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The Endeavour Journal of James Cook

The purchase of the Endeavour journal of James Cook in 1923 is one of the most significant acquisitions made by the National Library of Australia. The journal covers the three-year voyage of the sailing ship Endeavour (1768 to 1771), captained by James Cook, when it circumnavigated the globe in the name of scientific advancement.

The Endeavour Journal of James Cook
The Journal

Journal of James Cook kept on HMB Endeavour, 1768-1771
(MS1)

Mr Banks
John Raphael Smith, 1752-1812
Mr Banks
mezzotint
1773
(Pic U6309 NK265)

The Endeavour journal of James Cook records the momentous voyage of His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour to the South Seas from 27 May 1768 to 12 July 1771. Captained by 1st Lieutenant James Cook, the flat-bottomed ship and its crew of 94 men were sent out by the Admiralty of King George III officially to observe the Transit of Venus (an astronomical phenomenon) from a South Seas location—King George’s Island (Tahiti). Unofficially however, the voyage was to be one of discovery—to search between Tahiti and New Zealand for ‘a Continent or Land of great extent’, which may ‘redound greatly to the Honour of this Nation as a Maritime Power, as well as to the Dignity of the Crown of Great Britain, and may tend greatly to the advancement of the Trade and Navigation thereof’. (The Instructions, Secret, 30 July 1768)

Apart from the standard British Admiralty crew for a sailing ship—officers, midshipmen and supernumeraries—also on board were a group of civilians led by the very wealthy 25-year-old naturalist, Joseph Banks. With the enthusiasm of the Enlightenment firing them, Banks and his team of scientists, artists and servants collected and began recording botany and, to a lesser extent, zoology discovered in the various lands visited during the voyage. The scientists also noted further details of an anthropological nature about the peoples and cultures they met. Upon their return to England, the scientists had discovered one tenth as many plants again as were listed in Linnaeus’ catalogue of the world’s plant species, his Genera Plantarum. Their success during the journey inspired and became a model for later British and European scientific voyages.

The 753 pages of the journal were written by James Cook in his own hand in a series of double-leaved folios, the first of which was a log book. Cook has written the body of the text in dark-coloured ink with the dates beginning each instalment in red—though both the dark and red inks have varied in tone over the years. Cook began writing his journal in the form of a log book recording information, generally on the left side of the page, under the headings Week Days, Month Days, Winds, Courses, Distance run in Miles, Latitude, Longitude West from Greenwich, and Bearings at Noon. Journal entries describing any events that occurred were then entered on the right side of the page. As the journey progresses Cook’s initial factual entries describing the state of the weather and wind, expand to include the description of events, and he has in places ‘borrowed’ from the Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks. As English spelling had not been systematized at the time of Cook’s voyage, his spelling can at times be phonetic, reflecting his strong Yorkshire accent.

James Cooks’ journal, or holograph journal, was the basis for three further journals written up during the voyage by Cook’s clerk Richard Orton (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Australia; Public Record Office, London, England) and an anonymous author (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England). The British Admiralty required that Navy ships keep a journal, log, surveys and coastal profiles, and that copies also be made of those documents and returned to England at stages during a voyage to keep the Admiralty informed of a ship’s progress.

Excerpt from the Endeavour Journal

James Cook
Georges Island
excerpt from the Endeavour Journal
12 June 1769
ink
(MS1
)

Cook’s Endeavour journal was published 1773, together with the journals of Joseph Banks and earlier Pacific explorers in a volume edited by John Hawkesworth. An Account of the Voyages Undertaken in by the order of His present Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook became one of the most popular works of the eighteenth century being reprinted in its first year, with Irish, American and translations in European languages following closely. It was the single most popular work in the Bristol Library between 1773 and 1784, being borrowed 201 times. (By comparison Hume’s History of England was borrowed 180 times, and Fielding’s Miscellanies 120 times.) It was the principal source for late eighteenth-century ideas about Tahiti and its astonishing people, about the fierce Maori of New Zealand, and about the seemingly primitive Aboriginal people of Australia.

However Cook was unhappy with the Hawkesworth edition of his journal. In order to convey the immediacy of the navigators’ experiences, Hawkesworth followed a controversial editorial method retaining a single authorial ‘I’ throughout. He altered or omitted from the original text, shifted paragraphs and added thoughts of his own. Cook was particularly unhappy that most of the navigational detail had been removed, making the journal practically useless for other mariners. As a result, the Admiralty allowed Cook to publish, and receive all proceeds from the journal of his second voyage, with the editorial assistance of Dr John Douglas, Canon of Windsor. Cook was happy with the collaboration, later writing to Douglas that ‘I shall always have a due sence of the favors you have done.’

A View of the Endeavour River
William Byrne, 1743-1805
after Sydney Parkinson, 1745?-1771
A View of the Endeavour River, on the coast of New Holland, where the ship was laid on shore, in order to repair the
damage which she received on the rock in John Hawkesworth, An Account of the voyages…
engraving
London, 1773
(Ferg 7243 vIII)

The voyage of HMB Endeavour

Initially planned to take less than two years, the Endeavour’s voyage took nearly three years, returning to England after a journey which saw it travel across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, down the west coast to the very tip of South America to Tierra del Fuego, around that continent into the South Seas (Pacific Ocean) and up to King George’s Island. In keeping with the secret instructions issued to Cook, the Endeavour then sailed south-west to explore the region of the South Sea where the Great South Land was believed to lie. After a month or so of searching the specified region, and taking into account weather patterns in that area during that time of year, Cook chose to sail west in order to chart New Zealand and ascertain whether Van Diemen’s Land was connected to the continent New Holland whose northern, western and southern boundaries had been largely mapped already by the Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish.

Unfortunately the ship was forced northwards by storms and Cook was unable to begin charting the eastern coast of the continent from Van Diemen’s Land, but instead began at Point Hicks (Victoria, Australia). The crew of the Endeavour were to spend more time visiting this continent than planned however, when on the evening of 11 June 1770 the ‘Ship Struck and stuck fast’ on the Great Barrier Reef. The ingenuity of the crew however saw them able to refloat the ship again. Following two months of makeshift repairs to the damaged hull at Endeavour River (Cooktown), the Endeavour sailed northwards through the Torres Strait to Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia) for further repairs. One month was spent in the port where many of the crew began falling ill with malaria and later dysentry. In the face of a rapidly diminishing crew Cook decided to set sail west across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town, then on into the Atlantic and northwards to England, sighting land on 10 July 1771.

James Cook
Portrait of Cook

After Nathanial Dance, 1735-1811
Portrait of Cook
18——?
oil on canvas
(Pic R3398)

James Cook was born on 27 October in Marton, Yorkshire. He began attending school in Great Ayton following the family’s move to a farm owned by Thomas Skottowe. Cook studied at the behest of his father’s employer until he was 13, when he began work with his father who was managing the farm. At 17 Cook became an apprentice shopkeeper in the seaport of Staithes, and eighteen months later gained a three-year apprenticeship in the merchant navy with John Walker who owned a small fleet of vessels in the coal trade.

Completing his apprenticeship, Cook worked in the Baltic trade, was promoted to mate (officer-in-charge-of-navigation), and in 1755 took command of the Friendship. However within a month Cook volunteered for the Royal Navy as an able-bodied seaman, joining the Eagle as master’s mate, and the opportunity to further his navigation skills. In 1757 Cook received his master’s warrant, and though deemed worthy of a lieutenant’s commission by his commanding officer Captain Hugh Palliser, he was required by the Navy to perform six years’ service for such a rank.

Map of St John's River

James Cook, 1728-1779
Map of St John’s River,
New Brunswick
in Description of the sea
coast of Nova Scotia

watercolour, pen & ink
1762
(MS5)

In 1758, Cook was appointed to the Pembroke, a part of Admiral Boscawen’s fleet carrying 14,000 troops to attack the French at Louisburg, Cape Breton Island, Canada. Following the surrender of that town to the English, the Pembroke joined other ships patrolling the mouth of the St Lawrence river.

Cook gained an excellent reputation during this time, when the British Fleet (200 ships) sailed up the St Lawrence River and took its first Canadian colony Quebec. Following Cook’s successful charting of the notorious section of the river called the Traverse, the British were able to gain passage to the town by securing the unprotected Heights of Abraham. Cook received a special payment of £50 for his work. Cook then served as master on board the Northumberland producing charts of the Canadian coastline.

In 1762 Cook returned to England and married Elizabeth Batts. For the following four years he surveyed the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia during the summer months, and returned to England to spend the winter months working on his charts. In 1766 Cook observed an eclipse of the sun from Burgeo Island and sent his observations to the Royal Society. As a result of his experiences of astronomical observation and obvious skill in navigation and cartography, Cook was appointed leader of an expedition to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti organised by the Royal Society, in association with the Navy Board and funded by King George III. The Admiralty were less interested in astronomical observation than in the opportunity such a voyage offered for the secret exploration of the south-west of the South Sea (Pacific) for the Great South Land—Terra Australis Incognita. When the expedition returned in July 1771, the transit of Venus had been observed, an unprecedented number of botanical and zoological specimens collected, and though no Great South Land had been found, New Zealand and the east coast of New Holland (Australia) had been charted and claimed for King George III.

View from Point Venus, Island of Otaheite

William Hodges,
1744-1797
View from Point Venus, Island of Otaheite
c.1774
oil on canvas
(Pic R8849)

On 14 July 1772 Cook sailed from Plymouth in the Resolution with the Adventure (commanded by Tobias Furneaux) ‘to perfect the discoveries that had been begun in the last voyage’. The expedition crossed the Atlantic Circle, explored New Zealand, visited Tahiti (taking on board a young man called Omai), discovered the Hervey Islands and visited the Friendly Islands (Tonga). Following these discoveries the Adventure returned to England, after crew members were lost to local Maori, having completed the first circumnavigation of the globe from west to east. The Resolution continued on to discover Easter Island, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia and laid the myth of the Great South Land to rest after extensive exploration of the area. The Resolution returned to England on 30 July 1775.

On 7 March 1776 Cook was admitted to the Royal Society for his success in defeating scurvy amongst his crew during his voyages and his paper on nutrition aboard the Resolution was awarded the prestigious Copley Medal, judged to be the best experimental research of the year. Elizabeth accepted the award however, as Cook had left on a third voyage in 1776 to search for a Pacific entrance to the legendary Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific, believed to lie north of Canada. The voyage was also publicised as one to return Omai to Tahiti. On 12 July 1776 the Resolution left Plymouth commanded by Cook, and the Discovery commanded by Charles Clerke. Though unsuccessful in finding a northwest passage, the expedition did discover the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) on 18 January 1778.

This voyage was however characterised by violence. Cook meted out increasingly severe punishments to indigenous peoples following the theft of various articles whilst at the Friendly Islands (Tonga), St George's Island (Tahiti) and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). And on 14 February 1779 Cook and four marines were killed on the beach at Kealakekua Bay while seeking the return of the Discovery’s large cutter.

Following Cook's death, Charles Clerke transferred to the Resolution and took command of the expedition, with Lieutenant John Gore taking command of the Adventure. Following the death of Charles Clerke from tuberculosis, Lieutenant John King took command of the Adventure and both ships returned to England arriving on 4 October 1780.

Little is known of James Cook’s private life, as Elizabeth destroyed his papers and letters shortly before her death, apparently in fulfilment of Cook’s wishes.

Bludgeons, used as weapons by the New Zealanders Death of Captain Cook

John Record, fl.1768-1780
After J.F. Miller, fl.1768-1780
[Bludgeons, used as weapons by the New Zealanders, and called patoo-patoos…
In John Hawkesworth, An Account of the voyages
engraving
London, 1773
(Ferg 7243 vIII)

George Carter, fl.1769-1784
Death of Captain Cook
1781
(Pic T266 NK2)

 

How the Endeavour Journal came to the National Library of Australia

A chest of New Zealand
After John Frederick Miller,
fl.1768-1780
A chest of New Zealand, as a specimen of the carving of the country
in John Hawkesworth, An Account of the voyages…
engraving
London, 1773
(Ferg 7243 vIII)

Following Cook’s death in 1779, the Endeavour journal of James Cook is thought to have been held by his wife Elizabeth. There is no record of the journal’s movements following Elizabeth Cook’s death in 1835 until its appearance in 1923 when it was offered at auction by its owners the Bolckow family of Yorkshire. The family were unable to explain how they came to hold the journal. It had apparently been in the family’s library ‘for upward of fifty years, having been purchased by the late Bolckow’s uncle, but from whom and in what circumstances is unknown’.

On 21 March 1923 the Australian government purchased the Endeavour journal for £5000 for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library.

The Mitchell Library, Sydney, had been chasing the journal since its discovery with the Bolckow family in 1922 prior to the auction, and had approached the Commonwealth Government for a financial contribution towards the purchase. Though Interim Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarian Arthur Wadsworth had reassured the Mitchell that there would be no competition for the item, Kenneth Binns (to be Wadsworth’s successor) felt that the Endeavour journal was more suited to remain within the nation’s library.

Binns put forward an ultimately persuasive argument that the Commonwealth could not finance the Mitchell, ‘which was, after all, a private institution’. In Binns’ opinion, by assisting the Mitchell the Government would have been ‘repudiating its own institution’. Prime Minister Bruce telegraphed the High Commissioner in London to instruct the Mitchell Library’s Chief Librarian, already in England in anticipation of the auction, to bid on behalf of the Commonwealth. The Mitchell Library accepted upon the understanding that it would be the custodian of the journal until such time that the Commonwealth Government had a suitable repository, a National Library.

Upon arrival in Australia the journal was exhibited in Queens Hall, Melbourne, for a month after which it was taken to the Mitchell Library which held it for four years, before it was removed to Canberra.

Nicki Mackay-Sim

Links

Endeavour: Captain Cook’s Journal 1768-71 CD-ROM publication for sale and web site
Cook & Omai: The Cult of the South Seas exhibition and David Nichol Smith conference
Paradise Possessed: Rex Nan Kivell Collection

 

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