Cook's Guns In A Coral Reef

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31053, 7 May 1966, Page 5

Cook's Guns In A Coral Reef

(By BILL BAVERSTOCK in the

“Sun-Herald,” Sydney.) WHEN Alan Villiers sails the replica of H.M.S. Endeavour to Australia in 1970 it is likely she will carry guns and other gear that were part of the equipment of Captain Cook’s ship.

A recent aerial survey has produced strong evidence of a mass of metal in the coral near the spot described in Cook’s journal as that on which H.M.S. Endeavour struck on the morning of June 11, 1770. At a spot marked with an “x” on an aerial map, the cannons appear to lie in little more than 20 feet of water, six miles off the North Queensland coast, between Cairns and Cooktown.

Already many skin-diving groups are showing intense interest in retrieving the historical objects, which have lain there nearly 200 years, gathering a coral crust —the only remaining relics of the discovery of Australia's east coast.

Cook’s Journal An electronics company— Litton Industries, of Beverly Hills, California—which sent one of its planes on the quest, wants the cannons recovered and presented to the Endeavour Trust in Sydney. Captain Cook’s journal describes vividly the stranding of the ship in broad daylight: “Before 10 o’Clock we had 20 and 21 fathom and continued in that depth until a few Minutes before 11 when we had 17 and before the man at the lead could heave another cast the Ship Struck and stuck fast. Immediately upon this we took in all our sails

hoisted out the boats and sounded round the Ship, and found that we had got upon the SE edge of a reef

of Coral rocks.” Describing his efforts to refloat the Endeavour, Cook goes on:

“We not only started water but throw’d over board our guns, Iron and stone ballast, Casks, Hoops, staves, Oyle Jars, decay’d stores etc.”

Six carriage guns of the Endeavour’s complete armament of 22 guns were thrown overboard and the total weight of everything jettisoned, according to Cook, was 40 to 50 tons. Not Dumped Cook did not dump his guns, as some historians would have us believe. AIL the weapons were buoyed so they could be recovered. There is another colourful story in the history books that the Endeavour, on being refloated, was saved from foundering by a piece of coral from the reef which had become jammed in the hole in her bottom.

This did happen but Cook's journal says the Endeavour was kept afloat by a process known as fothering. This was done by preparing a sail by sticking it with oakum and drawing it under the ship and across the damaged planking. Cook tells how he entrusted the task to Mr Munkhouse, one of his midshipmen who had once saved a merchant ship by the same method, and on the Endeavour “executed it very much to my satisfaction.”

Cook repaired his ship in the river that bears her name and sailed on, leaving the guns, round shot and other iron gear in the coral. In 1964, a plane operated by the aero service division

of Litton Industries, a big United States defence, electronics and exploration company, made a survey of the coastal waters inside the Great Barrier Reef. One of the firm’s executives, holidaying on the reef, heard local legends of Endeavour Reef and that fired his imagination. He called in one of the company’s planes to find Cook’s guns. The survey plane had been engaged in exploration for minerals and oil and carried a magnetometer. When over metal this electronic device indicates the presence of iron by a behaviour its users call an “anomaly.” Flying many difficult traverses at barely 50 feet over Endeavour Reef, the I magnetometer registered an; “anomaly” at two spots on I the reef edge.

“The indication was that the hidden metal lay in a reasonably localised area,” one of the firm’s officials said. “The area is small enough to give no readings when the

I plane flew at 100 feet instead of 50 feet. “This told us there is certainly a small body of metal —such as old cannons—lying on Endeavour Reef.” Off Position Aerial cameras took pictures from 2000 feet, but when the position was established, it was found to be some thousands of feet from the position which Cook reported. “While we are not entirely sure without a diver’s examination that these are Cook’s cannons, Litton realises the subject has great historical significance in view of the Endeavour replica project,” the spokesman said. The six carriage guns Cook dumped were four-pounders. They '''ere four feet six inches long and weighed 7cwt each.

Surrounded by their round shot and other metal gear dumped with them, they will present a fascinating task to the diver charged with their recovery.

Round shot recovered a few years ago from the

wreck of La Perouse's ship, L’Astrolabe, was rusted into a solid mass. Her guns barely resembled weapons and one of her anchors now in Sydney was so rusted that when exposed to the air, it had to receive special treatment to preserve it. Cook’s .guns may be in an

even worse state, depending on whether they are iron or gunmetal. There is probably some simple explanation for the discrepancy between the spot where the survey plane found the metal and the position indicated by Cook. Two Reefs

Endeavour Reef comprises two reefs separated by a channel and owing to the growth of coral over nearly two centuries could have a perimeter much different today from when Cook charted it. Coral reefs can change their outlines rapidly, too, as parts of the Great Barrier are doing today under the mass attack by the giant starfish known as the “crown of thorns.”