A BOAT GOAT OF NOTE

See Also: ANIMALS; EXPLORATION; THE NAVY

It was an accepted maritime reality that a number of European sailors had stood on land to the south of what is now Indonesia. What was not known was whether the men had visited a number of separate islands or whether some of them had set foot upon distant portions of a single, large continent. The latter option had led to the provisional use of the term Terra Australis Incognita to refer to the possible land mass. The Admiralty wanted to have the issue resolved. Preferably, in a way that advanced Britain's material interests.

Captain Samuel Wallis was appointed to lead a three-craft expedition to determine the matter. He set sail in 1766 on what proved to be a two-year-long global circumnavigation. During this, he charted Tahiti and a number of previously unknown islands. However, he did not encounter any great unknown continents.

The vessel that Wallis commanded personally was the survey ship The Dolphin. Her crew included an experienced Royal Navy goat. Her role was to provide the vessel's officers with fresh milk. The creature, when it came to the matter of her quarterdeck, proved to be highly territorial with regard to anyone whom she did not recognise as being part of her herd of humans. Following The Dolphin's arrival before Tahiti, a member of the local royal family boarded the craft. During his visit he made the error of bending over while his back was turned towards her. She seized the moment and butted him in the butt. He ended up in the Pacific.

Wallis has not come down through history as one of the world's great explorers. This is because his discoveries were modest when compared to those that James Cook was to make subsequently.¹ However, in part the latter's successes were to be built upon the former's solid example. For a lengthy, long-haul voyage, the mortality rate that The Dolphin's crew experienced was extremely low. This was because of the actions that her captain had taken in order to try to ensure the physical well-being of his men. Cook was to replicate many of these practices. Among them was enlisting The Dolphin's goat to serve on The Endeavour.

In 1768 Cook embarked upon the first of his global circumnavigations. During the voyage the Transit of Venus was observed from Tahiti, the whole of New Zealand's coastline was charted, and the eastern seaboard of Australia was encountered and appreciated to be contiguous. The vessel returned to Britain in 1771. Those who had sailed upon her found themselves to be celebrated figures.

The goat was given a silver collar. Upon it was engraved a Latin couplet that Dr Johnson had composed in her honour:

PERPETUA AMBITA BIS TERRA PRAEMIA LACTIS

HAEC HABET ALTRICI CAPRA SECUNDA JOVIS

James Boswell translated this as:

In fame scarce second to the nurse of Jove,

This goat, who twice the world had traversed round,

Deserving both her master's care and love,

Ease and perpetual pasture now has found.

Captain Cook had become very fond of her. She ended her days living at his home in Yorkshire.

Subsequently, a tradition developed that contended that she had had a series of official honours heaped upon her. It was claimed: that Parliament voted her a pension for life; that she was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society;² and that the Admiralty made her an in-pensioner of Greenwich Hospital.

Location: 88 Mile End Road, E1 4UN (red, grey)

¹. Cook had learnt his nautical skills by sailing on vessels that plied their trades from the port of Whitby.

². The Society possesses no evidence that she ever placed her hoof-print upon its membership book.

David Backhouse 2024