Vancouver, A
Life
Vancouver, A Life:
1757-1798 is kind to Captain
Vancouver. It is also weighty (308
pp.) and solidly erudite. The first
half of the book tells George
Vancouver's story, and considers
some interesting questions: the
longitude problem, Vancouver's
influence on the Hawaiian “Tamaahmaah,”
Vancouver's method of surveying, his
alleged homosexual relationship with
Quadra, the question of his cruelty
on board (not cruelty, Godwin
argues, but justified efforts to
curb potential chaos), the
perplexing cross-purposes of
Vancouver's task (defending Nootka
and charting the Northwest), his
conflict with mischief-maker Lord
Camelford, Vancouver's untimely
death. There are numerous quotations
from Vancouver's log.
The second half of the book contains
many “hitherto overlooked Vancouver
despatches, letters and charts”
(Godwin's Preface). It also contains
detailed notes, some of which show
Godwin the revisionist at work,
e.g., he praises the heroic (and
unacknowledged) work of Admiral
Saunders: “Without the co-operation
of Admiral Saunders there could have
been no victory (at the Plains of
Abraham: Ed.). For eleven weeks
before the assault (...) Saunders
and his officers, among them Cook,
were charting the channel of the St.
Lawrence, a dangerous and difficult
(because of the French cannons along
the cliff face. Ed.) task.”
(Appendix)
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