First Voyage Round the World | Page 3

letter was usual at the time.
References will be found to sketches and plans which have not been
reproduced.
Cook's knack of finding names for localities was peculiarly happy.
Those who have had to do this, know the difficulty. Wherever he was
able to ascertain the native name, he adopts it; but in the many cases
where this was impossible, he manages to find a descriptive and
distinctive appellation for each point, bay, or island.
He seems to have kept these names very much to himself, as it is
seldom the officers' logs know anything of them; and original plans,
still in existence, in many cases bear different names to those finally
pitched upon.
Cook's names have rarely been altered, and New Zealand and
Australian places will probably for all time bear those which he
bestowed.
In the orthography of his native names he was not so successful. The
constant addition of a redundant "o" has altered many native sounds,
such as Otaheite for Tahiti, Ohwhyhee for Hawaii; while his spelling
generally has been superseded by more simple forms. This is a matter,
however, in which great difficulties are found to the present day by
Englishmen, whose language presents no certain laws for rendering any
given sound into a fixed combination of letters.
Cook's language is unvarnished and plain, as a sailor's should be. His
incidents, though often related with circumstance, are without

exaggeration; indeed if any fault is to be found, it is that he takes
occurrences involving much labour and hardship as such matters of
course, that it is not easy for the reader, especially if he be a landsman,
to realise what they really entail.
Cook was assiduous in obtaining observations to ascertain the
Variation of the compass--i.e., the difference between the direction
shown by the magnetic needle and the true north. He is constantly
puzzled by the discrepancies in these observations made at short
intervals. These arose from the different positions of the ship's head,
whereby the iron within a certain distance of the compass is placed in
different positions as regards the needle working the compass card, the
result being that the needle is attracted from its correct direction in
varying degree. This is known as the Deviation of the compass. The
cause of this, and of the laws which govern it, were only discovered by
Captain Flinders in 1805. Happily for the navigators of those days,
little iron entered into the construction of ships, and the amount of the
Deviation was not large, though enough to cause continual disquiet and
wonderment.
Cook's longitudes in this voyage are all given as west of Greenwich,
not divided into east and west, as is usual at this day. The latter system
again has only been adopted universally since his time.
Though Cook himself gives, at the beginning of the Journal, a note of
the method of reckoning days adopted, it may not be amiss to give
further explanation here.
It was the usual custom on board ships to keep what was known as Ship
time--i.e., the day began at noon BEFORE the civil reckoning, in which
the day commences at midnight. Thus, while January 1st, as ordinarily
reckoned, is from midnight to midnight, in ship time it began at noon
on December 31st and ended at noon January 1st, this period being
called January 1st. Hence the peculiarity all through the Journal of the
p.m. coming before the a.m. It results that any events recorded as
occurring in the p.m. of January 1st in the log, would, if translated into
the ordinary system, be given as happening in the p.m. of December
31st; while occurrences in the a.m. of January 1st would be equally in
the a.m. of January 1st in both systems.
This puzzling mode of keeping the day at sea continued to a late period,
and was common to seamen of all nations.

The astronomical day, again, begins at noon AFTER the midnight at
which the civil day begins, and hence is a whole day later than the
ship's day. This does not enter into Cook's Journal, but one of the logs
of the Endeavour, extant, that of Mr. Green the astronomer, was kept in
this time, and the events of say Thursday, June 24th, of Cook's Journal,
are therein given as happening on Wednesday, June 23rd. These
differences of reckoning have been a fertile source of confusion in
dates in many voyages.
Besides Cook's Journals there are other Journals and Logs of the
voyage extant. Perhaps it may be necessary to state that a Log is the
official document in which the progress of the ship from hour to hour is
recorded, with such official notes as the alteration in sail carried,
expenditure of provisions and stores, etc. A Journal contains this
information in a condensed