A Swedish botanist who was taken on board Cook’s second voyage at Cape Town where Cook had met the Forsters. Forster had studied under Linneaus, who had recommended him for a South African botany project. He joined the Resolution reluctantly and suffered/or helped cause the usual hostilities between officers and scientists, what he calls the “contempt of ignorance.”
Introduction, p. xv: “It may seem extraordinary, that men of science, set out in a ship belonging to the most enlightened nation in the world, should be cramped and deprived of the means of pursuing knowledge, in a manner which would only become a set of barbarians….” Rutter attributes some of the hostility to the elder Forster who had many disputes with shipmates.
[Notes that scientists were not subject to the same restrictions regarding their journals as were the naval men who had to turn them over to Cook or their other commander. Sparrman himself did not write up his journey until many years later in 1802, and it was only published in 1818.]