Journal of the Hakluyt Society

Raymond Howgego, FRGS (editor); Professor W.F. Ryan; Dr Gloria Clifton; Dr Margaret Makepeace; Professor Joyce Lorimer.

The Journal of the Hakluyt Society is published in electronic form only, with a single hard copy maintained for archival purposes. Its articles are peer reviewed to ensure that they conform to a high standard of scholarship. Appropriate to the charitable status and primary objectives of the Society, the entire text of the Journal is made available here for free download. However, it must be appreciated that copyright exists on all articles and resides with the Hakluyt Society or the respective authors. Permissions regarding the use of material in the Journal must be directed to the editor.
Please click on the title (underlined) to see the full text of the article. Some of the files are quite large and contain high resolution images, so please wait patiently while files download.

Editorial pages. The history, purpose and objects of the journal. An invitation for the submission of articles.

Scholarly articles. Index & Abstracts

Bernard Stonehouse and Caroline Gunn
The Arctic Whaling Logs of Captain George Palmer, 1820–33.
April 2013.

George Palmer, master of the Arctic whaling ship Cove, sailed annually from Newcastle to the Davis Strait whaling grounds from 1815 to 1833. Fourteen consecutive log books survive of his voyages from 1820 onwards, and these are currently being studied. This paper sets the voyages in the context of the industry as a whole, based on statistics recently derived mainly from two previously unpublished sources: (a) customs returns tabled annually in the House of Lords, 1754–1824, and (b) voyages from all the whaling ports, 1814–42, based on customs returns, listed by William Coltish. [PDF: full text, illustrations, maps & tables. 10 pages. 2MB]

C. Ian Jackson
The Voyage of David Craigie to Davis Strait and Baffin Bay (1818)
February 2013.

Dr David Craigie (1793-1866), sometime president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, is best known for his writings on medicine. However, in 1818, two years after graduation, he participated as ship's physician on a whaling voyage to Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. His handwritten journal, composed during the voyage and containing rare criticism of the British whaling trade, remained unknown until 2011 when it was discovered among a collection of books bequeathed by Craigie to the College. It is here transcribed and edited for the first time, together with an introduction that places the journal in its historical, geographical, and scientific context. [PDF: full text. 78 pages. 559KB]

Derek Massarella
The Japanese Embassy to Europe (1582–1590)
February 2013.
The lecture delivered by Professor Massarella on 13 December 2012 at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation to launch the publication of Japanese Travellers in Sixteenth-Century Europe: A Dialogue Concerning the Mission of the Japanese Ambassadors to the Roman Curia (1590). The lecture provides an insight into the historical background to the work, the one-time flourishing Jesuit mission in Japan, the remarkably successful tour of the young Japanese legates through European countries and ultimately to Rome, and the events that followed. [PDF: full text with copious endnotes. 12 pages. 131KB]

Stefan Dietrich
Flying a kite and catching fish in the Ternate panorama of 1600.
August 2012.

The account of the first Dutch visit to the Moluccas (1599) includes a plate showing a panorama of the island of Ternate. It contains not only the earliest representation of kite-fishing, a technique specific to Indonesia, Micronesia and the South-West Pacific, but also the earliest European depiction of the flying of a plane kite. The paper thoroughly examines the ethnographic significance of this often overlooked detail and places it firmly in both its Eastern and Western historical contexts.
The author also presents an intriguing discussion of the numerous adaptations of this well-known panorama that appeared in later editions of the original account, including the extensively edited version used by Bolton Corney (Hakluyt Society, 1855) which appears to have been contrived to illustrate not a Dutch voyage but that of Henry Middleton. [PDF: full text & illustrations. 30 pages. 2537KB].
Please note: This article includes high-resolution images which may be enlarged in Adobe PDF Reader to show detail.

Pierre Schneider
The Discovery of Tropical Mangroves in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: Science and Wonder
February 2011

Mangrove forests are seriously endangered and have recently become the focus of considerable attention. While nowadays ecological and biological questions tend to predominate, few scholars have paid attention to the discovery of mangrove in the Graeco-Roman period. In this article the author examines where and when mangroves were observed by the Greeks and the Romans during their early voyages in the Indian Ocean, and he demonstrates the remarkable degree of scientific accuracy achieved in the writings of Theophrastus and in the observations of the associates of Alexander the Great. The author helps us to understand the major features of the mangrove as a landscape from the Graeco-Roman point of view. [PDF: full text. 15 pages 189KB]. Map and illustrations to accompany this article [PDF: 3 pages 1.5MB]

Robin M. Rondeau
The wrecks of Franklin’s ships Erebus and Terror; their likely location and the cause of failure of previous search expeditions

March 2010.
Since the loss of the Franklin Expedition (1845–8) numerous attempts have been made to ascertain what became of Franklin’s men and their ships Erebus and Terror. Most search efforts, especially those in recent years, have focused on areas south of King William Island in the Canadian Arctic. This paper provides evidence that those looking for Franklin’s ships have been looking in the wrong place, and that both the Erebus and Terror most likely lie in Larsen Sound to the north of King William Island where nobody has searched before. [PDF: full text, map & illustrations. 11 pages. 441KB]

C. Ian Jackson
William Scoresby the Scientist
January 2010

Between the years 1811 and 1820, William Scoresby the Younger undertook nine whaling voyages into the far North Atlantic. His journals, recently edited for the Society by Dr Jackson in three volumes, are rich in scientific observation. In this paper, based on the text of the author's talk at the Whitby Museum at the launch of the third volume, Dr Jackson focuses on Scoresby's standing as a scientist and his considerable contribution to the marine science, geography and oceanography of the far north. [PDF: full text & illustration. 9 pages. 335KB]

Captain Richard Campbell (R.N.)
The Voyage of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Southern and Antarctic Regions. Captain James Clark Ross, R.N. 1839–1843. The Journal of Sergeant William K. Cunningham, R.M. of HMS Terror.
April 2009

Abstract: This substantial paper presents for the first time the entire journal of Quartermaster Sergeant William Cunningham, who sailed in the Terror on the expedition of James Clark Ross to the Antarctic in 1839-43, its purpose being to locate accurately the position of the South Magnetic Pole. The editor provides a copiously annotated transcript of the journal, illustrated with maps, plates and photographs, together with an abundance of supplementary material in which he discusses the historical background to the voyage, the questions of terrestrial magnetism, and the problems of compass navigation. The journal, written from the perspective of a common seaman, complements Ross's official account of the voyage and provides historians of Antarctica with a wealth of additional information.

The paper is presented here in three parts for ease of download:

Part 1. Introductory chapters. Historical background. The voyage & its objectives. Magnetism & the compass. Glossary of nautical terms. [PDF: full text & illustrations. 37 pages. 625KB]

Part 2. The journal [PDF: full text, maps & illustrations. 114 pages. 2803KB]

Part 3. Appendices & bibliography [PDF: full text. 33 pages. 240KB]

Glenn M. Stein & Lydia I. Iarukova
Polar Honours of the Russian Geographical Society 1845–1995
December 2008
In this paper the authors present, for the first time in English, an overview of Russian polar exploration and research (almost exclusively Arctic) through a study of medals awarded by the Russian Geographical Society, their recipients and achievements, during the period of 1845–1995. Fully illustrated with photographs of the medals, and annotated with biographical notes on the medals' recipients, the paper brings to light the names of many illustrious Russian scientists and explorers commonly overlooked in Western literature. [PDF: full text & illustrations 38 pages. 655KB]

William Battersby
Identification of the Probable Source of the Lead Poisoning Observed in Members of the Franklin Expedition
September 2008

Since 1982, signs of a high exposure to lead have been identified in the human remains of members of John Franklin’s expedition to the Arctic, 1845–8. Tinned food has been suggested as the source of this lead. This paper provides evidence that the primary source of this lead was not tinned food, which was in widespread use in the Royal Navy at the time, but the unique water system fitted to the expedition’s ships. [PDF: full text & illustrations. 10 pages. 353KB]

Fred Swart
The Circumnavigation of the Globe by Pieter Esaiasz. de Lint 1598-1603
January 2007

Pieter de Lint sailed from Holland in September 1598 as captain of the yacht Eendracht in the fleet of Olivier van Noort. Appointed captain of the Hendrick Frederick in the Strait of Magellan, he subsequently became separated from the fleet and, after calling at various ports along the coast of South America, made his own way across the Pacific to arrive at Ternate early in 1601. De Lint’s voyage and the major role he played in ensuring the financial success of the mission have never, until now, been properly documented. Working from primary sources in both Dutch and Spanish, Mr Swart accurately reconstructs the route and events of De Lint’s little known voyage, and the negotiations that followed its successful arrival in the Spice Islands. [PDF: full text. 21 pages]

Peter de Clercq
The Life and Work of E.G.R. Taylor (1871-1966), author of The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England and The Mathematical Practitioners of Hanoverian England
February 2007

Eva Taylor was professor of geography at Birkbeck College, University of London, from 1930 to 1944, the first woman to hold a chair of geography in the United Kingdom. She joined the Council of the Hakluyt Society in the early 30s, continued her researches well into her 80s, and was responsible for editing four of the Society’s volumes. The article describes the life of this remarkable scholar and provides a thorough assessment of her considerable contribution to the history of geography and navigation. [PDF: full text. 13 pages]

James McCarthy
Selim Aga: New Light on his Life and his Explorations in West Africa
July 2007

Selim Aga, a freed Nuba slave who received his education in Scotland and became a proficient writer and lecturer, is better known to many as Richard Burton's manservant in West Africa. James McCarthy, author of the only book-length biography of Selim Aga, presents new findings on Selim's subsequent life and travels in West Africa, his role in the Baikie expedition, his offer to seek out information regarding the fate of Eduard Vogel, and his explorations in Liberia and on the upper Niger. [PDF: full text. 7 pages]
A number of illustrations have been provided by Mr McCarthy to accompany this article and are available by clicking here.

Fred Swart
Lambert Biesman (1573–1601) of the Company of Trader-Adventurers, the Dutch Route to the East Indies, and Olivier van Noort’s Circumnavigation of the Globe.
December 2007

In the second of his two articles on early Dutch voyages of discovery, Mr Swart provides an eminent account of the voyage of Cornelis de Houtman to the East Indies (1595-97) and the circumnavigation of Olivier Van Noort (1598-1601). The article draws on archival material and unpublished letters to focus on the life of Lambert Biesman, a young volunteer who played a significant role in both voyages until his capture and execution at Manila in 1601. [PDF: full text. 31 pages]