Charles Green (baptised 26 December 1734 – 29 January 1771) was a British

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

, noted for his assignment by the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1768 to the expedition sent to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

in order to observe the

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a tr ...

aboard James Cook's '' Endeavour''.

Early life and education

Born sometime in December 1734, Green was the youngest son of Joshua Green, a prosperous farmer who lived near Swinton in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. His education, according to his future brother-in-law William Wales, was chiefly at a school near

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. This school was run by his eldest brother, the clergyman Rev. John Green, and the younger Green went on to become an assistant teacher there, continuing his studies in astronomy until he joined the staff of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1760.

Career in astronomy

Green was appointed as Assistant to the

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

James Bradley James Bradley (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of th ...

, succeeding the astronomer

Charles Mason Charles Mason (April 1728Cape of Good Hope to observe the 1761

. Following Bradley's death in 1762, Green continued in the role of assistant for Bradley's successor

Nathaniel Bliss Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was an English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Britain's fourth Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Life Nathaniel Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley i ...

. Due to the ill-health of Bliss, much of the work of practical observational astronomy devolved upon Green at this time. In 1763, Green, along with the astronomer

Nevil Maskelyne Nevil Maskelyne (; 6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth. He created the ''British Nau ...

, was instructed by the

Board of Longitude The Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea, or more popularly Board of Longitude, was a British government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding lon ...

to make the voyage to Barbados to act as monitors of the test of

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revol ...

's H4 chronometer, which was in the running for the

Longitude Prize The longitude rewards were the system of inducement prizes offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude at sea. The rewards, established through an Act of Parliament (t ...

, the prize offered by the British Government for the devisor of an accurate method of determining the

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lette ...

of a ship at sea. Their duties, after they arrived in Barbados and were awaiting the chronometer's arrival on another ship, involved observation of the Galilean moons of Jupiter to determine the local longitude, and after the arrival of the mechanism which was in the care of Harrison's son William, the comparison of the results of the chronometer with their astronomical observations to judge the mechanism's accuracy. On the voyage to Barbados, the pair were also using their observations to determine the accuracy of the

lunar distance method Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon". Lunar may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games * "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta * "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...

, Maskelyne's own method of calculating the longitude of a ship at sea. An argument ensued between Maskelyne and William Harrison, which dragged in Green, as Harrison was of the opinion that Maskelyne was not an impartial observer and was a rival of his father in the pursuit of the Longitude Prize. A compromise was reached in which the monitoring of the Harrison mechanism was undertaken by Maskelyne and Green on alternate days. Green's return to England in the autumn of 1764 coincided with the death of Nathaniel Bliss; Green returned to Greenwich to continue Bliss' work until the appointment of a new Astronomer Royal. The new Astronomer Royal proved to be Nevil Maskelyne. Green briefly served under him as assistant, but left Greenwich after a disagreement with his new superior. Wales' account says that Green was involved in a survey to determine the feasibility of transporting water from the River Colne to provide water to Marylebone in London, although Green's survey confirmed the fears of mill owners downstream that the canal would result in a failure of the water supply needed for their operations and led to the scheme being dropped. Although this is unmentioned in Wales's short biography, Green is recorded as being the

purser A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...

on HMS ''Aurora'' in 1768. In that same year, the

appointed him to accompany James Cook's voyage to observe the 1769

; despite their earlier disagreement, Maskelyne who was serving on the Society's ''Transit of Venus Committee'' recommended his former assistant for the post.

Voyage of the Endeavour and the Transit of Venus

Green joined Cook's first voyage of circumnavigation in 1768, accompanied by a servant. Green was one of two official astronomers appointed by the Royal Society to observe the transit; the other was Cook himself, who was a capable observer in his own right. Green was to receive 200

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

from the Society for the appointment. (Cook was to receive 100 guineas for his role in making the observations.) The Society provided instruments for the expedition, including two reflector telescopes built by James Short, two clocks and an astronomical quadrant; these were supplemented by a telescope in the possession of

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil. Biography ...

and another provided by the Navy. The expedition arrived at

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

, the chosen site for the observation of the transit, on 11 April 1769, anchoring in

Matavai Bay Matavai Bay is a bay on the north coast of Tahiti, the largest island in the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of French Polynesia. It is in the commune of Mahina, French Polynesia, Mahina, approximately 8 km east of the capit ...

on the north-western coast of the island two days later. A camp (Fort Venus) was established and the astronomical equipment was in place by the start of May. Of paramount importance for Green was the calculation of an accurate position of the location, which he calculated using the lunar distance method and by observation of the moons of Jupiter. The removal of the quadrant from the camp - either by the local Tahitians or by members of the expedition who traded it to the Tahitians - threatened to derail the enterprise, but it was soon recovered, albeit disassembled into pieces and with some damage, by the expedition botanist Joseph Banks, accompanied by Green. The day of the transit, June 3, was a clear day and the transit was visible in its entirety. Although Cook had taken the precaution of sending two groups to outlying islands, the principal observation party remained at Fort Venus, where Green, Cook and (independently) Solander recorded the times of the transit. Cook noted in his log that the times recorded by the three observers for the times of

contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * ...

differed significantly; this anomaly, now generally attributed to the '' black drop effect'', would cast significant doubt, in the eyes of the Royal Society and Nevil Maskelyne, on the usefulness and value of the observations later.

Criticism of Green and his observations

Due to Green's death on the homeward voyage, the work of collating and analysing his results fell first to Cook, and ultimately to Nevil Maskelyne. Cook admitted that Green's papers were in a disorganised state, when he inspected them after Green's death, and that some of the timings were inconsistently recorded in various of the astronomer's papers. The Astronomer Royal was critical of Green's work, especially of the observations Green made to calculate the latitude and longitude of Fort Venus. It has been noted that although the times for the contacts given by the three observers (Green, Cook and Solander) present at Fort Venus vary, they show no pattern of inconsistency attributable to one observer alone. Wharton, in his "Sketch of Captain Cook's Life" in ''Captain Cook's Journal During His First Voyage Round the World,'' published 1893, gives special attention to the contribution of Green in the expedition. He states that "no doubt to him is due the major part of the determinations of accurate longitude, which is one of the very remarkable points of this voyage." See especially pp. xxvi–xxviii.

Subsequent voyage of the ''Endeavour'' and the death of Green

Following the departure from Tahiti, the ''Endeavour'' continued south-westwards as Cook carried out his orders to further explore the Southern Ocean. The expedition reached New Zealand in October 1769, giving Green an opportunity to observe the

transit of Mercury frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet. During a transit, Mercury appears as a tiny black dot moving across the Sun as the planet obs ...

from land. A landing was made at an inlet that would be subsequently called

Mercury Bay Mercury Bay is a large V-shaped bay on the eastern coast of the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. It was named by the English navigator Captain James Cook during his exploratory expeditions. It was first named ''Te-Whangan ...

on 3 November; the transit was successfully observed by Green on November 9. On reaching Australia, and during Cook's voyage along the coast, he named an island, Green Island, after the astronomer in June 1770. Green, by this time had contracted

scurvy Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, feeling tired and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding ...

. The ''Endeavour'' was forced to make for

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

(present-day Jakarta) for repairs. Disease were rife in the Dutch-controlled city, including malaria and

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

; Green contracted the latter, dying on 29 January 1771, twelve days after the ship's departure from the port. Cook, in recording Green's death in his log, went on to add that Green had been in ill-health for some time and his lifestyle had contributed to his early death. An account published in a London newspaper described his final hours: "He had been ill some time, and was directed by the surgeon to keep himself warm, but in a fit of phrensy he got up in the night and put his legs out of the portholes, which was the occasion of his death."

Personal life

Green married Elizabeth Long in March 1768 in London; the records of the Royal Society mention making a provision of £50 per annum for his wife for the duration of the expedition. Green's sister Mary married the astronomer William Wales, who was part of a

expedition to Hudson Bay to observe the 1769 transit of Venus and who replaced Green for Cook's next voyage.

References

External links

Information about Green from ''Cook's Log'', p. 1713, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2000)
* ttp://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu4143.htm Information about Green from ''Cook's Log'', p. 92, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1980) and p. 102, Vol. 4, No.1 (1981)br>Charles Green ''South Seas Companion'' Biographical entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Charles 1734 births 1771 deaths 18th-century British astronomers People from Swinton, South Yorkshire James Cook