The Naval Pioneers of Australia Part 3

One incident in the matter of Cook's appointment should be noted in this connection. The command of the expedition was at first intended for Dalrymple, the celebrated geographer and then chief hydrographer to the Admiralty. The precedent of Halley's command of the _Paramour_ in 1698 had taught a lesson of the danger of giving the command of a s.h.i.+p 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 his right hand than sign a commission for any person who had not been bred a seaman. Dalrymple, there is little doubt, never forgave Cook for taking his place, and later on showed his resentment by an unfair statement which will be presently alluded to.

The _Endeavour_ was what was then known as a "cat-built" s.h.i.+p, of 368 tons burden, a description of vessel then much used in [Sidenote: 1768]

the Baltic and coal trade, having large carrying capacity, with small draught. A pencil sketch by Buchan (one of the artists who accompanied Cook) of her hull, lying at Deptford, shows the short, 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 Baltic timber. The usual stern-lantern "tops off" the structure. There is a framework for a quarterdeck extending to the waist and the frame of a topgallant p.o.o.p above this, Buchan probably having made the sketch when she was refitting for the voyage and this structure being erected for the accommodation of the officers.

Cook was appointed a first lieutenant in the navy and commander of the _Endeavour_ on May 25th, 1768, and his s.h.i.+p's company, all told, numbered eighty-five persons.

Sir Joseph Banks (then plain Mr.), Green the astronomer, Dr. Solander the naturalist, two draughtsmen, and a staff of servants were also on board.

The s.h.i.+p, for defence against savages 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, b.u.t.ter, cheese, oil, vinegar, beer, and brandy, and included materials for Dr.

McBride's method of treating the scurvy. The Admiralty gave Cook a special order on this matter, in which they say:--

"The malt must be ground under the direction of the surgeon, and made into wort (fresh every day, especially in hot weather) in the following manner viz.: Take one quart of ground malt and pour on it three quarts of boiling water; stir them well, and let the mixture stand close covered up for three or four hours, after which strain off the liquor.

"The wort so prepared is then to be boiled into a panada with sea-biscuit or dried fruits usually carried to sea. The patient must make at least two meals a day on the said panada, and should drink a quart or more of the fresh infusion, 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 s...o...b..tic and other putrid diseases not attended with pestilential symptoms, carefully and particularly noting down, previous to its administration, the cases in which it is given, describing the several symptoms, and relating the progress and effects from time to time, which journal is to be transmitted to us at the end of the voyage."

We have a curious ill.u.s.tration of the state [Sidenote: 1748-1768]

of the times in the manner of Cook's treatment by the Viceroy of the Brazils, where, on the way out, he touched to refresh. The Viceroy pretended to believe that the s.h.i.+p was a merchantman, and not a king's s.h.i.+p, and therefore wanted her to comply with certain port regulations which Cook was of opinion did not become the dignity of his commission. In evidence of the _Endeavour_ being one of His Majesty's s.h.i.+ps, 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 a.s.sume uniformity. George II.

suggested the colours which were adopted by the Admiralty order in 1748, and, from admirals to lieutenants, officers were now dressed in blue coats with white facings, lace collars and cuffs, and gold tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. The uniform was continually changing, even up to within the last few years, and nowadays one naval officer has as many different suits of uniform as would have served all the commissioned officers of a line-of-battle s.h.i.+p in his father's time.

When Cook left on this voyage he had, it has been shown, many advantages over Dampier in the matter of nautical instruments, but there is little doubt that he had absolutely no knowledge of the eastern coast of Australia. Dalrymple was the first to suggest that charts, which there is no doubt, did exist in Cook's time, and which do indicate the eastern coast, were known to Cook. Without going into all the evidence reb.u.t.ting Dalrymple's insinuation, which has been discussed often enough, one 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 doc.u.ments and maps relating to the Pacific, was scarcely likely in 1768 to know what was not known to Dalrymple two years later; and also, be it remembered, Dalrymple was very indignant at being pa.s.sed over in favour of Cook. It may be taken for granted that beyond such books as Dampier's _Voyage,_ De Brosses' volumes, and such charts as the library of the _Endeavour_ furnished, old maps afforded no help to Cook in his survey of New Holland. Of the charts Cook says something in his journal. In September, 1770, he writes:--

"The charts with which I compared such parts of this coast as I visited are bound up with a French work ent.i.tled _Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes_, which was published in 1756, and I found them tolerably exact."

As to what Cook did in the matter of dry geographical details, if the reader wants them he must go to one or other of the hundred or more books on the subject. In a few words, he sailed between the two main islands of New Zealand, discovering for himself the existence of the straits separating them. He first saw the south-east coast of New Holland 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 anch.o.r.ed, 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 that in every original doc.u.ment relating to this voyage, save one chart, this bay is called Stingray Bay, after, as Cook himself says, the great number of stingrays caught in it. In one chart, in Cook's own writing, the name Botany Bay is given; but all the _Endeavour_ logs call it Stingray Bay, and the name Botany Bay was probably an afterthought.

From here Cook coasted north, marking almost every point and inlet with such accuracy and such minuteness as fully justifies in its particular meaning the statement that Cook discovered and surveyed the whole of the eastern coast of Australia. He then sailed through Torres Straits, proving that New Guinea was a separate island, and thence made his way to Batavia.

Before leaving the coast he landed on August 21st on Possession Island, which lies about a couple of miles off the western sh.o.r.e of the Cape York peninsula, and there formally took possession of the continent, observing the usual ceremony 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 person to write the name. In none of the official log-books or other doc.u.ments does any other name than New Holland occur, and until Flinders suggested the name "Australia," "New Holland"

was the generally accepted t.i.tle of the continent.

Another remarkable mis-statement, which is believed by many, relates to the discovery and naming of Port Jackson, the port of Sydney. On Sunday, May 6th, 1770, Cook's official log contains this entry:--

"Abrest of an open bay; dist. off the nearest sh.o.r.e, two or three miles. Lat'd. obs., 33 degrees 47.

"At this time (noon) we were between two or three miles distant from the land, and abrest of a bay or harbour, in which there appeared to be a good anchorage, and which I called Port Jackson."

It is still often written that the "open bay" was so named after a seaman by the name of Jackson on board the s.h.i.+p; but Sir George Jackson, who afterwards changed his name to Duckett, was at 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 the _Endeavour_. Cook did not enter Port Jackson, and the discovery of the finest harbour in the world was left for another less well remembered, but no less efficient and zealous, naval officer.

The simple entries in the _Endeavour's_ logbooks, to the sailor who reads them, tell far better than the fine writing of Dr. Hawkesworth the difficulties which Cook laboured under on this voyage. For example, His Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Endeavour_ was so well found that on April 14th, 1770, Cook has this entry:--

"The spritsail topsail being wore to rags, it was condemned as unfit for its proper use, and taken to repair the topgall'ntsails, they being so bad as 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 s.h.i.+p's tents (50) yards of canvas to repair the jibb that was split on the 1st instant, there being neither new canvas nor twine in the s.h.i.+p to spare for that purpose."

But the most serious trouble was when on the 11th of June the _Endeavour_ got ash.o.r.e on the Barrier Reef. Here is Cook's entry:--

"Shoal'd the water from 20 to 17 faths., and before the man in the chains could have another cast the s.h.i.+p struck and lay fast on some rocks, upon which we took in all sail, hoisted out the boats, and sounded round the s.h.i.+p, and found that we had got upon the edge of a reef of coral rocks, which lay to the N.W. of us, having in some places round the s.h.i.+p 3 or 4 fathoms, and in others about as many feet; but about 100 feet from her starboard side, she laying with her head to the N.E., were 7, 8, and 10 fathom.

Carried out the stream 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 ash.o.r.e about high water, the s.h.i.+p by this time was quite fast. Turned all hands to lighten the s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+p made but little water. Being now high water, as we thought, hove a strain upon the stern anchor, as I found the s.h.i.+p must go off that way, if at all, but all we could do was to no purpose, she not being afloat by a foot or more, notwithstanding we had hove overboard 40 or 50-ton weight; but as this was not sufficient, we continued to lighten her by every method we could think of. By that time she begun to make water as much as two pumps could free. At noon she lay with three streaks heel to starboard. Lat obs'ed, 15 degrees 45 So."

This was off what Cook called Cape Tribulation, and on the two following days these entries appear:--

"Light airs and fine weather, which gave us an opportunity to carry out boath the bowers, the one on the starboard quarter and the other right astern. The spare stream anchor we likewise carried out, and got purchases upon all the cables, and hove taught upon all the 5 anchors. At 4 it was low water, so far as we could judge by the rocks about the s.h.i.+p and part of the shoal being dry, which we had not seen before. The rise and fall of the water did not appear to exceed 3 or 4 feet. As the tide began to rise the leak incresed, which obliged us to set the 3rd pump to work, which we should have done the 4th also could we have made it deliver any water. The s.h.i.+p 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 ash.o.r.e, 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 and windla.s.s as could be spar'd from the pumps, and at 20 minutes past ten hove her afloat and into deep water." (He did not do this without losing his anchors, as he tells us, but)

"The pumps gain'd on the leak these 4 hours. Some hands employ'd sowing oakem, wool, etc., into a sail to fother the s.h.i.+p. Weigh'd the coasting anchor and warped out to the S.E., and at 11 got under sail, with a light breeze at E.S.E., and stood in for the land, having a small boat laying upon the point of the shoal, the south point of which at noon bore north, distant one mile. The pumps gain'd upon the leak this 4 hours. Light airs and clear weather. Standing off the sh.o.r.e in for the main. Got up the main topmast and main-yard. Having got the sail ready for fothering the s.h.i.+p, 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 with one pump with ease. This fortunate circ.u.mstance gave new life to everyone on board. Anchor'd in 17 fathom water, 5 leagues from the land, and about 3 miles from the sh.o.r.e."

On the 17th they found a harbour where they hove the s.h.i.+p down and repaired her, when it was found that--

"One of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and had been able to keep them incessantly 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 water which had at first gained upon our pumps was what came in at the interstices between the stone and the edges of the hole that received it."

Endeavour River, Cape Flattery, Providential Channel, and other names on the chart commemorate the accident; yet after all this trouble Cook continued his survey, sailing safely through the cl.u.s.ter of rocks between New Guinea and the mainland. This pa.s.sage and the Barrier Reef are probably two of the most dangerous places in the world, and more vessels have been wrecked on that bit of coast between the southern end of the Barrier Reef and the Indian Ocean side of Torres Straits than on any similar stretch of coast-line anywhere.

So far the voyage had been without other disaster than this, but on the way back the _Endeavour_ put into Batavia to refresh, and in a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, dated the 9th of May, 1771, Cook wrote:--

"That uninterrupted state of health we have all along enjoyed was, soon after our arrival at Batavia, succeeded by a general sickness, which delayed us there so much that it was the 20th of December before we were able to leave that place. We were fortunate enough to loose but few men at Batavia, but on our pa.s.sage from thence to the Cape of Good Hope we had twenty-four men died, all, or most of them, of the b.l.o.o.d.y flux. This fatal disorder reign'd in the s.h.i.+p with such obstinacy that medicines, however skilfully administered, had not the least effect. I arrived at the Cape on the 14th of March, and quitted it again on the 14th of April, and on the 1st of May arrived at St. Helena, where I joined His Maj.'s s.h.i.+p _Portland_, which I found ready to sail with the convoy";

and on the 12th of July he brought up in the Downs, reporting one more death--that of Lieutenant Hicks.

For his services Cook was promoted a step. His after-life and death need no mention here, and although in both his second and third voyages he touched at New Zealand and Tasmania, his connection with Australia practically ends with the _Endeavour_ voyage. But a word or two about the _Endeavour's_ officers, taken from doc.u.ments recently obtained by the New South Wales Government, which perhaps contain some things new to many readers.

In the Record Office, London, there are no fewer than ten logs of Cook's voyage; three of these are anonymous, but six of them are signed by the s.h.i.+p's officers, and one, from circ.u.mstantial evidence, is no doubt by Green, the astronomer. The signed logs are by Hicks, Cook's first lieutenant; Forwood, the gunner; and Pickersgill, Clerke, Wilkinson, and Bootie, mates. Hicks, as we have seen, died on the pa.s.sage 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 mids.h.i.+pman under Wallis in 1766-1788, and he served again under Cook in the _Resolution_ as third lieutenant. On the return of Cook from his second voyage, Pickersgill was appointed commander of the _Lion_, and sent to survey Baffin's Bay, but he was relieved of the command early in 1777, and then we lose sight of him.

Wilkinson also had served under Wallis, but he died soon after the return of the _Endeavour_, and Bootie died on the way home.

The best-known of these log-writers is Charles Clerke. Though only a youngster, he had seen much service. When the Seven Years' War in 1756 broke out, he was, at fifteen years of age, serving on a man-of-war. He was on the _Bellona_ in her celebrated engagement with the _Courageux_, off Vigo, in 1761, and he accompanied Byron in the _Dolphin_, afterwards serving in America, where it is probable Cook first met him. Consequent on the many deaths, Clerke was made third lieutenant of the _Endeavour_ after the s.h.i.+p 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 killed on February 14th, 1779, he took charge, but only survived his superior until the 22nd of August. He died off the Kamschatka coast, and was buried at the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul. His s.h.i.+pmates erected a board with an inscription upon it over his grave; and La Perouse, when in 1787 he visited the spot, caused the board to be replaced by a copper plate, on which the inscription was re-engraved.

In a volume of the _New South Wales Records_ is printed for the first time a batch of letters from Clerke to Sir Joseph Banks, and these doc.u.ments so well depict poor Clerke'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 we may be pardoned for reproducing extracts from them. The first was written just before Clerke sailed with Cook on that fatal third voyage as commander of the _Discovery_:--

"DEAR SIR,--I am very sorry to inform you that I am fairly cast away. The d.a.m.nation Bench of Justices fell out among themselves, upset and fairly frustrated the friendly intentions of Sir Fletcher Norton, &c., wrote a rascally letter, hoping that I would not find any inconvenience from it, and put off the adjournment to Monday se'nnight. Now, you know, this is quite beyond our reach; it seems the whole legends of the Bench 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 grat.i.tude and attention shall never be an accusation against me; therefore I'm resolved to decamp without beat of drum and, if I can, outsail the Israelites, get to sea, and make every return in my power. I think I had better write to Lord Sandwich to thank him, as I cannot now wait upon him--for my visitations must be very private--and ask him if he has any orders for me. Do tell me what I must do on that head, and if you would have me wait on you ere I depart, &c., &c., and believe me in prosperity or adversity.

"Yours, &c.,

"CHAS. CLERKE."

This is followed by another, written on the evening of the same day, in which he says:--

"I this day received a letter from Lord Sandwich, acquainting me he shall certainly order the _Discovery_ to sea very soon, in short giving me to understand that if I cannot leave town by the 10th or 11th instant 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 Bench; this, you know, would be striking the finis.h.i.+ng stroke. Let me, my good friend, entreat the influence of your friends.h.i.+p here. I shall certainly be cleared the 16th or 18th instant, and shall then be happy."

He got away all right, and on November 23rd, 1776, wrote from the Cape of Good Hope:--

"Here I am hard and fast moor'd alongside my old friend Capt'n Cook, so that our battles with the Israelites cannot now have any ill effects upon our intending attack upon the North Pole. I think I acquainted you from Plymouth, on the 1st of August, that I was getting under-way; I then got a good outset with [Sidenote: 1779]

a fresh easterly breeze, and made a very good pa.s.sage 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 very good friend. Be a.s.sured that, happen what will, it is wholly out of the power of durance of time or length of s.p.a.ce in the least to alleviate that sense of grat.i.tude your goodness has inspired; but, indeed, I shall ever endeavour upon all and every occasion to acquit myself," etc.

The next letter is a pathetic farewell to his friend, written on the 17th of August, 1779, five days before the author's death:--

"MY EVER-HONOURED FRIEND,--The disorder I was attacked with in the King's Bench Prison has proved consumptive, with which I have battled with various success, although without one single day's health, since I took leave of you in Burlington Street; it is now so far got the better of me that I am not able to turn myself in my 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, which I was most sensible was in the most imminent danger, has never swerved me a single half-mile out of the road of duty; so that I flatter myself I shall leave behind that character that it has ever been my utmost ambition to attain, which is that of an honest and faithful servant to the public whom I had undertaken to serve.

"I have made you the best collections of all kinds of matter I could that have fallen in our way in the course of the voyage; but they are by no means 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 your attention and acceptance. In my will I have bequeathed you the whole of every kind. There are great abundance, so that you will have ample choice.

"I must beg you to present my warmest and most affectionate compliments to Dr. Solander, and a.s.sure him I leave the world replete with the most social ideas for his much-esteemed and ever-respected friends.h.i.+p.

"I must beg leave to recommend to your notice Mr. Will. Ellis, one of the surgeon's mates, who will furnish you with some drawings and 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 is, I believe, a very worthy young man, and, I hope, will prove worthy of any services that may be in your way to confer upon him.