Across the pond

15 May 2011

Although the 300th anniversary of the 1714 Longitude Act is still over three years away, planning and research are, of course, beginning for the NMM's Longitude exhibition in 2014. Richard and I are bringing together object lists based chiefly on the Museum's holdings, but bringing in key items from other instititutional and private collections. There are also discussions afoot regarding an international tour. For this reason I am currently on a trip to the USA with the NMM's head of exhibtions and programmes. We will be looking at some possible exhibtion venues, but I will also have the opportunity to see some of the most important collections of scientific instruments and speak to some knowledgeable curators. Some of these instruments and that knowledge will, I hope, make their way into the Greenwich exhibition, or the American tour.

While in the US I will be seeing curators and objects at the Adler Plantarium and Museum in Chicago, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, and Harvard's Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments. There are some objects that would fit perfectly into sections on the development of navigational instruments in the 18th century - Jesse Ramsden's prize-winning dividing engine being the most obvious - but it will also be interesting to get an idea of how the story might be viewed from America. I hope to get a better idea of what London-made instruments were being bought and used in post-Revolutionary America, and what kinds of navigational instruments began to be made there. It will also be instructive to compare and contrast the push for scientific voyages of exploration in the early 19th century, after the conclusion of the Anglo-American and Napolionic Wars.

Discoveries of Captains Ross, Parry and Franklin in the Arctic regions
from the years 1818 to 1827 (NMM: G285:1/2)

The Arctic voyages that the had Board sponsored from 1818, led by John Ross and William Parry, echoed and enlarged the focus on scientific instrumentation, observation and recording that had been a key element in Cook's voyages of the previous century. The Board's demise did not spell an end to the importance of these elements in subsequent voyages, notably those of HMS Chanticleer in 1828 and HMS Beagle in 1831 and 1837. While Beagle falls outside the story of the Board of Longitude, it is certainly part of the longer story of finding and fixing longitude at sea and - just as importantly for accurate charting and position-finding - on coasts. However, Britain was not the only nation interested in navigation, surveying, exploration and scientific collecting at this date: America, for example, authorised a scientific expedition to explore the Pacific and South Seas in 1836.

The resulting circumnavigation took place in 1838-1840 under the command of Lt Charles Wilkes, and is best known for confirming the existence of an Antarctic continent. The Naval History Blog of the US Naval Institute, put up a post relating to this expedition yesterday, quoting a 1939 article that highlighted the centenary. The instructions for this voyage, like those for the British Arctic and surveying voyages, made much of the scientific rationale and equipment. The Wilkes expedition, for example, took no less than 29 chronometers, as well as instruments for astronomy, hydrographic surveying and geodesy - most of which Wilkes had selected personally while in Europe. There were also three naturalists, two botanists, a mineralogist, a philologist, a taxidermist and two draftsmen.

The Sectretary to the US Navy wrote that "The expedition is not for conquest but discovery. Its objects are peaceful. They are to extend the empire of Commerce and Science; to diminish the hazards of the Ocean and point out to future navigators a course by which they may avoid dangers and find safety". Despite this, the expedition also took on the task of investigating instances of attacks on whaling ships, and of carrying out punishments. Wilkes himself was subsequently tried, and acquitted, by court-martial for his response to an attack by islanders of Malolo that killed two officers. The 'punishment' on this occasion was the burning of two villages and killing of 57 islanders. It is never possible to disentangle the histories of science, navigation and exploration from those of national rivalry and imperial conquest.