Part 11 (1/2)
”His Majesty's s.h.i.+p, the Endeavour, which is lately arrived in the River from the East Indies, lost by the unhealthiness of the climate, 70 of her hands, tho' they were picked men, and had been several times in the Indies. However, those who survive will have made their fortunes by traffic, having brought home some of the richest goods made in the east, which they are suffered to dispose of without the inspection of the Custom House officers. This, our correspondent says, is allowed them by the Government as a reward for their hard and dangerous service during a voyage of three years.”
The amount of the ”richest goods made in the East” obtained from New Zealand, Australia, and Otaheite would be but a poor reward for three years' strenuous service; and Cook here finds his premonition as to his losses being exaggerated, only too true.
It is worthy of note that the number of punishments throughout the voyage was remarkably small, those entered in the s.h.i.+p's log being twenty-one, and the heaviest sentence, two dozen lashes for theft. In one case, that of Mathew c.o.x, A.B., for disobedience and mutinous conduct, the culprit proceeded civilly against Cook, on arrival in England, and the Admiralty solicitors were instructed to defend. The case was probably allowed to drop, as no result can be found.
LAST OF THE ENDEAVOUR.
The good s.h.i.+p which had so bravely borne her part, was not given much rest; but after being paid off at Woolwich, was despatched, under lieutenant James Gordon, to the Falkland Islands on 16th October, and returned with ”perishable and unserviceable” stores; in 1772 and 1773 she again made voyages to the same destination, the last one to bring away the garrison and stores, as those islands were to be handed over to Spain. She was paid off at Woolwich in September 1774, and shortly afterwards was sold out of the Navy for the sum of 645 pounds. She is then believed to have been employed as a collier in the North Seas. Mr.
Gibbs, of the firm of Gibbs and Canning of Newport, Rhode Island, one day pointed out to the English Consul the remains of an old vessel falling into decay, and informed him that it was Captain Cook's s.h.i.+p, the Endeavour. His story was that the French Government being anxious to compete with England in the whale fishery, offered a bounty to the s.h.i.+ps in that trade sailing under the French flag. A Mr. Hayden purchased the old s.h.i.+p from a Dunkirk firm and re-christened her La Liberte, loaded her with oil and consigned her, under French colours, to Gibbs and Canning at Newport. She was chased by an English s.h.i.+p, but escaped, and after laying alongside a wharf for some months received a cargo, but running aground in trying to leave the harbour, she was found in such a bad condition that she was allowed to remain to drop to pieces. Enquiries into this story gave satisfactory results, and a box made from her timbers was presented to J. Fennimore Cooper, the American author, with letters authenticating, as far as possible, the vessel from which the wood had been taken. Miss Cooper mentions this box in her preface to her father's Red Rover, and several other relics of the old s.h.i.+p are still to be found in the neighbourhood of Newport.
CHAPTER 12. 1771. PREPARATIONS FOR SECOND VOYAGE.
After reporting himself to the Admiralty on his arrival in England, Cook proceeded to his home at Mile End Old Town, where he was for some time employed in completing his Charts and Journals, and on 14th August, the Annual Register announces, he was introduced to His Majesty at St.
James's, when he:
”presented his Journal of his Voyage, with some curious maps and charts of different places that he had drawn during the voyage; he was presented with a captain's commission.”
He also found time to write two long and instructive letters to his old master and good friend, Mr. John Walker of Whitby, which are to be found in Dr. Young's work. They give a rapid glance at the different places visited, with a few pithy remarks as to their peoples and productions; mention the pleasing reception he had from the king, and he alludes to the probability of being despatched on a second voyage with two s.h.i.+ps.
Edgeworth, in his Memoirs, states that about this time Cook was a frequent visitor at Denham Place, the home of Mr. Louis Way, F.R.S., but as that gentleman died in this year, and Edgeworth also refers to events of a later date as occurring at the same time, it is more probable that these visits were paid after the Second Voyage to Mr. Benjamin Way, also F.R.S., and a Director of the South Sea Company. In another place Edgeworth infers that Banks, Solander, and Cook were members of a club which met at Slaughter's Coffee House in 1765. Of course, this is an error, for Cook was then engaged in Newfoundland, and unknown to the Royal Society, whose members composed the club spoken of; in fact, Cook, though a frequent guest in after times, was never a member of the Royal Societies Club.
f.a.n.n.y Burney (Madame d'Arblay) says that in September her father, Dr.
Charles Burney, spent a few days at Hinchinbroke, Lord Sandwich's place, in order to meet Cook, Banks, and Solander, and it is evident that the second voyage had been resolved on, for Dr. Burney's son, James, was introduced to Cook by Lord Sandwich, with a view to going on the expedition. Shortly after this, Sandwich met Dr. Burney at Lord Oxford's, Houghton, and asked him if he could recommend any one capable of writing the history of the voyage of the Endeavour; he gave Dr. Hawkesworth's name, and was requested to introduce him to Lord Sandwich on his return to town.
The object of the Second Voyage was, to use Cook's own words:
”To put an end to all diversity of opinion about a matter so curious and important, was His Majesty's princ.i.p.al motive in directing this voyage to be undertaken, the history of which is now submitted to the public, i.e., the existence of another continent in the South.”
The discussion on the subject had been resumed with renewed vigour after the return of the Endeavour, and Dalrymple led one party, who held that Cook had not set the matter at rest as he had left far too much s.p.a.ce untraversed.
WHITBY s.h.i.+PS AGAIN.
The two s.h.i.+ps that were to be employed were probably selected in the Thames by Cook himself, and, like the good s.h.i.+p Endeavour, were built by Fishburn of Whitby, and purchased from Captain W. Hammond of Hull. The reasoning which guided Cook in his selection is thus laid down by him in his introduction to the account of the Second Voyage:
”The success of such undertakings as making discoveries in distant parts of the world, will princ.i.p.ally depend on the preparations being well adapted to what ought to be the first consideration, namely, the preservation of the adventurers and s.h.i.+ps; and this will chiefly depend on the kind, the size, and the properties of the s.h.i.+ps chosen for the service. These primary considerations will not admit of any other, that may interfere with the necessary properties of the s.h.i.+ps. Therefore, in chusing the s.h.i.+ps, should any of the most advantageous properties be wanting, and the necessary room in them be, in any degree, diminished for less important purposes, such a step would be laying a foundation for rendering the undertaking abortive in the first instance. The s.h.i.+p must not be of great draught, but of sufficient capacity to carry a proper quant.i.ty of provisions and stores for the crew, and of such construction that she will bear to take the ground, and of such a size that she can be conveniently laid on sh.o.r.e if necessary for repairing any damages or defects, and these qualities are to be found in North Country built s.h.i.+ps, such as are built for the coal trade, and in none other.”
The larger of the two chosen was 462 tons, purchased for 4,151 pounds, and received into the Royal Navy under the name of the Drake. She was fitted as a sloop at Deptford, at a cost of 6,568 pounds (this sum, probably, covering both the original alterations which proved unsatisfactory and those made immediately before sailing), and at the time of her purchase was about fourteen months old. The second s.h.i.+p was of 336 tons, also fitted at Deptford as a sloop, was eighteen months old at time of purchase, cost 2,103 pounds, and was received under the name of Raleigh.
The complement of the Raleigh was eighty, but two additional carpenters'
mates were added to each s.h.i.+p later on. Cook was also instructed not to bear, as was then usual, any servants on the books, but to enter A.B.s instead, and each officer who was ent.i.tled to a servant was ”to be paid an allowance by Bill equal to the wages of the number of servants respectively allowed them.”
On 25th December the names of the two s.h.i.+ps were changed, the Drake becoming the Resolution, and the Raleigh the Adventure. The lieutenants appointed to the Resolution were Robert Pallisser Cooper, Charles Clerke, and Richard Pickersgill, and Mr. Tobias Furneaux, Commander, and Joseph Shank first lieutenant, of the Adventure. Of these officers Cook writes:
”I had all the reason in the World to be perfectly satisfied with the choice of the officers. The Second and Third Lieutenants, the Lieutenant of Marines, two of the Warrant officers, and several of the Petty officers had been with me during the former voyage. The others were men of known abilities, and all of them on every occasion showed their zeal for the service in which they were employed during the whole voyage.”
ALTERATIONS TO THE RESOLUTION.
Two days after receiving his orders, Cook hoisted his pendant and superintended the alterations that were to be made for the accommodation of Mr. Banks and his party of scientists. These comprised Dr. Solander, Zoffani, the portrait painter, Dr. Lynd of Edinburgh, to secure whose services Parliament had made a special grant of 4000 pounds (though ”what discoveries they expected him to make I could not understand,” says Cook), and nine others, draughtsmen and servants; at least three more than had been thought necessary when the vessel was purchased. These alterations were:
”to raise her upper works about a foot, to lay a spar deck upon her from the quarter-deck to the forecastle (she having at this time a low waist), and to build a round house or coach for my accommodation, so that the great cabin might be appropriated to the use of Mr. Banks alone.”