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1768 Lieutenant James Cook, RN, set sail in Endeavour on a voyage
of exploration and scientific investigation. After observing the transit
of Venus across the sun at Otaheite in the Pacific, Cook sailed south-west
to disprove or otherwise the existence of a 'Great South Land'.
By 1770 Cook had reached New Zealand. He
circumnavigated and completely charted the north and south islands before
continuing west. In April, he sighted the east coast of New Holland (now
called Australia) and sailed north along the coast before anchoring in
what he named Botany Bay. He then continued north to Cape York and on to
Batavia in the then Dutch East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia).
During the four months voyage along the coast
Cook charted the coastline from Point Hicks (Victoria) to Cape York
(Queensland) and proclaimed the eastern part of the continent for Great
Britain.
Cook
was not the first person nor even the first European to 'discover'
Australia, but he was the first to accurately chart a substantial part of
the coastline and to fix the continent in relation to known waters. His
explorations have also been given significance because, due to a variety
of circumstances, they were followed up within a few years by a British
expedition to settle the 'new' continent. For these reasons, Cook is
considered a major figure in Australia's modern history. Numerous places
in Australasia, particularly on the east Australian coast and New Zealand,
have been named after him or his vessel, and many of the names he gave to
parts of the Australian east coast in 1770 are still used (eg Cape
Tribulation, Botany Bay, the Whitsunday's).
Cook's 1768-1771 voyage in Endeavour is
also considered to be of general historical importance because of its
great contributions to the world's knowledge of seamanship and navigation,
as well as geography. On this voyage Cook became the first captain to
calculate his longitudinal position with accuracy, using a complex
mathematical formula developed in the 1760s. He was also the first to
substantially reduce scurvy among his crew, a serious, sometimes fatal
result of dietary deficiency on long voyages. Cook is considered to be one
of the greatest explorers and is ranked with Vasco de Gama and Columbus.
The Coat Of Arms was awarded to Captain James
Cook posthumously by the King of England and is the only one ever to
include a globe (centered on the Pacific Ocean) and Polar stars. The motto
reads: "He left nothing unattempted".
For those not familiar with the Captain, he first
came to the attention of the British Admiralty during the conflicts with
France for the possession of Canada. His Highly detailed charts of
Canadian rivers and coastlines helped the British Fleet to launch
successful Attacks on several French Strongholds and ultimately win the
war there. Later, he was selected to command several long
expeditions to search for the rumored "Northwest Passage",
observe the transition of Venus (from Tahiti) and to search for the
"Great Southern Continent", which scientists in those days
believed must exist in order to "Balance the Earth"! Along the
way, he added a large number of new places to the World Map, including the
Islands of Hawaii, which he was the first European to discover.
His remarkable voyages of exploration came to an
abrupt end when, due to an unfortunate misunderstanding with his former
Hosts, he was killed trying to prevent his men from firing at an angry
crowd of Hawaiians. Later on, when tempers cooled, his remains were
returned to his crew and he was buried at sea. A Naval Warship from Great
Britain stops by each year to take care of his memorial near Kona on the
'Big Island' of Hawaii. The small white obelisk stands on the only piece
of Sovereign Territory left in America.
The Expeditions
On
April 3, 1768, the Earl of Pembroke, an ungainly-looking North Sea
coal carrier, was put into dry dock in a choice slip at the English Naval
shipyard of Deptford, on the Thames River near London. Stout and
heavy-timbered, with a bluff bow and a narrow stern, the new arrival
appeared distinctly out of place amid the rows of sleek frigates and
towering ships of the line being repaired and refitted for duty. A few
Deptford officers brusquely questioned whether the bark-rigged vessel was
even mustered in the Royal Navy. For what conceivable purpose could the
Admiralty require the services of a grimy workboat?
In fact, the humble collier was intended for a
singularly adventurous role. She would carry a hand-picked group of naval
officers and scientists to the farthest reaches of the Pacific to conduct
vital astronomical studies and to make yet another search for the
continent identified on the maps as Terra Australis Incognita. A collier
had been selected because it could hold the large quantities of supplies
and scientific equipment the voyagers would require, and also because it
was flat-bottomed and was able to take the punishment of an accidental
grounding.
On April 5 the Admiralty renamed the vessel Endeavour
and ordered the Deptford carpenters to prepare her for the journey with
the greatest dispatch. Within four weeks her hull had been sheathed with a
second layer of planking to protect against tropical sea worms. Her masts
and yards were scrapped for fresh-cut spars, and all her rigging was
replaced with new hempen lines. On May 18 the ship was refloated and
moored in the great Deptford Basin, alongside the mighty warships of the
British Empire, to await the arrival of her commander.
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| James
Cook was born on the 27th October 1728, of humble stock, in the little
Yorkshire village of Marton. The cottage in which James was born has long
since been demolished, and nothing now remains but vestiges of the pump.
But his memory is kept green by a flourishing Captain Cook Memorial School
founded in 1850. The Cooks soon moved to the village of Great Ayton, where
they lived in a cottage that still stands by the stream, while James's
father built a more commodious cottage to house his growing family. Of
this cottage nothing remains - in England, though a small obelisk in an
enclosed space marks the plot where it stood. It was taken down stone by
stone and brick by brick and transported to Australia where it has been
rebuilt in Melbourne public gardens - one of Australia's most cherished
relics.
At Ayton James attended Mr. Pullen's little
school where he seems to have shown a flair for figures. He also owed much
kindness to the people of the Manor. But it was soon time for him to earn
his living; and his father apprenticed him to a Mr. Sanderson who kept a
general stores at Staithes. (The name Sanderson occurs on tombstones in
Ayton churchyard.) So James went off to the astonishing little
harbour-town of Staithes which lies tucked in at the base of the cliffs
and is reached by one precipitous road. There he worked all day in an
atmosphere of haberdashery and groceries, slept under the counter at
night, and in his scant free time listened to the tales of sailormen down
by the tiny harbour, or outside the 'Cod and Lobster'.
James stood it for a year and a half. One story
is that he got up early one morning and ran away to sea, thus breaking his
indentures. Others say it is more likely that Mr. Sanderson, realizing
that the life of shop-boy was no life for James, came to a kind and
amicable arrangement. What we do know is that James walked the thirteen
miles over the cliff to Whitby, found a collier lying alongside the quay,
and offered his services to the mate. And the mate, liking the look of the
lad, sent him off to see the owners of the little collier fleet - the
Walker Brothers, Quakers, of Whitby. James was appointed, and the life of
his choice had begun. They plied chiefly between Newcastle and London; but
it is certain that they also visited Norway, the Baltic, and Ireland.
Years passed, and James won his mate's
certificate; and there is no doubt he would have been appointed skipper of
one of the collier fleet had not the Seven Years War broken out. After
much thought Cook decided to volunteer, and was sent out to America. At
once he made his mark, and before long he found himself master of a king's
ship, the Mercury, and was sent to join Admiral Saunders who was
besieging Quebec. There he was given the difficult and dangerous work of
charting the channel of the St. Lawrence right up to the French lines, and
he did it superlatively well. He worked at night in peril of his life - on
one occasion Indians leapt on to the stern of his boat as he jumped off
the bows - but the work was done, and found to be absolutely reliable. But
how he found time, or obtained the necessary books, to make himself an
expert surveyor and cartographer, and to study mathematics and astronomy
to the point of contributing papers to the Royal Society on abstruse
mathematical problems such as finding location by the moon, is a mystery
that will never now be explained.
It happened that in 1766 the Government were
looking for a man to command a ship for a cruise to the Pacific with the
object of observing the transit of Venus. James Cook was the man for the
post; he was given a ship, the Endeavour, of the serviceable Whitby
collier type which he knew so well, and with a company of eighty-five set
sail from Plymouth in August 1768, for the first of his three great
voyages.
They rounded Cape Horn, and arrived at the lovely
island of Otaheite, where they observed the transit of Venus - and the
charms of the inhabitants. For three months they stayed there, on the
friendliest terms; the king of the neighbouring island of Huaheine even
insisted on exchanging names with the captain - and "Cookee" and
"Oree" they became. Next they discovered and named the Society
Islands, and then sailed for New Zealand, which was found to consist of
two great islands admirably adapted for settlement "should this ever
be thought an object worthy the attention of Englishmen." The soil
was most fertile, the trees were splendid, the natives vigorous and
healthy, though somewhat addicted to cannibalism. Domestic animals were
lacking, and that Captain Cook determined to remedy at some future time.
Then they sailed for Australia - New Holland as
it was called - explored the east coast for two thousand miles, and took
over the country in the king's name. Narrowly escaping disaster when the
ship ran on a coral reef, and "beat with great violence upon the
rock", they made for Batavia, sailing between New Holland and New
Guinea, thus proving them to be two distinct countries.
And now malarial fever and dysentery broke out:
the whole ship's company were down with it at one time or another, and no
less than a third of them died. They made their way home by way of the
Cape and St. Helena, and dropped anchor in the Downs.
Cook spent but little time with his family, for
in the following autumn he received another commission, "to complete
the discovery of the Southern Hemisphere". He was given two ships,
the Resolution and the Adventure, which he took great care
to provision with proper food stores, including lemons, enough to last for
two years. He left England in July 1772, and sailed by way of the Cape far
south into the Antarctic Ocean. For weeks he sailed among icebergs,
pushing south wherever he found an opening, while the ship rolled gunwale
to, and the frozen rigging cut their hands. After a run of "three
thousand five hundred leagues" they put into Dusky Bay, New Zealand,
where they landed domestic animals and planted English vegetables. The
next few weeks were spent among the islands, where old King Oree was
overjoyed to see them; and then once more they sailed to the southern ice.
At last in January they reached the great ice-field and could go no
further. Cook sailed his ship right round the Pole, and the great southern
continent of the old maps proved to be non-existent. He turned for home,
discovering and naming many islands; and after crossing a greater space of
sea than any ship had ever crossed before, returned once more to England.
And this time, during the whole voyage, they lost but one man by disease.
In less than a year Captain Cook was again in
command of the Resolution, but not before he had been promoted to
the rank of post-captain, and had been presented with the gold medal of
the Royal Society and a Fellowship. On this voyage he had with him as
navigation officer a young man of twenty-three, of outstanding
navigational ability and a sense of location amounting almost to
"second sight". His name was Bligh, to be known the world over
in years to come as Bligh of the Bounty. The object of this third
voyage was to find out whether there existed a north-east passage from
Pacific to Atlantic; and for this purpose he sailed to the Pacific,
visiting Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, Otaheite, and the Friendly
Islands. Then course was set for North America. The Sandwich Islands were
discovered in February, the mainland of America sighted in March 1778. All
summer they explored the coast from Oregon northwards, through the Bering
Strait, right up to Icy Cape, enduring storm and hardship and privation
without complaint; but there was no sign of an ice-free north-east
passage; and Captain Cook decided to return to Hawaii in the Sandwich
Islands.
Then came the end. The natives were celebrating
victory when they arrived, and mistook the Englishmen for their great god
Lono and his immortal company. Divine honours were offered; and strangely
enough Cook accepted them - perhaps because he was prepared to accept
anything that made for the success of the expedition. Trouble soon began,
when it became apparent that the entertainment of a god was an exceedingly
expensive affair; while the death of one of the immortal crew, and his
burial on the island, put a certain strain on even native credulity.
Quarrels became frequent; sticks and stones were freely used; and Cook
decided to sail away, much to everybody's relief.
Within a week the Resolution had sprung
her foremast, and they were back again. Trouble began immediately. One of
the cutters was stolen, and Captain Cook put ashore in some force to
effect restitution. Natives crowded the beach, armed and excited. Stones
were thrown and there was some firing. Cook turned, and as he did so was
stabbed in the back and speared. He fell dead into the water.
Thus died Captain Cook at the age of fifty-one.
His indomitable perseverance and courage, his disdain of comfort, his
calmness and capacity in danger, and his singleness of purpose, have, with
his stupendous achievements, marked him as one of the greatest of
Englishmen.
Fortunately, we have very full and comprehensive
accounts of all three voyages. The core and by far the most important part
is, of course, the log or journal kept almost daily by Captain Cook
himself - to which we must add the short conclusion added after Cook's
death by Captain King. Cook's narrative is written on folio sized paper,
for the most part in pencil, in a firm, clear hand without flourishes - as
one would expect. And very wonderful it is to turn over the pages to some
great occasion such as the end of May 1770, and read of the first landing
at Botany Bay and the flying of the English flag, written up by Captain
Cook the same evening on his return to the ship. Until recently it has not
been possible to do this as the manuscript has been in the possession of
the reigning sovereign. But a few months before his death King George VI
presented the manuscript to the National Maritime Museum where it is now
kept as a unique treasure - a locked book in a case within a safe.
Besides the basic account there is a great mass
of material - biological, botanical, anthropological, and so forth, which
in the full editions has been incorporated in the text with great skill.
In addition, several attempts were made to edit copies of Cook's rough
documents into the classical style favoured at that time. One such editor
was Dr. Hawkesworth, who was given leave to "improve" as he
thought fit, which he proceeded to do by copious additions, grandiloquent
phraseology, and learned classical allusions - as may be read. Where Cook
tells us that he walked about with the king of the island, Dr. Hawkesworth
must say that "the commander pursued his journey under the auspices
of the potentate". Where Cook records that they watched a native
wrestling-match, Dr. Hawkesworth notes the resemblance to the athletic
sports of remote antiquity, quoting Fénélon's Telemachus, and reminding
us that Aelian and Apollonius Rhodius impute a certain practice to the
ancient inhabitants of Colchis, a country near Pontus in Asia, now called
Mingrelia.
Then came tragedy. For Captain Cook returning
from his second voyage, and reading what he was supposed to have written,
was shocked and outraged, and would have none of it. And poor Dr.
Hawkesworth in bitter disappointment took ill and died of chagrin; and so
never even had the pleasure of spending the £6,000 for which he had
worked so earnestly and so deplorably.
After that the manuscripts were handed over to a
Dr. Douglas, then Bishop of Carlisle, to deal with; and he assures the
reader that not a word of Cook's original manuscript has been altered; and
that, though there are certain omissions, is undoubtedly the case. Even
so, Captain Cook thought it necessary to preface the Second Voyage with a
sort of apology for his own supposed literary short-comings; and this is
what he writes: "Now it may be necessary to say that as I am on the
point of sailing on a third expedition, I leave this account of my last
voyage in the hands of some friends, who are pleased to think that what I
have here to relate is better given in my own words, than in the words by
another person, especially as it is a work designed for information, and
not merely for amusement; in which it is their opinion that candour and
fidelity will counterbalance the want of ornament. I shall therefore
desire the reader to excuse the inaccuracies of style, which doubtless he
will frequently meet with in the following narrative; and that, when such
occur, he will recollect that it is the production of a man who has not
had the advantage of much school education, but who has been constantly at
sea from his youth; and though, with the assistance of a few good friends,
he has passed through all the stations belonging to a seaman, from an
apprentice boy in the coal trade, to a post-captain in the Royal Navy, he
has had no opportunity of cultivating letters. After this account of
myself, the public must not expect from me the elegance of a fine writer,
or the plausibility of a professional book-maker; but will, I hope,
consider me as a plain man, zealously exerting himself in the service of
his country, and determined to give the best account he is able of his
proceedings".
Captain Cook writes modestly, but we now realize
that a plain, sailor-like style is admirably suited to a narrative of
endurance and achievement; while in descriptive passages, such as that of
the great ice barrier, its very simplicity lends a vivid charm. Take, for
instance, his description of the southern ice barrier:
"On the 30th, at four o'clock in the
morning, we perceived the clouds over the horizon to the south to be of an
unusual snow-white brightness, which we knew announced our approach to
field ice. Soon after it was seen from the topmast-head, and at eight
o'clock we were close to its edge. It extended east and west far beyond
the reach of our sight. Ninety-seven ice hills were distinctly seen within
the field, besides those on the outside - many of them very large, and
looking like a ridge of mountains rising one above another till they were
lost in the clouds; the outer or northern edge of this immense field was
composed of loose or broken ice close packed together so that it was not
possible for anything to enter it. This was about a mile broad, within
which was solid ice in one continued compact body. It was rather low and
flat (except the hills) but seemed to increase in height as you traced it
to the south, in which direction it extended beyond our sight. Such
mountains of ice as these, I think, were never seen in the Greenland seas,
at least not that I ever heard or read of, so that we cannot draw a
comparison between the ice here and there".
Letters and logs were consulted at the Admiralty
- The whole work is thorough, accurate, and of reasonable length. The
third voyage is partly told by Captain Cook, and doctored somewhat in the
editing; partly by others, notably by Captain King, who continued the
narrative from the point where Captain Cook's ended abruptly. The three
accounts together form a fitting record of unmatched achievement.
For more
information on Captain Cook's Voyages, go
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