HMS ''Adventure'' was a

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

that the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

purchased in 1771. She had been the merchant vessel ''Marquis of Rockingham'', launched in 1770 at Whitby. In naval service she sailed with ''Resolution'' on

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

's second expedition to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

in 1772–1775. She was the first ship to

circumnavigate Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...

the globe from west to east. After her return she served as a

store ship Combat stores ships, or storeships, were originally a designation given to ships in the Age of Sail and immediately afterward that navies used to stow Materiel, supplies and other goods for naval warfare, naval purposes. Today, the United States ...

until 1779. The navy sold her in 1783 and she resumed a civilian career, but retaining the name ''Adventure''. She was lost in May 1811.

Career

She began her career as the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

collier ''Marquis of Rockingham'', launched at

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cl ...

in 1770. Soon after his return from his first voyage in 1771, Commander Cook was commissioned by the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

to make a second voyage in search of a supposed southern continent, Terra Australis Incognita. He arranged for the Navy to purchase two ships, the second and smaller of which was ''Marquis of Rockingham''. The Navy purchased her in 1771 and first named her ''Raleigh'' or ''Rayleigh'', and then ''Adventure''. The Navy commissioned her under Joseph Shank. Cook was given the command of ''Resolution'', with Commander

Tobias Furneaux Captain Tobias Furneaux (21 August 173518 September 1781) was an English navigator and Royal Navy officer, who accompanied James Cook on his second voyage of exploration. He was one of the first men to circumnavigate the world in both directions ...

accompanying him in ''Adventure'', having replaced Shank. Furneaux was an experienced explorer, having served on

Samuel Wallis Samuel Wallis (23 April 1728 – 21 January 1795 in London) was a British naval officer and explorer of the Pacific Ocean. He made the first recorded visit by a European navigator to Tahiti. Biography Wallis was born at Fenteroon Farm, n ...

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the ...

in in 1766–1768. ''Resolution'' and ''Adventure'' left

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

on 13 July 1772 and on 17 January 1773 were the first European ships to cross the

Antarctic Circle The Antarctic Circle is the most southerly of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of Earth. The region south of this circle is known as the Antarctic, and the zone immediately to the north is called the Southern Temperate Zone. So ...

. On 8 February 1773 the two ships became separated in a fog and Furneaux directed ''Adventure'' towards the prearranged meeting point of

Queen Charlotte Sound (New Zealand) Queen Charlotte Sound is the name of two channels: * Queen Charlotte Sound (Canada), located in British Columbia *Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui is the easternmost of the main sounds of the Marlborough Sou ...

, charted by Cook in 1770. On the way to the rendezvous, ''Adventure'' surveyed the southern and eastern coasts of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

(then known as

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

), where Adventure Bay was named for the ship. Furneaux made the earliest British chart of this shore, but as he did not enter

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island states and territories of Australia, state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Bo ...

he assumed Tasmania to be part of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. Most of his names here survive; Cook, visiting this shore-line on his third voyage, confirmed Furneaux's account and delineation of it, and named after him the islands in

Banks Strait The Clarke Island (also known by its Indigenous name of ''Lungtalanana Island''), part of the Furneaux Group, is an island in Bass Strait, south of Cape Barren Island, about off the northeast coast of Tasmania, Australia. Banks Strait separ ...

. ''Adventure'' arrived at Queen Charlotte Sound on 7 May 1773 and ''Resolution'' followed on 17 May. From June to October the two ships explored the southern Pacific, reaching

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

on 15 August, where

Omai Mai (c.1751-late 1779), known as Omai in Britain, was a young Ra'iatean man who became the second Pacific Islander to visit Europe, after Ahu-toru who was brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768. Life Ma'i, born c.1751, described himself ...

Ra'iatea Raiatea or Ra'iatea ( Tahitian: ''Ra‘iātea'') is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the "centre" of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the ...

embarked on ''Adventure'' (Omai later became the first Pacific Islander to visit Europe before returning to Tahiti with Cook in 1776). After calling at

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

in the

Friendly Islands Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

the ships returned to New Zealand but were separated by a storm on 22 October. This time the rendezvous at Queen Charlotte Sound was missed — ''Resolution'' departed on 26 November, four days before ''Adventure'' arrived. Cook had left a message buried in the sand setting out his plan to explore the South Pacific and return to New Zealand. Furneaux decided to return home and buried a reply to that effect. Before he could leave, a fight broke out between ''Adventure's'' crew and the local

Māori people The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over severa ...

, in which ten crewmen and two Māoris were killed. This was reportedly prompted by an unknowing breach of tapu by a sailor, who placed a tin can that had held food on a chief's head. Alternatively, it may have been due to a barter gone wrong at Grass Cove on 17 Dec. 1773, and Kahura taking revenge (''utu''). ''Adventure'' set out for home on 22 December 1773 via

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...

, She returned to England on 14 July 1774 and entered the double dock in the Royal Dockyard at Deptford where between March and May 1775 she was converted into a store ship for Halifax, Canada. Lieutenant John Hallum recommissioned ''Adventure'' in March 1775. He sailed for North America on 26 June 1775. In November 1777 Lieutenant Hugh Tolken replaced Hallum at Boston. Between January and March 1779 she underwent refitting at

Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events ...

. Henry Trubshaw Bell,

coxswain The coxswain ( , or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from ''cock'', referring to the cockboat, a type of ship's boa ...

of was appointed as

bosun A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship's hull. The boatswain supervise ...

on 30 August 1779, at Halifax. The log for 5 September 1779 shows that "this day 8 men deserted the ship. Ditto took two of them again by information and confined them in irons". ''Adventure'' set sail from Halifax on 26 October 1779, in company with the ships ''Keppel'', ''Royal Briton'' and ''Dunmore''. She sailed mainly in fresh or hard gales for most of the 36 days it took to reach Spithead, which is situated at the eastern part of the channel between Hampshire, England, and the Isle of Wight at Portsmouth. The voyage was not without its tensions. The log records that on 6 December 1779, the Captain "punished William Pritt with two dozen lashes for striking the boatswain and carpenter". ''Adventure'' arrived at Sheerness in December 1779, and was paid off on 13 January 1780. She underwent fitting as a fireship, but was never employed in that role. ''Adventure'' was laid up at Sheerness until the Navy sold her on 7 May 1783 for £900, apparently to her original owners.

Merchantman

In 1784 an ''Adventure'', of 350 tons (bm), British-built, entered ''

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

'' (''LR''). Her trade was London-

Davis Strait Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John ...

, signalling that she was a

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

in the northern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1794. ''Adventure'' reappeared in ''

'' (''LR'') in 1800 with H. Lisk, master, T.Brown, owner, and trade London transport.

Fate

On 24 May 1811, ''Adventure'', Snowden, master, was sailing between

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

when she was wrecked in the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. All her crew were saved.

Citations and references

Citations References * * * Lincoln Paxton Paine
''Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia''
Houghton Mifflin, 1997. * Gibson, Doug (1978

* Lieutenant's logbook for HMS Robust 1778 – 1779; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; ADM/L/R/165 1778 *Masters' Logs, Store ship Adventure; The National Archives, Kew; ADM 52/1534 * http://collections.nmm.ac.uk/collections/objects/85203.html * *

External links

*

by Commander T Furneaux
British Atmospheric Data Centre

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

as part o
the CORRAL project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventure (1771), HMS Exploration ships of the United Kingdom Ships of the Royal Navy Shipwrecks of the Saint Lawrence River HMS Adventure 1770 ships Ships built in Whitby Age of Discovery ships Maritime incidents in 1811