Part 4 (2/2)
It had been calculated that a Transit of Venus would occur in 1769, observations of which would be of great importance to astronomical science, and several of the European nations, notably Russia, were intending to establish points of observation. The Royal Society decided that as England had hitherto taken a lead in astronomy, she should not now fall behind, and appointed a committee to report on the places where it would be desirable to take observations, the methods to be pursued, and the persons best fitted to carry out the work. This committee advised that two observers should be sent to Hudson's Bay, two to the South Pacific and, if Sweden did not send there, two to the North Cape. They also advised that the Government should be asked to supply a s.h.i.+p to convey the party to some island to be decided on in the South Seas, and several gentlemen were suggested as observers, Mr. Maskelyne, President of the Society, especially recommending Mr. Dalrymple as ”a proper person to send to the South Seas, having a particular turn for discoveries, and being an able navigator and well skilled in observation.” Mr. Maskelyne estimated the voyage would take about two years, and that a sum of ten s.h.i.+llings and six pence per day would be a reasonable allowance for expenses, together with a gratuity the amount of which was to be settled hereafter. A Memorial on the subject was prepared and forwarded to the King, setting forth that as a Transit of Venus over the Sun's disc was expected to occur, and that other nations were intending to take observations thereof in the interests of navigation, it would be desirable that as the British Nation had been justly celebrated for its knowledge of Astronomy, and an Englishman, Mr. Jeremiah Horrox, had been the first person who calculated the pa.s.sage of the planet over the sun, in 1639, the Government should support the Royal Society in its attempt to take a proper position in the matter, by a grant of money and a s.h.i.+p to take a party to the South Seas. Four thousand pounds was the sum named, and on 24th March the President was able to inform the Council that the King had been pleased to order that it should be placed in his hands, ”clear of fees,” for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the expedition. In the end, after paying all accounts, there was a considerable balance left, which the King placed at the disposal of the Society, and a portion of it was expended on the bust of His Majesty, by Nollekins, now in its possession.
The gentlemen whose names had been suggested as observers were asked to appear before the Council if they were willing to accept the position, and Mr. Dalrymple wrote in reply to say there was only one part of the world where he would go to take observations, that was the South Seas, and he would only go if he had ”the management of the s.h.i.+p intended for the service.” Mr. Maskelyne told the Council he had recommended Mr.
Dalrymple to the Admiralty for the command of the s.h.i.+p, the use of which had been granted, but had been informed that such an appointment would be ”entirely repugnant to the regulations of the Navy.” It is said that Sir Edward Hawke, having in his mind the disastrous result of giving Halley the command of a King's s.h.i.+p in 1698, when a serious mutiny occurred, positively refused to sign such a commission, saying that he would ”rather cut off his right hand than permit any one but a King's officer to command one of the s.h.i.+ps of His Majesty's Navy.”
Dalrymple, originally a clerk in the East India Company's service, had spent some years trading amongst the islands of the Malay Archipelago and China, returned to England and published a couple of pamphlets on the East Indies, and in 1767 a book on the discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, which brought him to the notice of the Royal Society. He was afterwards for a time hydrographer to the East India Company, and was then appointed the first hydrographer to the Admiralty. He was dismissed from this position for exceeding his powers, and soon afterwards died. He appears to have been a clever man, but of an extremely overbearing disposition and a very high opinion of himself. In writing to Dr.
Hawkesworth on one occasion, he said: ”I never write on any subject I do not thoroughly understand.” What makes the remark more interesting is that he was quite in the wrong on the subject under discussion. He appears never to have forgiven Cook for having been successful in obtaining the command of the expedition to observe the Transit of Venus, and for completely upsetting his pet theory of a large continent in the Southern Ocean.
PURCHASE OF THE ENDEAVOUR.
The Navy Board, having been ordered by the Admiralty to propose a proper vessel to convey the observers to the South Seas, first suggested the Tryal Sloop, and then the Rose, but both being found unsuitable they were ordered to purchase one. On 29th March the Board wrote to Stephens that they had bought:
”a cat-built Bark, in Burthen 368 Tuns and of the age of three years and nine months, for conveying such persons as shall be thought proper to the Southward...”
At the same time, instructions were sought as to fitting and arming her for the service, and as to the name under with she was to be registered on the list of the Navy. A cat-built s.h.i.+p is described in the Encyclopaedias as one with round bluff bows, a wide deep waist, and tapering towards the stern. The name is derived from the Norwegian kati, a s.h.i.+p.
The cat-built bark, the now immortal Endeavour, was built by Messrs.
Fishburn of Whitby, and owned by Mr. William Milner of that port. Dr.
Young says that her original name was the Earl of Pembroke, but Sir Evan Macgregor wrote to Mr. Waddington in 1888 that she was purchased ”under the name of the Endeavour, and was entered as a barque.” The Warrant Entry Book from Board of Trade proves that Dr. Young was right, as the following entries will show:
”Deptford, March 23rd 1768. Two cats called the Valentine and the Earl of Pembroke to be surveyed and report which is the properest to be purchased.”
”Deptford, March 28th 1768. s.h.i.+p Earl of Pembroke to be received.”
”Deptford, April 7th 1768. s.h.i.+p purchased to be sheathed, filled, and fitted for a voyage to the southward. To be called The Endeavour Bark.”
From the Records of the Survey Office, List of H.M. Navy, 1771 to 1776, it has been ascertained that her price was 2,800 pounds, and the cost of fitting her for the voyage was 2,294 pounds. The reason she was named officially either the Bark Endeavour or Endeavour Bark, was that there was another Endeavour in the Navy, stationed at that time at the Nore.
Kippis says that Pallisser was entrusted with the selection of the s.h.i.+p, and that he called on Cook for a.s.sistance in the matter, and the fact that a Whitby-built s.h.i.+p was chosen, of a kind in which Cook had had considerable experience, adds to the probability of his statement.
Dalrymple enters a claim, in letters to Dr. Hawkesworth, to having chosen the Endeavour for the voyage, but as she was not ordered to be surveyed, with a view to purchase, till 23rd March, when it was well-known the Admiralty had refused to allow him the command of the expedition, there is little force in his claim.
COPPER SHEATHING.
Admiral Wharton a.s.sumes that as Cook expresses himself averse from having exploring s.h.i.+ps sheathed in copper, owing to the difficulty of making repairs in case of accident far from proper facilities, and from the frequent mention of ”heeling and boot-topping” in the Journal of the Endeavour, it is most probable that she was sheathed in wood. This a.s.sumption is correct, for there is no mention of copper sheathing in the Surveyor's books, nor at the time of her being repaired at the Endeavour River, nor at Batavia, when it is impossible that any account of her damaged bottom could be given without the mention of copper if any such sheathing had been used. The Naval Chronicle says the first s.h.i.+p of the Royal Navy to be sheathed with copper was the Alarm frigate in 1758; and it is also said that the Dolphin, the s.h.i.+p in which Captain Wallis sailed round the world, was the only coppered s.h.i.+p in the service at this time, and she remained the only one for some years.
On 5th May, at a Council Meeting of the Royal Society, Captain John Campbell, R.N., proposed that Cook, who was in attendance, and had been appointed by the Admiralty to the command of the Endeavour, was a fit and proper person to be one of the observers for the Society in the Southern Seas. Cook was called in, and accepted the position in consideration of such a gratuity as the Society should think proper, and an allowance of 120 pounds per year ”for victualling himself and another observer in every particular.” Mr. Green was also called in, and accepted the place as the other observer for the gratuity of 200 guineas for the two years the voyage was expected to take, and at the rate of 100 guineas a year afterwards. A list of the instruments to be supplied by the Society was also prepared at the same meeting, and the workmen engaged on them were ordered to show them to Messrs. Green and Cook, and give any desired information. A portable observatory, said to have been designed by Smeaton, the builder of the Eddystone Lighthouse, framed of wood and covered with canvas, was also prepared. Mr. Maskelyne, knowing the value of a good watch when observing for longitude, lent the Society one of his own, made by Graham, to be entrusted to Mr. Green, and it was signed for with the other instruments supplied. Chronometers, of course, at that time were in process of evolution, several makers were endeavouring to gain the prize which had been offered for a reliable timekeeper. Shortly after, at a second meeting, Cook agreed to accept a gratuity from the Society of 100 guineas for taking the observations, and was paid 120 pounds sustenance money for Mr. Green and himself, with authority to draw on the Society during the voyage for a further amount not exceeding 120 pounds.
In the Commissions and Warrants Book, under date 26th May 1768, appears the following entry:
MR. JAMES COOK (2nd) 1st Lieutenant Endeavour Bark. E.H., C.T., C.S.
The initials signify Edward Hawke, Charles Townshend, and Lord Charles Spencer. The ”(2nd)” evidently refers to the fact that there was already one James Cook, a lieutenant in the Navy, namely, the former Master of the Mercury, and Third Lieutenant of the Gosport.
PENDANT HOISTED.
Having received his orders Cook proceeded to Deptford and hoisted his pendant on H.M.S. Endeavour on 27th May, and at once started to prepare for sea. A considerable quant.i.ty of coal was taken on board to use for drying the s.h.i.+p, as it occupied so much less room than wood.
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