Ice Islands and Christmas Sound

William Hodges joined James Cook's second voyage of discovery as artist and draughtsman. On this voyage (1772-1775) Cook hoped to explore higher southern latitudes than on his first voyage (1768-1771) and to confirm the existence of the hoped for great southern land, which had been long hypothesised by philosophers.

Sailing from England in July 1772 and heading south from Cape Town, the expedition encountered its first iceberg on 9 December. It was a tabular iceberg, unknown to these seamen as they are characteristic of Antarctic waters and different from the icebergs of the Arctic region. On 9 January 1773, being short of water, Cook decided to water the ship by collecting ice:

As the wind was moderate, and the weather tolerably fair, we shortened sail, and stood on and off, with a view to taking some on board on the return of light...hoisted out three boats; and in about five or six hours, took as much ice as yielded fifteen tons of good fresh water. The pieces we took up were hard, and solid as a rock; some of them were so large, that we were obliged to break them with pick-axes, before they could be taken into the boats. (Cook, vol. 1, p. 37)

Hodges has depicted this scene; with the addition of a fourth boat containing two men - possibly Johann and Georg Forster, the naturalists, intent on collecting specimens. Both the snow petrel and the Antarctic petrel were collected and described for the first time on this voyage.

On 30 January 1774 Cook made his greatest southward push, reaching 71 degrees 10' S at longitude 106 degrees 54' W. He was stalled in advancing further south by an immense ice pack which stretched unbroken as far as could be seen. In November 1774, after a winter spent in more northerly latitudes recuperating from the cold and continually exploring the vast waters of the Pacific, the expedition turned south again from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean and headed to the high southern latitudes Cook had not yet examined for any trace of the supposed great southern land.

By mid-December the expedition was off the coast of Tierra del Fuego en route to Cape Horn and the passage out of the Pacific Ocean. On 19 December Cook sailed into a large sound which he would spend the next few days examining while wood and water were collected for the ship. Within the sound there were numerous small harbours which were sounded, and several islands. These were carefully examined and laid down on a chart, and he named the place Christmas Sound. In addition to wood and water they also found wild celery which would help prevent scurvy, and numerous wild geese. Cook's party alone killed 52 and the whole crew was able to celebrate Christmas in some style, a better alternative than salt beef and pork.

The ship departed the area on 28 December. Hodges recorded the stark scenery and the tall mountains which seem to overwhelm the ship. Earlier Cook had written as they approached the sound:

These mountains terminate in horrible precipices, whose craggy summits spire up to a vast height; so that hardly anything in Nature can appear with a more barren and savage aspect, than the whole of this country. The inland mountains were covered with snow, but those on the sea-coast were not (Cook, vol. 2, p. 174)

From here the expedition sailed south-east and on 17 January 1775 discovered South Georgia: Cook navigated enough of the coastline to establish that it was an island and not part of a continent. Sailing on he discovered and named the South Sandwich Islands in early February.

Cook then wrote:

I firmly believe that there is a track of land near the pole which is the source of most of the ice that is spread over this vast Southern Ocean. I also think it probable that it extends farthest to the North opposite the Southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans; because ice was always found by us farther to the North in these oceans than anywhere else, which I judge could not be, if there were not land to the south; I mean a land of considerable extent (Cook, vol. 2, p. 230)

This land he believed would lie wholly within the Antarctic Circle.

Having circumnavigated the world in high southern latitudes over three summers, and having crossed the Antarctic Circle three times, Cook turned his ship for home and reached England in July 1775. He had eliminated a hypothetical great southern land from the world map.

William Hodges was born in 1744. He studied art and was apprenticed to Richard Wilson a landscape artist in 1758. Hodges appears to have spent some time painting theatrical scenery and travelling before being appointed to Cook's expedition as artist. On the return of the expedition Hodges was employed by the Admiralty in turning some of his sketches into oil paintings and in supervising the production of engravings for Cook's account of his expedition. Hodges subsequently travelled to India, working for Warren Hastings, Governor General of India, and to Russia. He died in 1797.

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