The questions they asked: Joseph Banks and naturalists in the Pacific Ocean

Did Arcadia actually exist as a place? How do species evolve? Would it be possible to harness and tame a whale for human use? Natural scientists and explorers pondered a range of fascinating – and sometimes amusing – questions as they circumnavigated the globe in search of novel discoveries. Yet historians and other scholars tend to privilege the end results of scientific exploration rather than the process of inquiry itself. Joseph Banks initiated the role of naturalist-at-sea for government-sponsored voyages in the Pacific Ocean; among his legacies was a long genealogy of both highly trained naturalists and amateurish collectors on voyages from many imperial nations. What questions did these naturalists pose and who contributed to the alleged answers?