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Created page with "H.M.S. (sometimes H.M.Barque) '''Endeavour''' was James Cook’s vessel on his first voyage of discovery between 1768 and 1771. She was originally built as a “Whitby c..."
H.M.S. (sometimes H.M.Barque) '''Endeavour''' was [[James Cook]]’s vessel on his first voyage of discovery between 1768 and 1771.

She was originally built as a “[[Whitby]] cat” – a stout and strong, bluff-bowed, flat bottomed, shallow draft vessel, designed to carry coal into the [[Baltic Sea]] from the north-east of England and return with timber for the mines and ship-building industries. She was built some time before 1768, originally named ''Earl of Pembroke'', and renamed
''Endeavour'' when purchased by the Admiralty. She was of a design well known and respected by Cook from his time in the coal trade.

She was [[barque]] rigged - length 32.3m x beam 9.9m (106’ x 29.25’) tonnage 368. She had a double wooden hull (an extra skin having been stipulated by Cook) and an added lower deck. Contemporary paintings usually show her with a lug topsail on her mizzen. On her departure from [[Plymouth]] on August 26, 1768 she had on board a total of 100 men –officers and crew, marines and supernumeries that included an astronomer, naturalists and artists.

The ''Endeavour'' sailed alone the length of the [[Atlantic]] around [[Cape Horn]], crossed the [[Pacific]] to what is now French [[Polynesia]], wandered the empty tracts of the south Pacific seeking the “Great South Land” as far as 40 degrees south, circumnavigated and charted both islands of [[New Zealand]] crossed the [[Tasman Sea]] to the south-east point of the [[Australia]]n mainland before traversing the whole length of the east coast of the continent; passed through [[Torres Strait]] and into waters familiar through [[Dutch]] charts. From Batavia in [[Java]] she sailed across the [[Indian Ocean]], around the [[Cape of Good Hope]] and back to England; arriving on July 13, 1771.

The ''Endeavour'' did all that was expected of her. Even when holed in the [[Great Barrier Reef]] the design enabled her to be beached and repaired with the minimum of drama. Cook wrote that his ship’s “;;good qualities enabled me to remain in the South Sea more than anyone has been able able to do before.”

Cook’s vessel for his later voyages of exploration – ''Resolution – was of the same design.

--See also—
Sailing ship types: glossary

[[Category: Ships]]
[[Category: Marine]]
[[Category: Australia]]
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