First Voyage Round the World | Page 9

east coast of Australia, or New
Holland, and whether it was joined to Tasmania on the south, and New
Guinea to the north; the dimensions of New Zealand; New Caledonia

and the New Hebrides, with the exception of the fact that the northern
island of the latter existed; the Fiji Islands; Sandwich Islands; the
Phoenix, Union, Ellice, Gilbert, and Marshall Groups, with
innumerable small islands scattered here and there; the Cook Islands,
and all the Society Islands except Tahiti. The majority of the Paumotu
Group. The coast of North America north of 45 degrees north was
unknown, and there was the great, undefined, and imaginary southern
Continent to disprove.
Whether other voyages of exploration would have been undertaken one
cannot say; but in 1768 the Royal Society put in a word.
A transit of Venus over the sun's disc was to occur in 1769, and
astronomers were anxious to take advantage of it, the object of the
observation being to ascertain the distance of the earth from the sun, the
fundamental base line in all astronomical measurements, and which
was very imperfectly known.
The Central Pacific afforded a favourable position, and the Royal
Society memorialised the king to send a ship for the purpose. The
request was granted, and at first Alexander Dalrymple, who had
conducted marine surveys in the East Indies, and was known as a
scientific geographer, was selected as observer. As, however, it was
found that he also expected to command the ship, the Admiralty
positively refused to have anything to do with him, and after some
discussion James Cook was selected.
This says volumes for Cook's reputation at the time. To have risen
absolutely from the ranks was a great deal, but to be chosen as a master,
to command a ship, and undertake a scientific observation of this
importance, was a most exceptional occurrence, and speaks well for the
judgment of those who had the selection.
It seems that Mr. Stephens, the Secretary to the Admiralty, had much to
do with it. How Stephens had become acquainted with Cook history
does not relate, but doubtless his personal visits to the Admiralty in
connection with the completion of his charts of Newfoundland, from
which he returned every winter, had brought him into contact with the
Secretary, who had clearly formed a high opinion of him.
Cook, we may be sure, jumped at the chance, and his pride must have
been great when he found he was to receive a commission as
Lieutenant.

This in itself was a most unusual step. The occasions on which a master
had been transferred to the executive line of the Royal Navy were very
rare, and many an admiral used his influence in favour of some
deserving officer in vain.
This was not without good reason, as the whole training of the Master
of those days was unfavourable to success in command of ships or men.
The exception was, however, in this case amply justified.
Cook was allowed to choose his vessel, and bearing in mind the
dangers of grounding in unknown seas, he pitched upon his old friends,
the stoutly-built, full-bottomed colliers of the North Sea trade.
His ship, the Endeavour, was a Whitby built vessel of three hundred
and seventy tons, and was known as H.M. Bark Endeavour, there being
another vessel, a cutter, of the same name in the Royal Navy. She was
brought to the dockyard at Deptford to fit out. Her appearance was, of
course, wholly different from that of a vessel built as a man-of-war, and
we shall see that this caused trouble at Rio Janeiro, where the
combination of merchant build and officers in uniform in an armed ship,
aroused suspicions in the mind of the Portuguese Viceroy.
It is nowhere directly stated whether the Endeavour was sheathed with
copper or not; but as Cook in the account of his second voyage
expresses himself as adverse to this method of protecting ships' bottoms,
and the operation is recorded of heeling and boot topping, which was
cleaning and greasing the part of the ship just below waterline, it may
be concluded that her sheathing was wood.
She proved a most suitable vessel. The log states she was a little crank,
but an admirable sea-boat. Her rate of sailing was of course, with her
build, slow, but her strength and flat bottom stood her in good stead
when she made acquaintance with a coral reef.
She mounted ten small carriage guns and twelve swivels.
Mr. Banks, a scientific botanist, afterwards well known as Sir Joseph
Banks, and for a long time President of the Royal Society, a gentleman
of private means, volunteered to accompany Cook, and took with him a
staff of his own, of artists and others.
He also induced Dr. Solander, a Swedish naturalist, afterwards attached