THE FATEFUL VOYAGE OF THE ‘ST JEAN BAPTISTE’

Te Ao Hou, 1971, Page 57

THE FATEFUL VOYAGE OF THE ‘ST JEAN BAPTISTE’ by John Dunmore, Pegasus Press, $4.00 reviewed by E. E. Bush The Cook bi-centenary has tended to highlight the voyages and explorations of Captain James Cook, and the scientific discoveries of the botanists aboard Endeavour. In the glare of the lime-light, other figures tend to be obscured. Such a one is Jean de Surville who, while Cook was sailing to honour and glory, was sailing to his death. The fleeting glimpses we have had of this legendary and obscure figure have always been vague and ghostly. John Dunmore has brought him out of his obscurity and his oblivion to share the lime-light of the Cook bi-centenary. For, while Cook was making his exploratory thrusts along the east coast of New Zealand, de Surville was on the west coast. As their courses converged, a storm blew Endeavour out of sight of land; when it returned, St Jean Baptiste had passed by, unseen. Professor Dunmore has spent over ten years of research on eighteenth century French exploration of the Pacific, with special reference to de Surville. This volume, therefore, is no mere flash-in-the-pan, to ride the crest of the Cook wave. It was bound to appear, and it rests on its own merits. Nor is it merely the account of de Surville's sojourn on the New Zealand coast. The story begins in India, where de Surville fitted out an expedition to establish trade and win profits from some islands newly discovered by the English. In March 1769, St Jean Baptiste left Pondicherri; she dropped anchor in Port-Louis in Brittany in August, 1773. In the four years it had taken to circumnavigate the globe, much had befallen the ship and its crew. Over a hundred of its crew failed to return, among them de Surville, buried in a lonely and forgotten grave in far-off Peru. The 650-ton vessel had sailed through the Philippines, re-discovered the Solomons, and traversed the western and eastern seaboards of the North Island of New Zealand, reaching the coast of Peru in April, 1770. For three years, the ill-fated crew were held captive by the Spaniards in Callao. For five or six months, the expedition followed known routes, through Indo-China and up to the Philippines. But when the ship turned the northern point of Luzon, de Surville departed from the regular route which would take him to Mexico; instead, he headed south-east, into a region where charts were both inadequate and inaccurate, the unknown Central Pacific. Over 200 years before, the Solomon Islands had been discovered — and lost again. It took de Surville two weeks to sight land after crossing the equator. For a week, in spite of sickness and shortage of food, he tacked about, trying to reach a shore; the safety of his ship was of paramount importance. But a new threat arose in the persons of unfriendly natives. The unhappy captain had to face either the killing of many of his weakened crew, or a desperate attempt to reach another land. To his knowledge, the nearest land was New Zealand, discovered by Tasman, and not visited since. Even the charts proved erroneous, and it was 12 December 1769 before’ the lookout shouted the welcome words that land was in sight. Welcome words? Land it was, but the sight that met those who were not too sick to struggle above deck was not reassuring. A long line of unproductive sand dunes, the foaming bar of a river-mouth, the grey hulk of a distant mountain — they were off Hokianga. De Surville decided to drive north to reach an anchorage. A storm added to their discomfort — a storm which changed the course of history; for this same storm blew Endeavour off the course that would otherwise have resulted in the meeting of English and French, and the succour of the sick. But de Surville was denied the supplies he was so near to receiving. St Jean Baptiste was to make a brief stay onlv — less than three weeks. The first anchorage — on 17 December — was named Lauriston Bay, but Cook had already named it Doubtless Bay. The crew found the Maoris friendly, and were refreshed with food supplies and fresh water. Since