HM Bark Endeavour

HMS ''Endeavour'' was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771.

She was launched in 1764 as the collier ''Earl of Pembroke'', with the Navy purchasing 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". Commissioned as His Majesty's Bark ''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 islands of Huahine, Bora Bora, and Raiatea west of Tahiti to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, becoming the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's ''Heemskerck'' 127 years earlier.

In April 1770, ''Endeavour'' became the first European ship to reach the east coast of Australia, with Cook going 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. ''Endeavour'' was beached on the Australian mainland for seven weeks to permit rudimentary repairs to her hull. Resuming her voyage, she limped into port in Batavia in October 1770, her crew sworn to secrecy about the lands that they had visited. From Batavia ''Endeavour'' continued westward, 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.

The ship was largely forgotten after her Pacific voyage, spending the next three years hauling troops and cargo to and from the Falkland Islands. She was renamed in 1775 after being sold into private hands, and used to transport timber from the Baltic. Rehired as a British troop transport during the American War of Independence, she was finally scuttled in a blockade of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island in 1778. Historical evidence indicates the ship was sunk just north of Goat Island in Newport Harbor, along with four other British transports.

Relics from ''Endeavour'' are displayed at maritime museums worldwide, including an anchor and six of her cannon. A replica of ''Endeavour'' was launched in 1994 and is berthed alongside the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbour. The NASA Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' was named after this ship, as was the command module of Apollo 15, which took a small piece of wood from Cook's ship into space, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule C206 was christened ''Endeavour'' during Demo-2. The ship is also depicted on the New Zealand fifty-cent coin.

Construction

''Endeavour'' was originally the merchant collier ''Earl of Pembroke'', built by Thomas Fishburn for Thomas Millner, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in the North Riding of Yorkshire. She was 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.Hosty and Hundley 2003, p. 41

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. Plans of the ship also show a double keelson to lock the keel, floors and frames in place.

There is uncertainty about the height of her standing masts, as surviving diagrams of ''Endeavour'' depict the body of the vessel only, and not the mast plan. While her main and foremast standing spars were standard for her shipyard and era, an annotation on one surviving ship plan in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has the mizzen as "16 yards 29 inches" ( m). If correct, this would produce an oddly truncated mast a full shorter than the naval standards of the day. Late twentieth-century research suggests the annotation may be a transcription error with "19 yards 29 inches" ( m) being the true reading. If so, this would more closely conform with both naval standards and the lengths of the other masts.Marquardt 1995, pp. 19–20.

Purchase and refit by the 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. 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").

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. 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., editor Robert Kerr's introduction footnote 3 In refusing Dalrymple's command, Hawke was influenced by previous insubordination aboard the sloop in 1698, when naval officers had refused to take orders from civilian commander Dr. Edmond Halley. The impasse was broken when the Admiralty proposed James Cook, a naval officer with a background in mathematics and cartography. Acceptable to both parties, Cook was promoted to Lieutenant and named as commander of the expedition.

On 27 May 1768, Cook took command of ''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. She was refitted at Deptford by the dock's master shipwright Adam Hayes on the River Thames for the sum of £2,294, almost the price of the ship itself. The hull was sheathed and caulked to protect against shipworm, and a third internal deck installed to provide cabins, a powder magazine and storerooms.Hosty and Hundley 2003, p. 61 The new cabins provided around of floorspace apiece being 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.Marquardt 1995, p. 18 These cabins encircled the officer's mess. 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. The adjoining open mess deck provided sleeping and living quarters for the marines and crew, and additional storage space.

A longboat, pinnace and yawl were provided as ship's boats, though the longboat was rotten having to be rebuilt and painted with white lead before it could be brought aboard.Hough 1994, p. 56. These were accompanied by two privately owned skiffs, one belonging to the boatswain John Gathrey, and the other to Banks. The ship was also equipped with a set of sweeps to allow her to be rowed forward if becalmed or demasted. The refitted vessel was commissioned as His Majesty's Bark ''the Endeavour'', to distinguish her from the 4-gun cutter .

On 21 July 1768, ''Endeavour'' sailed to Gallion's Reach to take on armaments to protect her against potentially hostile Pacific island natives. Ten 4-pounder cannon were brought aboard, six of which were mounted on the upper deck with the remainder stowed in the hold. Twelve swivel guns were also supplied, and fixed to posts along the quarterdeck, sides and bow. The ship departed for Plymouth on 30 July, for provisioning and crew boarding of 85, including 12 Royal Marines. Cook also ordered that twelve tons of pig iron be brought on board as sailing ballast.

Service history

Voyage of discovery

Outward voyage

''Endeavour'' departed Plymouth on 26 August 1768, carrying 18 months of provisions for 94 people. Livestock on board included pigs, poultry, two greyhounds and a milking goat.

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.Hough 1994, pp. 75–76 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. To replace him, Cook pressed a sailor from an American sloop anchored nearby.

''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. Attempts to round the Cape over the next two days were unsuccessful, and ''Endeavour'' was 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 from the crests of waves. 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.Beaglehole 1968, pp. 41–44 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.

''Endeavour'' resumed her voyage on 21 January 1769, heading west-northwest into warmer weather. She reached Tahiti on 10 April, 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'' deck.

Pacific exploration

The transit observed, ''Endeavour'' departed Tahiti on 13 July and headed northwest to allow Cook to survey and name the Society Islands.Rigby and van der Merwe 2002, p. 34 Landfall was made at Huahine, Raiatea and Borabora, providing opportunities for Cook to claim each of them as British territories. An attempt to land the pinnace on the Austral Island of Rurutu

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