The Naval Pioneers of Australia and Walter Jeffery

OOK, THE

arm labourer in Yorkshire, at thirteen years of age apprenticed to a fishing village shopkeeper, ran away to sea in a Whitby collier, and presently got himself properly apprenticed to her owners, two Quaker brothers named

e; and Sir Hugh Palliser, one of the first men to "discover" Cook, was from this time, his best friend, giving him, in 1764, an appointment as marine surveyor of Newfoundland, where Palliser was governor. Cook was then a good seaman and a clever navigator, but there is no doubt his special talents wer

had the English done in the way of South Sea exploration? What was the navy li

, with its interviewers and its photo-reproductions, had been then what it is now. To put life into the skeleton histories, to give us sea life

ntertaining book. Suppose, for instance, there were living at Portsmouth a man whose family for generations had prided itself on some one of its members having shaken hands wi

ook, and the father of any of Cook's men could easily have sailed with Dampier. Looked at in this way, it does not seem difficult to span the gulfs between each of these naval epochs, and if one compares Dampier's Roebuck and her cr

the designing of ships, and our builders improved upon them with the best workmanship and materials in the world, so that the warships of Cook's time differed little from, and in many cases were,

rgrown children such as the nautical novelists who wrote a few years later 1769 have pictured them; but the lawless rascals who manned king's ships or were pirates by turns, as fortune provide

e was lost off the Horn in 1740. A good deal of the trouble was owing to the then state of the law, by which the pay of and control over a ship's company ceased u

that than they remained for fifty years later, and to the shame of those responsible, than the food still is in many merchant ships, for even now occasi

n 1731, Harrison's chronometer in 1762, and five years later the first number of the Nautical Almanac was published, so that when Cook sailed longit

lphin, and with Carteret in the Swallow. The voyage resulted in many minor discoveries, but will be chiefly remembered for that of Tahiti and the story of Wallis' stay there. The Dolphin 1766-1769 reached England in May, 1768. The two vessels had previously separated in Magellan Straits; and the Swallow, pursuing a different course to that taken by the Dolphin, made many discoveries, including Pitcairn Island; the Sandwich Group; and several islands in the neighbourhood of New Guinea,

ed Cook, had sailed to discover and chart new countries; but Cook, who made the greatest discovery and did more important charting than all of them put together, sailed in the Endeavour for the purpose of making certain astronomic

ommand of the Paramour in 1698 had taught a lesson of the danger of giving the command of a ship to a landsman, and Sir Edward (afterwards Lord) Hawke, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1768, said, to his everlasting credit, that he would sooner cut off

t, stumpy north-country collier, of which even nowadays one may occasionally see specimens afloat. Her great, square stern has a row of four glazed windows, alternated with ornamental panels and surrounded by scroll work, and two square ports underneath them close to the water's edge, probably for loading and unloading

commander of the Endeavour on May 25th, 1768, and his

ges it is to be presumed, carried ten four-pound carriage guns and twelve swivels. The food supply was for eighteen months, and consisted of beef, pork, peas, oatmeal, butter, chees

weather) in the following manner viz.: Take one quart of ground malt and pour on it three quarts of boiling water; s

ion, as it may agree with him, every twenty-four hours. The surgeon is to keep an exact journal of the effects of the wort in scorbutic and other putrid diseases not attended with pestilential symptoms, carefully and particularly no

y of his commission. In evidence of the Endeavour being one of His Majesty's ships, Cook wrote to the Viceroy and, among other things, drew attention to the distinctive uniform of his officers, which is a reminder to us that at this time the dress of naval officers was beginning to assume uniformity. George II. suggested the colours which were adopted by the Admiralty order in 174

e fact is worth remembering: Dalrymple, the most learned geographer of the period, published his Historical Collection of Voyages in 1770, and in that work he makes no mention of the charts; but, on the contrary, his chart of the Pacific only indicates the coastline on the north and the west of the continent. Cook, who up to the moment of his appointment had been too busy at the practical work of his profession to find or study rare books or search libraries for documents and maps relating

e bound up with a French work entitled Histoire des Navigations aux Terres

nd at Point Hicks, named by him after his first lieutenant, and now called Cape Everard, in the colony of Victoria; from here he ran north to Botany Bay, where he anchored, took in water and wood, and buried a sailor named Forby Sutherland, who died of consumption and whose name was given to the southern headland of the bay. It is worth noting t

ies in its particular meaning the statement that Cook discovered and surveyed the whole of the eastern coast of Australia

emony of hoisting the colours and firing a volley. According to Hawkesworth, Cook took possession of the country, and named it New South Wales. There is no evidence whatever of this, and Hawkesworth himself was probably the first per

s to the discovery and naming of Port Jackson, the port of Sydney.

the nearest shore, two or three

from the land, and abrest of a bay or harbour, in which there ap

this time, with Mr. Philip Stephens, joint secretary to the Admiralty. Cook named Port Jackson and Port Stephens after these two officials, and there was no seaman named Jackson on board th

he fine writing of Dr. Hawkesworth the difficulties which Cook laboured under on this voyage. For ex

not to be worth the expense of new canvas, but, with the help of this sail, will be made to last some time; also took out one of the ship's tents (50

he 11th of June the Endeavour got ashore o

am anchor and two hawsers on the starboard bow and the coasting anchor and cable upon the starboard quarters, got down yards and topmasts, and hove taught upon the hawser and cable; but as we had gone ashore about high water, the ship by this time was quite fast. Turned all hands to lighten the ship, and in order to do this we not only started water, but hove overboard guns, iron and stone ballast, casks, hoops, staves, oyl-jars, stores, and whatever was of weight or in the way at coming at heavy articles. All this time the ship

e Tribulation, and on the two fol

3rd pump to work, which we should have done the 4th also could we have made it deliver any water. The ship now righted, and the leak gained on the pumps in such a manner that it became a matter of consideration whether we should heave her off or no in case she floated, for fear of her going down with us in the deep water; but as I thought we should be able to run her ashore, either upon the same shoal or upon the main, in case we could not keep her, I resolved at all risks to heave her off if possible, and accordingly tur'nd as many men to the capstan an

ady for fothering the ship, we put it over under the starboard fore chains, where we suspected she suffer'd most, and soon after the leak decreas'd so much as to be kept clear

here they hove the ship down and r

going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking in it; so that the wat

through the cluster of rocks between New Guinea and the mainland. This passage and the Barrier Reef are probably two of the most dangerous places in the world, and more vessels h

way back the Endeavour put into Batavia to refresh, and in a letter to

nough to loose but few men at Batavia, but on our passage from thence to the Cape of Good Hope we had twenty-four men died, all, or most of them, of the bloody flux. This fatal disorder reign'd in the ship with such obstinacy that medicines, however skilfully

up in the Downs, reporting one mo

ouched at New Zealand and Tasmania, his connection with Australia practically ends with the Endeavour voyage. But a word or two about the Endeav

and Bootie, mates. Hicks, as we have seen, died on the passage home; Forwood, after the Endeavour's return, is not heard of again. Pickersgill was promoted to be master on the death of that officer (Robert Molineux) in April, 1771. He had previously served as a midshipman under Wallis in 1766-1788, and he served again under Cook in the Resolution as

m. Consequent on the many deaths, Clerke was made third lieutenant of the Endeavour after the ship left Batavia, and Cook, referring to his appointment, wrote to the Admiralty that Clerke was a young man well worthy of the step. He again served with Cook as second lieutenant of the Resolution, and in Cook's third voyage he was captain of the Discovery and second in command of the expedition. When Cook was

e's cheery disposition, notwithstanding that he was suffering from a fear of the King's Bench, and, what was more serious, the sad disease which ended in his death, that

nch do not furnish such another incident. Indeed, there's a fatality attends my every undertaking; those people whom I most honour and esteem, that favour me with the name of friend-to them I become a trouble and burthen. However, though we cannot help misfortunes, we can help deserving them, and I am determined that want of gratitude and attention shall never be an accusation against me; therefore I'm resolved to deca

rs,

. CLE

written on the evening of the

t I must give up all. Now, that completes the wretchedness of my situation. I find the Jews are exasperated and determined to spare no pains to arrest me if they could once catch me out of the rules of the Ben

n November 23rd, 1776, wrote

hen got a good outset with 1779 a fresh easterly breeze, and made a very good passage to within a few leagues of this land without any kind of accident befalling us.... We shall now sail in a very few days, and return to the old trade of exploring, so can only say adieu, adieu, my v

his friend, written on the 17th of August,

y bed, so that my stay in this world must be of very short duration. However, I hope my friends will have no occasion to blush in owning themselves such, for I have most perfectly and justly done my duty to my country as far as my abilities would enable me, for where that has been concerned the attention to my health, whic

so complete as they would have been had my health enabled me to pay more attention to them. I hope, however, you will find many among them worthy of

ts to Dr. Solander, and assure him I leave the world replete with the

d accounts of the various birds which will come to your possession. He has been very useful to me in your service in that particular,

and having by Captain Cook's (and very soon by my death) lost those to whom they looked up to for protection, are, I fear, destit

nsis on this occasion. He is my very dear and particular friend, and I will make no apology in recommending him to a share in yo

rld, and in the end attain that fame your indefatigable industry so richly deserves. These are most sincer

by the Cape of Good Hope or by Cape Horn to determine the question of a southern continent," but the season of the year was against this course, and "we ultimately resolved to return by the East

robably no other man then living would have done, but that he did so is unquestionably due to the fact that the season

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