H.M.B. Endeavour (1764 - 1778)

Summary

H.M.B. Endeavour was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1768 for the purpose of exploring the southern Pacific Ocean. Having previously been a collier with the name of Lord Pembroke, she was refitted and renamed, and embarked from Plymouth in August of that year. Her commander was Lt James Cook, an experienced naval officer skilled in mathematics and maritime surveying. Cook's orders were sail to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus as part of an international astronomical program. Further confidential instructions were to attempt to determine the existence of what was referred to as Terra australis incognita. Promoted and supported by the Royal Society, the expedition included the Society's scientific party led by Joseph Banks and including Daniel Solander, Sydney Parkinson and Herman Spöring. After three months in Tahiti, Endeavour sailed west. Between October 1769 and March 1770 Cook surveyed the islands of New Zealand. Continuing westward, Endeavour dropped anchor in Botany Bay in April 1770. From here the expedition sailed north through the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait, calling at Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope before reaching Dover in June 1771. On board were extensive and significant collections of natural history specimens, many of them of species new to European scientists. For the next four years Endeavour was used as a naval transport vessel, before being sold in 1775. She returned to naval service in 1776 when she was hired for service in the American War of Independence. In August 1778 she was scuttled off Rhode Island.

Details

Chronology

1768

Event - Purchased by the Royal Navy

August 1768

Event - Departed from Plymouth, United Kingdom

April 1769 - July 1769

Event - In Tahiti to observe of the transit of Venus

October 1769 - March 1770

Event - Surveyed the coast of New Zealand

April 1770

Event - Arrived at Botany Bay

June 1770

Event - Surveyed the east coast north through the Great Barrier Reef to the Torres Strait (including running aground on the Reef)

October 1770

Event - In Batavia

March 1771 - April 1771

Event - At Cape of Good Hope

July 1771

Event - Arrived in Dover, United Kingdom

1775

Event - Sold by the Royal Navy

1778

Event - Scuttled during American War of Independence

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Baines, Stephen, Captain Cook's merchant ships: Freelove, Three Brothers, Mary, Friendship, Endeavour, Adventure, Resolution and Discovery (Cheltenham, U.K.: The History Press, 2015), 344 pp. Details
• Gwyther, John, First voyage : being the full & authentic story of the great discoveries made by Lt. James Cook, R.N. commanding H.M. bark Endeavour in the great south seas in the years 1768-1771 (London: Andrew Melrose, 1954), 208 pp. Details
• Lysaght, A. M., The journal of Joseph Banks in the Endeavour; with a commentary by A.M. Lysaght, 2 vols (Guildford, Surrey: Adelaide: Genesis Publications: Rigby, 1980). Details
• MacArthur, Antonia, His Majesty's bark Endeavour the story of the ship and her people (Pymble, N.S.W.: Angus and Robertson, 1997), 86 pp. Details
• Marquardt, K. H., Captain Cook's Endeavour (Naval Institute Press, 1995), 136 pp. Details
• Matra, James Mario, A journal of a voyage round the world, in His Majesty's ship Endeavour, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771 : undertaken in pursuit of natural knowledge, at the desire of the Royal Society : containing all the various occurrences of the voyage ... to which is added a concise vocabulary of the language of Otahitee (Dublin: Printed for J. Exshaw [and 8 others], 1772), 193 pp. Details
• Moore, Peter, Endeavour; the ship and the attitude that changed the world (London: Chatto & Windus, 2018), 572 pp. Details
• Parkin, Ray, H.M. Bark Endeavour : her Place in Australian History : with an Account of her Construction, Crew and Equipment and a Narrative of her Voyage on the East Coast of New Holland in the Year 1770 (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2006), 467 pp. Details
• Parkinson, Sydney, A journal of a voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's ship, the Endeavour, faithfully transcribed from the papers of the late Sydney Parkinson (...) (London: Printed for Stanfield Parkinson, the editor, 1773), 212 pp. Details

See also

• Beaglehole, J. C., The Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks : 1768 - 1771, 2 vols (Sydney: Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales in association with Angus and Robertson, 1963). Details
• Blainey, Geoffrey, Sea of Dangers; Captain Cook and His Rivals (Camberwell, Vic.: Viking, 2008), 420 pp. Details
• Brosse, Jacques; translated by Hochman, Stanley, Great voyages of exploration: the golden age of discovery in the Pacific (Lane Cove, N.S.W.: Doubleday Australia, 1983), 228 pp. Details
• Carr, Denis J., Sydney Parkinson: artist of Cook's Endeavour voyage (Canberra: British Museum (Natural History) in association with Australian National University Press, 1983), 300 pp. Details
• Hough, Richard, Captain James Cook a Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), 416 pp. Details
• Winfield, Rif, British warships in the age of sail 1714 - 1792: design, construction, careers and fates (Seaforth, 2007), 1156 pp. Details