Naturalists at Sea: Scientific Travellers from Dampier to Darwin

Tales of the intrepid early naturalists who set sail on dangerous voyages of discovery in the vast, unknown Pacific

On the great Pacific discovery expeditions of the “long eighteenth century,” naturalists for the first time were commonly found aboard ships sailing forth from European ports. Lured by intoxicating opportunities to discover exotic and perhaps lucrative flora and fauna unknown at home, these men set out eagerly to collect and catalogue, study and document an uncharted natural w...