HMS Endeavour

“ After a short interval the Endeavour arrived at Batavia, where she was repaired.
But the stay in that unhealthy country was fatal after such severe fatigue. Endemic fevers raged there; and Banks, Solander, and Cook, as well as the greater part of the crew, fell ill. Many died, amongst them Monkhouse, the surgeon, Tupia, and little Tayeto. Ten men only escaped the fever.
The Endeavour set sail on the 27th of December, and on the 15th of January, 1771, put into Prince of Wales Island for victuals. ”

“ Soon after my return home in the Endeavour, it was resolved to equip two ships, to complete the discovery of the Southern Hemisphere. The nature of this voyage required ships of a particular construction, and the Endeavour being gone to Falkland's Isles as a store-ship, the Navy-board was directed to purchase two such ships as were most suitable for this service. ”

“ Had the weather been at all stormy, no human power could have saved their vessel. As it was, the fine weather continued long enough to enable them to draw a sail over the leak. This served the purpose of keeping her in sailing trim, until she was safely moored at the mouth of a creek, which was named Endeavour River. This was on June 17, and they remained there repairing the damage to the ship, as well as circumstances permitted, until August 4. ”

“ The Endeavour had been built for the coal trade, and a vessel of that construction was preferred for many reasons, particularly because she was what the sailors called a good sea-boat, was more roomy, would take and lie on the ground better, and might be navigated by fewer men than other vessels of the same burden. ”

“ Here the seals hauled out, and the old bulls guarded their harems, while the young bulls hauled out by themselves.
This brief description is all that Endeavour Island merits. Damp and soggy where it was not sharp and rocky, buffeted by storm winds and lashed by the sea, with the air continually a-tremble with the bellowing of two hundred thousand amphibians, it was a melancholy and miserable sojourning-place. Maud, who had prepared me for disappointment, and who had been sprightly and vivacious all day, broke down as we landed in our own little cove. ”

“ Monkhouse, the surgeon, and several seamen perished. Cook himself was very ill. Every individual, in fact, of the Endeavour's crew was ill except the sailmaker, an old man between seventy and eighty years of age. Five Englishmen out of the crew were buried at Batavia, besides the two Tahitians.
From Java they sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, where they stayed for rest and refreshment, and after calling at St. Helena the Endeavour anchored in the Downs off Deal, and at that place Cook landed on 12 June, 1771, after his circumnavigation of the world, which opened a new epoch in colonial history. ”

“ No one who reads with pleasure the Voyage of the Resolution, about which no doubts ever existed, will think the less of James Cook, because the narrative of the [Pg 5] Endeavour had the misfortune to be prepared, in his absence, by a less capable historian. As the worthy Captain always candidly acknowledged his inability, from defective education, and from absorption in seamanlike pursuits from his early boyhood, to tell his own tale, we naturally wonder how Dr. Hawkesworth compiled the adventurous voyage of the Endeavour. ”

“ This led to Cook's receiving a commission as lieutenant, 25 May 1768, and his being appointed to command the Endeavour for the purposes of the expedition. The Endeavour sailed from Plymouth on 25 Aug. 1768, having on board, besides the officers and ship's company, Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks [q. v.] , Dr. Solander, the botanist, Mr. Buchan, a landscape artist, who died on the voyage, and Mr. Sydney Parkinson, a painter of natural history. Cook himself was also a qualified observer. ”

“ It was only after the sacrifice of much valuable cargo that she could be floated, and then it taxed all the skill of the captain and the utmost energies of his crew to bring her to the nearest anchorage. The port of safety, reached with so much difficulty, proved to be the mouth of a small river, which has since borne the name of the Endeavour. ”

“ On Thursday the 27th of December, the Endeavour stood out to sea; and on the 5th of January, 1771, she came to an anchor, under the south-east side of Prince's Island. The design of this was to obtain a recruit of wood and water, and to procure some refreshments for the sick, many of whom had become much worse than they were when they left Batavia. As soon as the vessel was secured, the lieutenant, Mr. Banks, and Dr. Solander went on shore, and were conducted by some Indians they met with to a person who was represented to be the king of the country. ”

“ The Endeavour had remained exactly three months at the island. It was high time for her to leave; for the season for cocoanuts and bread-fruit being over, the natives could no longer spare any of their provisions for the strangers. Tupia, who had gone on shore, returned again on board with his servant, a lad of thirteen, called Tayeto, and on July 13, 1769, the Endeavour sailed from Otaheite to continue her voyage towards the west. ”

“ When the men were all but worn out by this labour, a midshipman suggested the expedient of fothering the ship, or passing a sail charged with oakum, and other loose materials, under her keel: which succeeded so well, that the leak was then kept under by a single pump; and the navigators proceeded in comparative security till the 14th, when a harbour was discovered, afterwards named Endeavour River, suitable for making the necessary repairs. ”

“ Here [23] they met the survivors of a third boat voyage, scarcely less adventurous than Bligh's and their own. A party of convicts, including a woman and two small children, had contrived to steal a ship's gig and to escape in her from Port Jackson. Sleeping on shore at nights whenever possible, subsisting on shell-fish and sea-birds, they ran the entire length of the Queensland coast, threaded Endeavour Straits, and arrived at Coupang after an exposure lasting ten weeks without the loss of a single life. ”

“ Their only enemies were the bushmen, who never engaged in open warfare, but stole the cattle of their neighbours at night, being armed with lances and poisoned arrows.
The Endeavour left Table Bay on April 14, and after calling at Robin Island, a Dutch convict station, she proceeded with her voyage on the 25th. On that day she lost her master, whose health had been destroyed by intemperate habits, and just before she reached England her first lieutenant, Mr Hicks, died of consumption, from which he had been suffering the greater part of the voyage ”

“ Two negro servants who had drunk too much grog and had lain down to rest were killed by the cold.
After rounding Cape Horn, in January, 1769, the Endeavour had sailed as far to the south as the sixtieth degree of south latitude. On her course north-westwards into the Pacific the ship was brought to a standstill occasionally whilst Mr. Banks went out in a boat to shoot sea birds, principally albatrosses. These were thought by Cook to be larger than those of the Atlantic Ocean. ”

“ The account of the voyage of the Endeavour was also read to Mr Banks and Dr Solander, in whose hands, as well as in those of Captain Cook, the manuscript was left for a considerable time after the reading. Commodore Byron also, Captain Wallis, and Captain Carteret, had the manuscripts of their respective voyages to peruse, after they had been read at the Admiralty in their presence, and such emendations as they suggested were made. ”

“ Notwithstanding we had several interviews with the Men while we lay in Endeavour River, yet, wether through Jealousy or disregard, they never brought any of their women along with them to the Ship, but always left them on the Opposite side of the River, where we had frequent Opportunities viewing them thro' our Glasses. ”

“ Should the French have publishd an account of Mr De Bougainvilles voyage before that of the second Dolphin how infallibly will they claim the Discovery of Cypre or Otahite as their own, and treat the Dolphins having seen it as a fiction, which we were enabled to set forth with some shew of truth as the Endeavour realy did See it, a twelvemonth however after Mr De Bougainville; which if England chuses to exert her Prior Claim to it, as she may hereafter do, if the French settle it may be productive of very disagreable consequences. See Account of Cape of Good Hope below. ”

“ As the Endeavour proceeded on her voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, the seeds of disease, which had been received at Batavia, appeared with the most threatening symptoms, and reduced our navigators to a very melancholy situation. The ship was, in fact, nothing better than an hospital, in which those who could go about were not sufficient for a due attendance upon those who were sick. Lest the water which had been taken in at Prince's island should have had any share in adding to the disorder of the men, the lieutenant ordered it to be purified with lime ”

“ In consequence of this memorial, the Admiralty were directed by his majesty to provide proper vessels for this purpose. Accordingly, the Endeavour bark, which had been built for the coal-trade, was purchased and fitted out for the southern voyage, and I was honoured with the command of her. The Royal Society, soon after, appointed me, in conjunction with Mr Charles Green the astronomer, to make the requisite observations on the transit. ”

“ John Bootie, Midshipman, died 4th February 1771.
Jonathan Monkhouse, Midshipman, died 6th February 1771.
Patrick Saunders, Midshipman.
Isaac Smith, A.B. (Midshipman, 24th May 1770; Master's Mate, 27th May 1771) .
Jos. Magra, A.B. (Midshipman, 27th May 1771) .
Isaac Manley, Master's Servant (Midshipman, 5th February 1771) . ”

“ For instance, the S.S. Intaba (Q 2) , under Commander Frank Powell, on December 8, 1916, was in action with a submarine not far from the Kola Inlet, and had been sent to these northern latitudes inasmuch as German submarines for some time had been sinking our merchant ships off that coast. Another Q-ship operated with a British E-class submarine near Madeira and the Canaries; and another Q-ship was in the South Atlantic looking for a German raider, At other times there were the ocean-going submarines Deutschland and Bremen to be looked out for. ”

“ In the event of Emden being captured before this concentration is complete, all these vessels should be sent to assist in the hunt for Königsberg, or, conversely, if Königsberg is caught, the three Light Cruisers should turn over to the Emden. It is no use stirring about the oceans with two or three ships. When we have got Cruiser sweeps of 8 or 10 vessels ten or fifteen miles apart there will be some good prospect of utilising information as to the whereabouts of the Emden in such a way as to bring her to action. ”

“ The German cruiser Emden was at Tsingtau on the outbreak of war and got to sea before the blockade.
The Emden had a short but by no means inglorious career. Under her resourceful, gallant and courteous Commander, Von Müller, she cruised the Bay of Bengal and destroyed British shipping to the value of over £1,000,000; she bombarded Madras, causing appreciable damage, and her final exploit of note was to steam boldly into the British port of Penang, disguised by rigging up a dummy extra funnel and flying the Japanese flag, where she sank a Russian cruiser and a French torpedo-boat destroyer. ”

“ Captain Anderson only expressed the feelings of all who watched the struggle whilst Cable and Ship were adjusting their mutual relations, when—admitting the task was more difficult than he had anticipated, in consequence of the obstacles to the management of the ship, arising from want of steerage way as soon as the engines were stopped—he said, “One feels so powerless—one can do so little to govern events while the affair of picking-up is going on.” ”

“ At this critical moment a neighboring chief, known to the whites as Po Adam, came to their rescue. He not only guided the boat through the surf, but by brandishing his sabre overawed the waiting natives in the canoes, and Captain Endicott got safely out to sea. There he picked up the four sailors who were swimming from the Friendship, and then all went to a settlement some distance away, called Muckie.
The sailors said that no less than twenty natives had come off to the ship in the first boat. At first they had scattered over the deck with no arms in sight and acting as if full of curiosity. ”

“ On the 15th, the old British cruiser Hawke was torpedoed in the North Sea and nearly five hundred men were lost. On the other hand, on the 17th of October, the light cruiser Undaunted, accompanied by the destroyers, Lance, Legion and Loyal, sank four German destroyers off the Dutch coast. But the opening of November turned the interest of the navy to the Southern Pacific. When the war began Admiral von Spee, with the German Pacific squadron, was at Kiaochau in command of seven vessels. Among these was the Emden, whose adventurous career has been already described. ”

“ On the 7th of June, 1814, Captain Denman was appointed to the Redpole sloop, employed on the Downs station, under the orders of Vice-Admiral (now Sir Thomas) Foley, by whom his services were likewise acknowledged to have been active and useful. In this vessel, he conveyed many illustrious personages from England to the continent, – among whom were their Royal and Serene Highnesses the Hereditary Prince of Orange, the Crown Prince of Bavaria, Princes Charles and William of Brunswick, Prince Paul of Wirtemberg, and Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans. ”

“ The prevailing impression that any new invention could control the submarine in time to be effective was deprecated. The American press was at that time constantly calling upon Edison and other great American inventors to solve this problem, and, in fact, inventors in every part of two hemispheres were turning out devices by the thousands. A regular department of the Admiralty which was headed by Admiral Fisher had charge of investigating their proposals ”