Freshwater Passages: The Trade and Travels of Peter Pond

12. Voyages, Schemes, and Petitions

221 CHAPTER TWELVE Voyages, Schemes, and Petitions Captain Cook’s Third Voyage In May 1778, when Pond was leaving the Saskatchewan River on his first trip to the Athabasca Country, several hundred miles to his west two Royal Navy vessels, the Resolution and the Discovery, were cruising along the foggy southern coast of Alaska under the command of Captain James Cook. They were looking for the western entrance to the Northwest Passage. This was Captain Cook’s third and final Pacific voyage. At the time the coast he was following was some of the least-known shoreline in the world to Europeans. Russian and Spanish vessels had periodically touched along it in the previous few decades, but Cook’s voyage was the first to chart much of it with the most up-to-date instruments. It would establish the trend and longitude of the west coast, so that the width of North America at higher latitudes could finally be determined with accuracy. And it would contribute to solving the age-old question of whether a quick sea route existed from the Atlantic to the Pacific around the top of North America. James Cook spent a career making the unknown parts of the map known. His first Pacific voyage, in the Endeavor, was launched in 1768 to observe the“transit of Venus”across the face of the sun. Astronomers posited that observations made of this rare celestial event from disparate points around the globe would allow them to calculate the distance 222 ∙ voyages, schemes, and petitions between the earth and the sun.The British Admiralty,at the request of the Royal Society,sent Cook’s Endeavour to the Polynesian island of Tahiti to make these observations, while the European scientific community sent observers to Hudson Bay, Baja California, India, Norway, and elsewhere. A secondary objective of Cook’s first voyage was geographical exploration and natural history, so the vessel embarked a contingent of scientists under the leadership of Joseph Banks, a wealthy young gentleman with a strong interest in botany and other branches of natural history. Banks and his team made observations about all aspects of the natural world that came under their scrutiny during the trip,adding greatly to Britain’s knowledge of the Pacific world. Cook’s first voyage was such a success that the Admiralty soon planned a second. During Cook’s second voyage, in the Resolution and the Adventure, he and his crew explored and mapped the South Pacific, most significantly disproving the existence of a theoretical “Great Southern Continent.” Banks dropped out of this trip, but he was replaced by other scientists who made observations and collected rare and previously unknown specimens of plants, animals, and minerals along the way. During both these voyages, members of Cook’s crew made accurate charts of island coastlines; painted scenes of exotic lands; met people from cultures previously little known to Europeans; collected new botanical and zoological specimens; recorded temperatures, winds, and currents; and increased Europe’s collective knowledge of the rest of the world. The mission of Cook’s third and final expedition was to find the Northwest Passage. Pond was not the only one who still thought a navigable passage might exist in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, and Cook’s orders directed him to look for the passage primarily north of 65 degrees latitude. The Admiralty knew of Samuel Hearne’s 1771–72 trip to the mouth of the Coppermine River at 68 degrees north. Indeed, they had Hearne’s faulty estimate that his travels extended beyond 71 degrees north, but they still believed in the possibility of a sea passage north of where Hearne traveled, even if it was only ice-free for a few weeks each year. If, as some speculated, there was a navigable passage east of Alaska, such a route might be practical. Cook and his officers sailed equipped voyages, schemes, and petitions ∙ 223 with the latest maps of Gerhard F.Müller and Jacob Stählin to help them find such a passage. Of course, these maps would not be of much help.¹ The voyage departed England in July 1776, shortly after Congress in Philadelphia declared independence and while Pond was on his way to the Saskatchewan River for the first time. They proceeded around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean. On board the two vessels were...