Heinrich Zimmermann

In 1782 he was invited by William Bolts to join a voyage to the North West Coast of America sailing from Trieste under the Imperial Austrian flag.

He arrived in London in 1776 where, after a short period of working in a sugar refinery, he joined HMS Discovery as an able seaman on 12 March of that year for James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific.

During the voyage, he kept a concise journal (contrary to orders) written in abbreviated German in a small notebook, which he afterwards used to write an account of it, Reise um die Welt mit Capitain Cook, published in Mannheim in 1781 and in Munich in 1783.

[7] Shortly after arriving at Starnberg, Zimmermann accepted an invitation from William Bolts, made through George Dixon, to join the proposed voyage of the Imperial ship Cobenzell, and obtained leave from the Prince Elector to do so.

Completely infused with this favour, yesterday he eagerly went with the post to his present destiny.Although Emperor Joseph II was initially enthusiastic, the venture eventually proved impossible to realize.

The opposition of Bolts's Belgian financial partners was a principal cause of its not going ahead, and the Emperor also refused to provide finance for it apart from the expenses of his naturalists: in the autumn of 1782 it was abandoned.