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Endeavour was originally the merchant collier Earl of Pembroke, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in North Yorkshire,[4] and of a type known locally as the Whitby Cat. She was ship-rigged and sturdily built with a broad, flat bow, a square stern and a long box-like body with a deep hold.[7] A flat-bottomed design made her well-suited to sailing in shallow waters and allowed her to be beached for loading and unloading of cargo and for basic repairs without requiring a dry dock. Her hull, internal floors and futtocks were built from traditional white oak, her keel and stern post from elm and her masts from pine and fir.[8] Plans of the ship also show a double keelson to lock the keel, floors and frames in place.[9] Some doubt exists about the height of her masts, as surviving diagrams of Endeavour depict the body of the vessel only, and not the mast plan.[10] While her main and foremasts are accepted to be a standard 129 and 110 feet (39 and 34 m) respectively, an annotation on one surviving ship plan records the mizzen as "16 yards 29 inches" (15.4 m).[10] If correct, this would produce an oddly truncated mast a full 9 feet (2.7 m) shorter than the standards of the day.[11][12] Modern research suggests the annotation may be a transcription error and should read "19 yards 29 inches" (24.5 m), which would more closely conform with both the naval standards and the lengths of the other masts.[10] The replica is built to this shorter measurement, as is the model in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. There is a difference between the height of the mizzen fore-and-aft spar in the contemporary painting by Luny (below) and its position on the replica in the photographs, compared to the height of the lowest spars on the fore and mainmasts. Purchase and refit by Admiralty On 16 February 1768, the Royal Society petitioned King George III to finance a scientific expedition to the Pacific to study and observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun.[13] Royal approval was granted for the expedition, and the Admiralty elected to combine the scientific voyage with a confidential mission to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated continent Terra Australis Incognita (or "unknown southern land").[14] The Royal Society suggested command be given to Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple, whose acceptance was conditional on a brevet commission as a captain in the Royal Navy. However, First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Hawke refused, going so far as to say he would rather cut off his right hand than give command of a Navy vessel to someone not educated as a seaman.[15] In refusing Dalrymple's command, Hawke was influenced by previous insubordination aboard the sloop HMS Paramour in 1698, when naval officers had refused to take orders from civilian commander Dr. Edmond Halley.[15] The impasse was broken when the Admiralty proposed James Cook, a naval officer with a background in mathematics and cartography.[16] Acceptable to both parties, Cook was promoted to Lieutenant and named as commander of the expedition.[17] A three-masted sailing ship leaves a busy seaport while five men watch from the shore. Green hills flank the seaport, beneath a cloudy sky. Earl of Pembroke, later HMS Endeavour, leaving Whitby Harbour in 1768. By Thomas Luny, dated 1790. On 27 May 1768, Cook took command of the Earl of Pembroke, valued in March at £2,307. 5s. 6d. but ultimately purchased for £2,840. 10s. 11d. and assigned for use in the Society's expedition.[2][a] She was refitted at Deptford on the River Thames for the sum of £2,294, almost the price of the ship itself.[18] The hull was sheathed and caulked to protect against shipworm, and a third internal deck installed to provide cabins, a powder magazine and storerooms.[19] The new cabins provided around 2 square metres (22 sq ft) of floorspace apiece and were allocated to Cook and the Royal Society representatives: naturalist Joseph Banks, Banks' assistants Daniel Solander and Herman Spöring, astronomer Charles Green, and artists Sydney Parkinson and Alexander Buchan.[20] These cabins encircled the officer's mess.[21] The Great Cabin at the rear of the deck was designed as a workroom for Cook and the Royal Society. On the rear lower deck, cabins facing on to the mate's mess were assigned to Lieutenants Zachary Hickes and John Gore, ship's surgeon William Monkhouse, the gunner Stephen Forwood, ship's master Robert Molyneux, and the captain's clerk Richard Orton.[22][23] The adjoining open mess deck provided sleeping and living quarters for the marines and crew, and additional storage space.[21] A longboat, pinnace and yawl were provided as ship's boats, though the longboat was rotten and had to be rebuilt and painted with white lead before it could be brought aboard.[24] These were accompanied by two privately owned skiffs, one belonging to the boatswain John Gathrey, and the other to Banks.[25] The ship was also equipped with a set of 28 ft (8.5 m) sweeps to allow her to be rowed forward if becalmed or demasted.[20] The refitted vessel was commissioned as His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour, to distinguish her from the 4-gun cutter HMS Endeavour.[4] On 21 July 1768, Endeavour sailed to Galleon's Reach to take on armaments to protect her against potentially hostile Pacific island natives.[24] Ten 4-pounder cannons were brought aboard, six of which were mounted on the upper deck and the remainder stowed in the hold. Twelve swivel guns were also supplied, and fixed to posts along the quarterdeck, sides and bow.[26] The ship departed for Plymouth on 30 July, for provisioning and to board her crew of 85, including 12 Royal Marines.[27] Cook also ordered that twelve tons of pig iron be brought on board as sailing ballast.[7] Voyage of discovery Main article: First voyage of James Cook Outward voyage Endeavour departed Plymouth on 26 August 1768, carrying 94 people and 18 months of provisions.[28][b] Livestock on board included pigs, poultry, two greyhounds and a milking goat.[22][29] The first port of call was Funchal in the Madeira Islands, which Endeavour reached on 12 September. The ship was recaulked and painted, and fresh vegetables, beef and water were brought aboard for the next leg of the voyage.[30] While in port, an accident cost the life of master's mate Robert Weir, who became entangled in the anchor cable and was dragged overboard when the anchor was released.[31] To replace him, Cook shanghaied a sailor from an American sloop anchored nearby.[30][c] Endeavour then continued south along the coast of Africa and across the Atlantic to South America, arriving in Rio de Janeiro on 13 November 1768. Fresh food and water were brought aboard and the ship departed for Cape Horn, which she reached during stormy weather on 13 January 1769. However, attempts to round the Cape over the next two days were unsuccessful, with Endeavour repeatedly driven back by wind, rain and contrary tides. Cook noted that the seas off the Cape were large enough to regularly submerge the bow of the ship as she rode down the crests of waves.[32] At last, on 16 January the wind eased and the ship was able to pass the Cape and anchor in the Bay of Good Success on the Pacific coast.[32] The crew were sent to collect wood and water, while Banks and his team gathered hundreds of plant specimens from along the icy shore. On 17 January two of Banks' servants died from cold while attempting to return to the ship during a heavy snowstorm.[33] Endeavour resumed her voyage on 21 January 1769, heading west-northwest into warmer weather. She reached Tahiti on 10 April,[16] where she remained for the next three months. The transit of Venus across the Sun occurred on 3 June, and was observed and recorded by astronomer Charles Green from Endeavour's deck.[16] Pacific exploration The transit observed, Endeavour departed Tahiti on 13 July and headed northwest to allow Cook to survey and name the Society Islands.[34] Landfall was made at Huahine, Raiatea and Borabora, providing opportunities for Cook to claim each of them as British territories. However, an attempt to land the pinnace on the Austral Island of Rurutu was thwarted by rough surf and the rocky shoreline.[35] On 15 August, Endeavour finally turned south to explore the open ocean for Terra Australis Incognita.[34] In October 1769, Endeavour reached the coastline of New Zealand, becoming the first European vessel to do so since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck in 1642.[34] Unfamiliar with such ships, the Māori people at Cook's first landing point in Poverty Bay thought the ship was a floating island, or a gigantic bird from their mythical homeland of Hawaiki.[6] Endeavour spent the next six months sailing close to shore,[16] while Cook mapped the coastline and concluded that New Zealand comprised two large islands and was not the hoped-for Terra Australis. In March 1770, the longboat from Endeavour carried Cook ashore to allow him to formally proclaim British sovereignty over New Zealand.[16] On his return, Endeavour resumed her voyage westward, her crew sighting the east coast of Australia on 19 April.[36] On 29 April, she became the first European vessel to make landfall on the east coast of Australia, when Cook landed one of the ship's boats on the southern shore of what is now known as Botany Bay, New South Wales.[37] Map: A line runs from Rio de Janeiro in South America, generally southward to Cape Horn and then west and northwest through the south Pacific ocean to Tahiti and the Society Islands. The line then moves south and west to New Zealand, west to the Australian coast and north to Cape York. An 1893 chart showing Endeavour's track Shipwreck For the next four months, Cook charted the coast of Australia, heading generally northward. Just before 11 pm on 11 June 1770, the ship struck a reef,[38] today called Endeavour Reef, within the Great Barrier Reef system. The sails were immediately taken down, a kedging anchor set and an unsuccessful attempt was made to drag the ship back to open water. The reef Endeavour had struck rose so steeply from the seabed that although the ship was hard aground, Cook measured depths up to 70 feet (21 m) less than one ship's length away.[38] Cook then ordered that the ship be lightened to help her float off the reef. Iron and stone ballast, spoiled stores and all but four of the ship's guns were thrown overboard, and the ship's drinking water pumped out.[38] The crew attached buoys to the discarded guns with the intention of retrieving them later,[39] but this proved impractical. Every man on board took turns on the pumps, including Cook and Banks.[40] When, by Cook's reckoning, about 40 to 50 long tons (41 to 51 t) of equipment had been thrown overboard, on the next high tide a second unsuccessful attempt was made to pull the ship free.[41] In the afternoon of 12 June, the longboat carried out two large bower anchors, and block and tackle were rigged to the anchor chains to allow another attempt on the evening high tide. The ship had started to take on water through a hole in her hull. Although the leak would certainly increase once off the reef, Cook decided to risk the attempt and at 10:20 pm the ship was floated on the tide and successfully drawn off.[42] The anchors were retrieved, except for one which could not be freed from the seabed and had to be abandoned.[42] As expected the leak increased once the ship was off the reef, and all three working pumps had to be continually manned. A mistake occurred in sounding the depth of water in the hold, when a new man measured the length of a sounding line from the outside plank of the hull where his predecessor had used the top of the cross-beams. The mistake suggested the water depth had increased by about 18 inches (46 cm) between soundings, sending a wave of fear through the ship. As soon as the mistake was realised, redoubled efforts kept the pumps ahead of the leak.[42] The prospects if the ship sank were grim. The vessel was 24 miles (39 km) from shore[16] and the three ship's boats could not carry the entire crew.[43] Despite this, Joseph Banks noted in his journal the calm efficiency of the crew in the face of danger, contrary to stories he had heard of seamen panicking or refusing orders in such circumstances.[44] Midshipman Jonathon Monkhouse proposed fothering the ship, as he had previously been on a merchant ship which used the technique successfully.[45] He was entrusted with supervising the task, sewing bits of oakum and wool into an old sail, which was then drawn under the ship to allow water pressure to force it into the hole in the hull. The effort succeeded and soon very little water was entering, allowing the crew to stop two of the three pumps.[46] An old engraving shows the Endeavour beached on the shore of a bay, surrounded by wooded hills. An area of land has been cleared and tents set up. A small boat carrying eight men rows on the bay. Endeavour beached at Endeavour River for repairs after her grounding on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770. By Johann Fritzsch, published 1786. Endeavour then resumed her course northward and parallel to the reef, the crew looking for a safe harbour in which to make repairs. On 13 June, the ship came to a broad watercourse that Cook named the Endeavour River.[47] Cook attempted to enter the river mouth, but strong winds and rain prevented Endeavour from crossing the bar until the morning of 17 June. She grounded briefly on a sand spit but was refloated an hour later and warped into the river proper by early afternoon. The ship was promptly beached on the southern bank and careened to make repairs to the hull. Torn sails and rigging were also replaced and the hull scraped free of barnacles.[48] An examination of the hull showed that a piece of coral the size of a man's fist had sliced clean through the timbers and then broken off. Surrounded by pieces of oakum from the fother, this coral fragment had helped plug the hole in the hull and preserved the ship from sinking on the reef.[49] Northward to Batavia After waiting for the wind, Endeavour resumed her voyage on the afternoon of 5 August 1770, reaching the northernmost point of Cape York Peninsula fifteen days later. On 22 August, Cook was rowed ashore to a small coastal island to proclaim British sovereignty over the eastern Australian mainland.[50] Cook christened his landing place Possession Island, and ceremonial volleys of gunfire from the shore and Endeavour's deck marked the occasion.[51] Map:A line runs from the Great Barrier Reef northward to Endeavour River and Cape York, then northwest through Torres Strait to the southern coastline of New Guinea. The line then heads west-southwest to Timor, westward parallel to but south of Java to Christmas Island, and northwest to Batavia. Route of the Endeavour from the Torres Strait to Java, August and September 1770 Endeavour then resumed her voyage westward along the coast, picking a path through intermittent shoals and reefs with the help of the pinnace, which was rowed ahead to test the water depth.[52] By 26 August she was out of sight of land, and had entered the open waters of the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, earlier navigated by Luis Váez de Torres in 1606. To keep Endeavour's voyages and discoveries secret, Cook confiscated the log books and journals of all on board and ordered them to remain silent about where they had been.[53] After a three-day layover off the island of Savu, Endeavour sailed on to Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, on 10 October.[54] A day later lightning during a sudden tropical storm struck the ship, but the rudimentary "electric chain" or lightning rod that Cook had ordered rigged to Endeavour's mast saved her from serious damage.[55] The ship remained in very poor condition following her grounding on the Great Barrier Reef in June. The ship's carpenter, John Seetterly, observed that she was "very leaky – makes from twelve to six inches an hour, occasioned by her main keel being wounded in many places, false keel gone from beyond the midships. Wounded on her larbord side where the greatest leak is but I could not come at it for the water."[56] An inspection of the hull revealed that some unrepaired planks were cut through to within ⅛ inch (3 mm). Cook noted it was a "surprise to every one who saw her bottom how we had kept her above water" for the previous three-month voyage across open seas.[57] After riding at anchor for two weeks, Endeavour was heaved out of the water on 9 November and laid on her side for repairs. Some damaged timbers were found to be infested with shipworms, which required careful removal to ensure they did not spread throughout the hull.[58] Broken timbers were replaced and the hull recaulked, scraped of shellfish and marine flora, and repainted.[58] Finally, the rigging and pumps were renewed and fresh stores brought aboard for the return journey to England. Repairs and replenishment were completed by Christmas Day 1770, and the next day Endeavour weighed anchor and set sail westward towards the Indian Ocean.[58] HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand, from 1769 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, and the Navy purchased her in 1768 for a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean and to explore the seas for the surmised Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land". The Navy renamed and commissioned her as His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour. She departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn, and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine, Borabora, and Raiatea to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier. In April 1770, Endeavour became the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia, when Cook went ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay. Endeavour then sailed north along the Australian coast. She narrowly avoided disaster after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef, and Cook had to throw her guns overboard to lighten her. He then beached her on the mainland for seven weeks to permit rudimentary repairs to her hull. On 10 October 1770, she limped into port in Batavia (now named Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies for more substantial repairs, her crew sworn to secrecy about the lands they had discovered. She resumed her westward journey on 26 December, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 13 March 1771, and reached the English port of Dover on 12 July, having been at sea for nearly three years. Largely forgotten after her epic voyage, Endeavour spent the next three years shipping Navy stores to the Falkland Islands. Renamed and sold into private hands in 1775, she briefly returned to naval service as a troop transport during the American War of Independence and was scuttled in a blockade of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, in 1778. Her wreck has not been precisely located, but relics, including six of her cannon and an anchor, are displayed at maritime museums worldwide. A replica of Endeavour was launched in 1994 and is berthed alongside the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbour. The space shuttle Endeavour is named for the original ship. Endeavour also features on the New Zealand fifty cent coin. |
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