Pinguin-"Resolution" | Penguin "Resolution"

Georg Forster, der deutsche Pastorensohn aus der Nähe von Danzig, war Universalgenie und Multitalent: Naturforscher und Ethnologe, Zeichner und Sprachkundler, Freimaurer und Alchimist, Schriftsteller, Aufklärer und Revolutionär. Vor allem aber: Entdecker. Seine erste große Expedition startet im Jahre 1772 an Bord von James Cooks "Resolution". "Schuhschachtel" nennt er die winzige Schiffskabine, die er sich mit seinem Vater, dem Naturgelehrten Johann Reinhold Forster, teilen muss. (…)

Mehr noch als Stürme und Eiseskälte bedrohen Hunger und Auszehrung das ganze Unternehmen. Denn die Fahrt geht immer wieder ins ewige Eis, weil Cook nach der "terra australis" sucht - einem fruchtbaren Kontinent am Südpol. Tatsächlich kommt der Brite der Antarktis näher als je ein Mensch zuvor, doch das Packeis droht das Schiff zu zertrümmern. Georg Forster, als naturwissenschaftlicher Assistent und Zeichner der Expedition an Bord, bringt noch mit froststarren Händen Pinguine zu Papier. terra-x-zdf.de

Captain Cook's second voyage around the world (1772-75) made the first documented crossing of the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773. Johann Reinhold Forster sailed as the expedition's naturalist, with his son Johann Georg as assistant and artist. The Forsters collected, sketched and described the previously undocumented marine fauna, including new species of birds. 

Georg's illustrations recorded many creatures that were not easily preserved, including a large penguin with distinctive yellow markings, which they saw on South Georgia in 1775. This bird, known as the king penguin, had been seen by previous European explorers, but was still a great curiosity.

Due to difficulties with the Admiralty, the Forsters' natural history accounts were published erratically, and their initial works contained no illustrations. By the time Johann Reinhold Forster had described and named five other penguins in 1781, Georg's painting of the king penguin had been copied by two other authors, one of whom was called Miller, who is credited with naming the species.

Georg's king penguin gained a new significance in 1844, when similar penguins were brought back by the Antarctic expedition of Sir James Clark Ross. George Gray of the British Museum examined these birds and compared them with Forster's drawings and painting. As a result, Gray realized that the specimens were a different species, the emperor penguin, which he named Aptenodytes forsteri in commemoration of the Forsters. britishmuseum.org