First Voyage of James Cook (1768–1771)

Conception

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 face of the sun to enable the measurement of the distance from the Earth to 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 aims of the expedition were revealed in the press: "To-morrow morning Mr. Banks, Dr. Solano [sic], with Mr. Green, the Astronomer, will set out for Deal, to embark on board Endeavour, Capt. Cook, for the South Seas, under the direction of the Royal Society, to observe the Transit of Venus next summer, and to make discoveries to the South and West of Cape Horn". The London Gazetteer was more explicit when it reported on 18 August 1768: "The gentlemen, who are to sail in a few days for George's Land, the new discovered island in the Pacific ocean, with an intention to observe the Transit of Venus, are likewise, we are credibly informed, to attempt some new discoveries in that vast unknown tract, above the latitude 40".

Preparations and personnel

The vessel chosen by the Admiralty for the voyage was a merchant collier named Earl of Pembroke, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in North Yorkshire. 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.

Cook's first task was to sail to King George Island (Tahiti) and find a suitable place to observe the transit of Venus. After observing the transit of Venus, Cook was to sail south to find the suspected unknown southern continent.

Cook's career covered the time when practical solutions were being developed for the longitude problem. (Latitude had been determined by seafarers since the end of the 15th century, using the astrolabe and later the quadrant to measure the altitude of the sun at noon.)

On 30 July 1768 the Admiralty authorised a ship's company for the voyage, of 73 sailors and 12 Royal Marines. The voyage was commanded by 40-year-old Lieutenant James Cook.

Voyage of discovery

Cook departed from Plymouth on 26 August 1768, carrying 94 people and 18 months of provisions. On 15 November, Endeavour reached Rio de Janeiro and stayed there until 2 December, re-provisioning and making repairs.

Saturday 3rd This day prov'd as favourable to our purpose as we could wish, not a Clowd was to be seen the Whole day and the Air was perfectly clear, so that we had every advantage we could desire in Observing the whole of the passage of the Planet Venus over the Suns disk: we very distinctly saw an Atmosphere or dusky shade round the body of the Planet which very much disturbed the times of the contacts particularly the two internal ones.

Once the observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated southern continent of Terra Australis.

New Zealand

Cook reached New Zealand on 6 October 1769, leading only the second group of Europeans known to do so (after Abel Tasman over a century earlier, in 1642).

Sailing north, Endeavour next anchored at Mercury Bay where Cook observed the transit of Mercury on 9 November. Relations with the Māori were generally peaceful, although one local was killed in a trading dispute.

Continuing north, Cook anchored at Bream Head and then the Bay of Islands, before rounding North Cape in the face of strong gales, narrowly missing an encounter with Surville's French expedition in the St Jean Baptiste, which was rounding the cape at the same time in the opposite direction.

Turning south, Cook sailed down the east coast of the South Island, charting the coast and continuing the search for the southern continent.

With patience Cook had mapped a land almost as large as Italy, making only two major mapping errors, both in the South Island.

Australian coast

the Southermost[sic] Point of land we had in sight which bore from us W1/4S I judged to lay in the Latitude of 38°..0' S° and in the Longitude of 211°..07' W t from the Meridian of Greenwich.

Endeavour continued northwards along the coastline, keeping the land in sight with Cook charting and naming landmarks as he went.

On 6 May 1770, Endeavour left Botany Bay and sailed north past an inlet "wherein there appeared to be safe anchorage". Cook named it Port Jackson, today generally known as Sydney Harbour.

Cook continued northwards, charting along the coastline. He stopped at Bustard Bay (now known as Seventeen Seventy) at 8 o'clock on 23 May 1770 in five fathoms water on a sandy bottom at the south point of the Bay.

On 11 June 1770, Endeavour ran aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef. The ship struck at high tide and the immediate problem was to get her off.

With repair work finished, Cook had to wait until 3 August for the right combination of wind and tide to head out to sea. At about midday on 22 August 1770, Cook reached the northernmost tip of the coast.

At that point in the voyage Cook had lost not a single man to scurvy, a remarkable and practically unheard-of achievement in 18th-century long-distance seafaring.

Homeward voyage

Endeavour then visited the island of Savu, staying for three days before continuing on to Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, to put in for repairs. Batavia was known for its outbreaks of malaria, and before they returned home in 1771 many in Cook's company succumbed to the disease and, in particular, dysentery, including the Tahitian Tupaia, Banks' Finnish secretary and fellow scientist Herman Spöring, astronomer Charles Green, and the illustrator Sydney Parkinson. Cook named Spöring Island off the coast of New Zealand to honour Herman Spöring and his work on the voyage. Losses among the crew included John Satterly, the ship's carpenter who had carried out repairs after the grounding on the barrier reef, Robert Molyneux (ship's master), Zachary Hicks (lieutenant), Jonathan Monkhouse (midshipman) and John Ravenhill (sail maker). In all, seven of the expedition died in Batavia and a further 23 on the passage from there to England. Cook likened Endeavour to a "hospital ship", with so many ill that those who were healthy were barely able to work the ship and nurse the sick.

Cook then rounded the Cape of Good Hope and stopped at Saint Helena.

Publication of journals

AN ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGES undertaken by Order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow and the Endeavour: Drawn up from the Journals which were kept by the several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq.; by John Hawkesworth, LL.D. In three volumes. Illustrated with Cuts, and a great Variety of Charts and Maps relative to Countries now first discovered, or hitherto but imperfectly known.

Cook was at sea again before the book was published and was later much disturbed by some of the sentiments that Hawkesworth had ascribed to him. He determined to edit his own journals in future.

The papers of Sydney Parkinson, the botanical draughtsman of Joseph Banks who had died on the homeward voyage, were published by his brother Stanfield under the title A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas. A legal injunction delayed the publication until two days after Hawkesworth's Account had appeared.

Re-enactment

In 1959, the Cooktown Re-enactment Association first performed a re-enactment of Cook's 1770 landing at the site of modern Cooktown, Australia, and have continued the tradition each year, with the support and participation of many of the local Guugu Yimithirr people. They celebrate the first act of reconciliation between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous people, based on a particular incident. Cook and his crew had developed a friendly relationship with the local people, recording more than 130 words of their language. However, after the crew refused to share 12 green turtles which they had caught, thus violating local customs, the locals became angry. A Guugu Yimithirr elder stepped in, presenting Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering, thus preventing an escalation which could have ended in bloodshed.

In 1970, Hans Hass shot the documentary television film Unsere Reise mit James Cook (Our Journey with James Cook), in which he retraced Cook's journey through the barrier reef using Cook's journal. Hass dived at various locations.