On Monday 1st August 1774, the Resolution was off the coast of Erromango, one of the islands of Vanuatu. In 'A Voyage Round the World' George Forster described a terrifying incident as they approached the island - 'Towards ten o'clock, we were most dreadfully alarmed by a fire in the ship. Confusion
and horror appeared in all our faces, at the bare mention of it; and it
was some time before proper measures were taken to stop its progress:
for in these moments of danger few are able to collect their faculties
and to act with cool deliberation. The
mind which unexpected and imminent danger cannot ruffle for a time, is
one of the scarcest phænomena in human nature; no wonder then, that it
was not to be met among the small number of persons to to whom the ship
was entrusted. To be on
board of a ship on fire, is perhaps one of the most trying situations
that can be imagined; a storm itself, on a dangerous coast, is less
dreadful, as it does not so entirely preclude all hopes of escaping with
life. Providentially, the fire of this day was very trifling, and extinguished in a few moments. Our
fears suggested that it was in the sail-room; but we soon found, that a
piece of Taheitee cloth, carelessly laid near the lamp in the steward's
room had taken fire, and raised a quantity of smoke, which gave the
alarm.'
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| Burn marks on 1886.1.1235 (Forster No. 15) |
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| Detail of damage to 1886.1.1235 |
Several pieces of barkcloth in the Forster collection have burn marks on them, which had always puzzled us. Could the fire on board the Resolution be the reason why? Interestingly,
during a visit last week from Adrienne Kaeppler, curator of Oceanic
Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington DC, a barkcloth thought possibly to be from
Hawaii was identified as Tahitian, and it too has significant fire
damage.
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| Barkcloth 1886.1.1253.1 Showing more extensive fire damage |
We are fairly sure
that there are several 'lost' barkcloth pieces from the Forster
collection in the Pitt Rivers museum, but since they have lost their
labels, or maybe didn't ever have a unique Forster Number label (for
example, Forster No. 48 in the Catalogue of Curiosities is described as
'Another parcel of Otaheitee cloth' and it is unlikely that each had a
label) identification is difficult. We
can be fairly sure however that this newly discovered piece of barkcloth is
part of the Forster collection - and maybe even the piece mentioned by
Forster, 'carelessly laid near the lamp in the steward's room…'
