Northeast Asia (1768–1779 CE)

Russian Maritime Exploration and Ecological Impact

Between 1768 and 1779, Russian maritime and fur-trading activities in Northeast Asia intensified significantly, driven by ongoing exploration and commercial incentives. The fur trade continued to flourish, primarily targeting valuable sea otters, fur seals, and fox pelts from the Aleutian Islands and surrounding areas, increasingly impacting local ecosystems and indigenous populations.

During these decades, ships routinely stopped at the Commander Islands, primarily to hunt Steller's sea cows, a large sirenian mammal discovered by the German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741 during Vitus Bering's expedition. Initially numbering fewer than fifteen hundred at their discovery, these creatures provided meat, skins for boats, and valuable subcutaneous fat for cooking and lighting. Intensive hunting by sailors, seal hunters, and traders quickly drove the species to extinction by 1768, less than three decades after their discovery.

In addition to the ecological consequences, this period saw increased European maritime exploration of the region. Captain James Cook's third expedition, aimed at discovering a navigable Northwest Passage, significantly influenced European knowledge about Northeast Asia. After Cook's death in the Hawaiian Islands, command passed to Charles Clerke, who continued exploring the northern Pacific coast and proceeded to the Siberian Pacific coast. Clerke, already weakened by illness, died of tuberculosis on August 22, 1779, en route to Kamchatka. He was buried in Kamchatka on August 29, and his second-in-command, John Gore, assumed leadership, eventually guiding the expedition back to Britain.

This era underscores the profound environmental impact of intensified Russian commercial activities and highlights the significant geographical knowledge gained through European exploratory missions.

James Cook’s second voyage of discovery departs Plymouth Sound on Monday, July 13, 1772.

Proof of the existence of a passage south of New Guinea now known as Torres Strait had been been found in the testimony of Luis Váez de Torres' by Alexander Dalrymple, a member of the Royal Society of London, while translating some Spanish documents captured in the Philippines in 1752.

This discovery led Dalrymple to publish An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean in 1770–1771 which had aroused widespread interest in his claim of the existence of an unknown continent.

Soon after his return from his first voyage in 1771, Cook, promoted in August to the rank of commander, had been commissioned by the Royal Society to make a second voyage in search of the supposed southern continent, Terra Australis Incognita.

On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south.

Although he had charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, showing it to be continental in size, the Terra Australis is believed to lie further south.

Despite this evidence to the contrary, Alexander Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believe that a massive southern continent should exist.

Cook commands HMS Resolution on this voyage, while Tobias Furneaux commands its companion ship, HMS Adventure.

Resolution had begun her career as the 462-ton North Sea collier Marquis of Granby, launched at Whitby in 1770, purchased by the Royal Navy in 1771 for £4,151, and converted to naval specifications for a cost of £6,565.

She is 111 feet (34 meters) long and 35 feet (11 meters) abeam.

She was originally registered as HMS Drake, but for fear this would upset the Spanish, she had been renamed Resolution on December 25, 1771.

She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including an azimuth compass made by Henry Gregory, ice anchors and the latest apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water.

Twelve light six-pounder guns and twelve swivel guns were carried.

At his own expense Cook has brass door-hinges installed in the great cabin.

HMS Adventure had begun her career as the 340 ton North Sea collier Marquis of Rockingham, launched at Whitby in 1771.

She was purchased by the Navy that year for £2,103 and named Rayleigh, then renamed Adventure.

She is 97 feet (30 meters) long, 28 feet (8.5 meters) abeam and her draft is 13 feet (4.0 meters), and carries ten guns.

Both were built at the Fishburn yard at Whitby and purchased from Captain William Hammond of Hull.

Cook has been asked to test the Larcum Kendall K1 chronometer on this voyage.

The Board of Longitude had asked Kendall to copy and develop John Harrison's fourth model of a clock (H4) useful for navigation at sea.

The first model finished by Kendall in 1769 was an accurate copy of H4, cost £450, and is known today as K1.

Although constructed like a watch, the chronometer has a diameter of 13 centimeters and weighs 1.45 kg.

Three other clocks, constructed by John Arnold w, are carried but will not withstand the rigors of the journey.

The performance of the clocks is recorded in the logbooks of astronomers William Wales[ and William Bayly and as early as 1772 Wales had noted that the watch by Kendall was 'infinitely more to be depended on'.

Provisions loaded onto the vessels for the voyage include 59,531 pounds (27,003 kg) of biscuit, 7,637 four-lb (appox 1,8 kg) pieces of salt beef, 14,214 two-lb (approx 1 kg) pieces of salt pork, 19 tuns of beer, 1,397 imperial gallons (6,350 l) of spirits 1,900 pounds (860 kg) of suet and 210 gallons of 'Oyle Olive'.

As anti-scorbutics they take nearly 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) of 'Sour Krout' and 30 imperial gallons (140 liters) of 'Mermalade of Carrots'.

Both ships carry livestock, including bullocks, sheep, goats (for milk), hogs and poultry (including geese).

The crews have fishing gear (supplied by Onesimus Ustonson) and a water purification system is carried for distilling sea-water or purifying foul fresh-water.

Various pieces of hardware (such as knives and axes) and trinkets (beads, ribbons, medallions) to be used for barter or as gifts for the natives are also taken aboard.

Furneaux, commander of Adventure, is an experienced explorer, having served on Samuel Wallis's circumnavigation in Dolphin in 1766–1768.

He heads a crew of eighty-one, which includes Joseph Shank as first lieutenant, and Arthur Kempe as second lieutenant.

There are also twelve marines headed by Lieutenant James Scott, Furneaux's personal servant, James Tobias Swilley, and, as master's mate John Rowe, who is a relation of Furneaux.

It was originally planned that the naturalist Joseph Banks and what he considered to be an appropriate entourage would sail with Cook, so a heightened waist, an additional upper deck and a raised poop deck were built on Resolution to suit Banks.

This refit cost £10,080 12s 9d.

However, in sea trials the ship was found to be top-heavy, and under Admiralty instructions the offending structures had been removed in a second refit at Sheerness, at a further cost of £882 3s 0d.

Banks subsequently refused to travel under the resulting "adverse conditions."

The writer Samuel Johnson was briefly considered as a replacement, but declined the offer.

Instead the position is taken by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son, Georg, who are taken on as Royal Society scientists for the voyage.

Resolution carries a crew of 112; as senior lieutenants Robert Cooper and Charles Clerke and among the midshipmen George Vancouver and James Burney.

The master is Joseph Gilbert; Isaac Smith, a relation of Cook's wife, is also aboard.

Resolution anchors in Table Bay on October 30 with the crew all in good health because of Cook's imposition of a strict dietary and cleanliness regime.

It is here that a Swede, Anders Sparrman, joins the expedition as a botanist.

Cook's ships had left the Cape on November 22, 1772 and headed for the area of the South Atlantic where the French navigator Bouvet claimed to have spotted land that he named Cape Circumcision.

Shortly after leaving they experienced severe cold weather and early on November 23, 1772, the crew were issued with fearnaught jackets and trousers at the expense of the government.

By early December they were sailing in thick fog and seeing 'ice islands'.

Cook had not found the tiny island that Bouvet had discovered in 1739 and claimed to be in latitude 54°.

Pack ice soon surrounds the ships but in the second week in January, in the southern mid-summer, the weather abates and Cook is able to take the ships southwards through the ice to reach the Antarctic Circle on January 17.

The next day, being severely impeded by the ice, they change course and head away to the north-east.

Cook's expedition circumnavigates the globe at an extreme southern latitude, becoming one of the first to cross the Antarctic Circle (January 17, 1773).

Resolution and Adventure become separated in the Antarctic fog on February 8.

Furneaux directs Adventure towards the prearranged meeting point of Queen Charlotte Sound (New Zealand), charted by Cook in 1770.

On the way to the rendezvous, Adventure surveys the southern and eastern coasts of Tasmania (then known as "Van Diemen's Land"), where Adventure Bay is named for the ship.

Furneaux makes the earliest British chart of this shore, but as he does not enter Bass Strait, he assumes Tasmania to be part of Australia.

Adventure arrives at Queen Charlotte Sound on May 7, 1773.

Cook continues his explorations south-eastwards, reaching 61°21′s on February 24; then, in mid-March he decides to head for Dusky Bay (now Dusky Sound) in the South Island of New Zealand where the ship rests until 30 April.

The Resolution reaches the rendezvous at Queen Charlotte Sound on May 17.

Cook had almost encountered the mainland of Antarctica, but had turned towards Tahiti to resupply his ship.

The two ships of the second Cook expedition explore the southern Pacific.

Cook becomes the first European to sight Tekokota, one of the Tuamotu atolls, which he names as "Doubtful Island", on August 11.

The following day, Cook arrives at the uninhabited atoll Marutea Nord, which he names as "Furneaux Island".

The  expedition reaches Tahiti on August 15, 1773.

Cook now resumes his southward course in a second fruitless attempt to find the supposed continent.

At their next stop, Mai of Ra'iatea, who had met Samuel Wallis in 1767 and James Cook in 1769 in Tahiti, embarks from Huahine on Adventure, commanded by Tobias Furneaux.

He proves to be somewhat less knowledgeable about the Pacific than Tupaia had been on the first voyage.

Mistakenly known as Omai in Britain, Mai will become the second Pacific Islander to visit Europe before returning to Tahiti with Cook in 1776.

Tonga becomes known in the West as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773.

He arrives at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands' paramount chief) and so receives an invitation to the festivities.

According to the writer William Mariner, an Englishman who will live in Tonga from late 1806 to late 1810, the chiefs wanted to kill Cook during the gathering but could not agree on a plan.

The two ships return to New Zealand after calling at Tonga in the Friendly Islands, but are separated by a storm on October 22.

This time the rendezvous at Queen Charlotte Sound is missed—Resolution departs on November 26, four days before Adventure arrives.

Cook leaves a message buried in the sand setting out his plan to explore the South Pacific and return to New Zealand.

Furneaux decides to return home and buries a reply to that effect.