board & deliver up on reaching England giving my honor[sic] that I have kept no duplicate, this I intend to evade by sending to you as a letter the original journal which contains everything I can think of & more I fear than you will care to read, I reserve the Admiralty journal till my arrival. The blank leaves I leave partly to add anything I think of before sending it, but chiefly with the hope that you would add any observations of your own as you may chance to think of them, so that, on my return if I should have done anything worth publishing, by the references you may make, I may add to the meagre mss [manuscript]. I shall further send home to you from time to time the specimens of my own that I may have collected leaving it to Capt[ain] Ross *1 to do what he thinks best with the Admiralty Coll[ection]. By this means I shall I hope avoid any demand being made upon me for specimens I may have collected & which the Admiralty set may not have, from the Admiralty collector refusing to take them from me when I collect them. This was the case the other day when I collected some crabs from a floating log. Mr McCormick*2 took some spec[imen]s for himself but

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said I do not care to take any for the Admiralty. Now as I have made notes on the spec[imen]s in my journal which may be curious they may apply to me for specimens which were refused when I offered them. The Admiralty coll[ection] of plants I make up myself but the animals etc which I collect I take to McCormick for him to choose from before I keep any for myself. The shore leave is arranged thus, as long as one Med[ical] Officer is on board either of the ships I may go ashore, not else. So among four Med[ical] Officers, there will be plenty of opportunity. The Terror has not arrived yet & as Mr McCormick is now ashore I am of course on board till he returns when I intend to go & call on Mr Muir *3 & Mr Lowe *4 to ask information about collecting anything very good before I collect at random.
On first nearing the Island of Madeira it reminded me most strongly of some of the islands on the West of Argylshire[sic] only the volcanic rocks are much redder & clothed here & there with low brushwood, the tops of the hills are often capped with pines all along the coast are lots of vineyards the now bare poles of which look at a distance like gigantic grapes. S[an]ta Cruz was the first town we saw a wretched little Portuguese village. The ravines are quite like Scotch ones but more sparingly wooded & the faces of the very steep ravines are most admirably like the views in Webb & Berthelot *5 full of actual perpendicular lines which are dotted with trees. Those views came to my mind the moment I saw the realities. The tops of the M[oun]t[ain] are more subdivided into conical peaks than the Scotch hills & are covered with grass. The Island disappointed me very much I expected to find it clothed with large wood whereas there seems only a belt of wood

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now of the same rusty colour as the rocks on which they grow above the reform[?] of vines which presents the appearance of a hillside cut up with angular vineyards in miriads[?] each of which has a low small hut on it & here and there is a large white gentleman[']s house. The climate is most splendid & the nights more beautiful than anything I ever saw. Last night I walked the deck till very late the moon was so bright that you could almost distinguish the towers[?] of Funchal, half a mile off the peaks of the *6 island were most distinct, the smell of orange flowers from shore was quite distinct & so was the sound of a military band beating a retreat which came over the still water. During the day the sky is almost cloudless & the water blue, tell Maria it is exactly the colour of her Lapis Lazuli ring & like nothing else.
Oct[ober] 22nd. The packet sails today & I have barely time to add that I have been ashore & most hospitably received by Mr Muir & Dr Lippold *7 who is now waiting to take me on excursion. The Terror has not come in yet. We shall be here for some days before we sail. I shall send you an acc[ou]nt of my excursions. Best love to all. J D Hooker [signature]
*8 I have no time to correct my letter. Today I saw Mr Reilly, Mr Lowe & Dr Renton on our way up the hills. Dr Lippold is delight *9 coming[?]

ENDNOTES


1. Captain 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 1839--1843, comprising the vessels HMS 'Erebus' and 'Terror'. Joseph Dalton Hooker was the expedition's assistant surgeon on the 'Erebus'.
2. Robert McCormick (1800--1890). Ship Surgeon on HMS 'Erebus'.
3. Mr Muir. Glasgow Merchant and friend of J D Hooker's grandfather.
4. Richard Thomas Lowe (1802--1874). British Scientist and Clergyman.
5. Webb & Berthelot (1835), Histoire naturelle des îles Canaries.
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 reads Sir Wm. J. Hooker | Woodside Crescent | Glasgow | N[orth].B[ritain].
7. Dr J F Lippold, sent to Madeira to collect plants and seeds for Kew and the Duke of Bedford.
8. This paragraph written on the address panel of the folded letter.
9. Text missing due to damage where the letter was sealed with wax and later opened.

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