HM Bark Endeavour

HM Bark Endeavour was a small 18th century British sailing ship, famous for being the vessel commanded by Lt. (later Captain) James Cook, on his first voyage of discovery to the Pacific Ocean.

Cook's voyage

The voyage departed Plymouth on August 8, 1768, and took them to the Madeira Islands, along the west coast of Africa and across the Atlantic to South America, arriving in Rio De Janeiro on November 13, 1768. The next leg rounded Cape Horn into the South Pacific and on to Tahiti, where she remained for the next three months while preparations were made for observing the transit of Venus.

Related Topics:
Plymouth - August 8 - 1768 - Madeira Islands - Africa - Atlantic - South America - Rio De Janeiro - November 13 - Cape Horn - Tahiti

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Her ostensible mission now completed, she continued with her "unannounced" tasks of charting the Southern Hemisphere. The Endeavour sailed from Tahiti to New Zealand, where she spent the next six months surveying and mapping the coast under constant harassment from the Maori population. From New Zealand she moved west to the coast of Australia, sighting land on April 19, 1770. Putting into to a sheltered bay, her botanists were able to collect an astounding array of flora, so much so that Cook named the place Botany Bay.

Related Topics:
Tahiti - New Zealand - Maori - Australia - April 19 - 1770 - Botany Bay

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For the next four months Cook charted the coast of Australia, until the ship ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. After lightening the ship as much as possible, she was re-floated by an incoming tide, but sustained considerable damage. She was careened on the beach of a river estuary, now named the Endeavour River, where the modern town of Cooktown is located, and spent the next seven weeks undergoing repairs.

Related Topics:
Australia - Great Barrier Reef - Endeavour River - Cooktown

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She turned for home arriving, after several other stops, on July 11, 1771. Cook's first voyage in Endeavour is of historical importance because of its 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. He used a complex mathematical formula developed in the 1760s.

Related Topics:
July 11 - 1771 - Navigation - Geography - Longitudinal position

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cook was also the first to substantially reduce scurvy among his crew, a serious danger on long voyages. He lost nobody to the disease and in the context of the time, this was an astonishing achievement on such a voyage.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1772 Cook, now a captain, made two subsequent voyages of exploration in HMS Resolution, sailing from south polar ice to north polar ice, until he and four of his marines, were killed on his return to the Hawaiian Islands in 1779 owing to a mutual misunderstanding of the respective cultures.

Related Topics:
1772 - HMS ''Resolution'' - Hawaiian Islands - 1779

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~