CAPTAIN COOK’S SHIP

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 262, 3 August 1939, Page 8

CAPTAIN COOK’S SHIP

“The Endeavour Bark” CENTENNIAL STAMP CONTROVERSY Suggestions that the sketch of Captain James Cook’s famous barque Endeavour which appears on the Centennial penny stamp contains several serious errors are refuted by research in the Alexander Turnbull and the Wellington Public Libraries. Ample evidence supports the correctness of the principal details complained of. The Wellington Chamber of Commerce, in a letter sent by the secretary, Mr. E. M. Bardsley, to the DirectorGeneral of the Post and Telegraph Department, suggested that the ship shown in the stamp was not a “bark,” but a full-rigged ship, that its sails did not appear to be drawing properly, the design of the bow was incorrect, and the spelling of the word “bark” was wrong, having from the earliest, times been spelt “barque.” The. difference between a full-rigged ship and a barque is that the latter vessel has the mizzen, or rear, mast, fore-and-aft rigged, instead of carrying square sails. The ship shown in the stamp carries square sails on all three masts. However, in all known existing and authentic drawings of the Endeavour made by contemporary artists, she is portrayed with mizzen topsail yards. This is the case in two sketches made by Parkinson, who sailed on board her, and in the engraving of her careened In Hawkesworth’s “Voyages,” supposed to 'be «lone from a sketch made at the time. The marine painter W. J. Huggins subsequently drew her as an orthodox barque. G. S. Laird Clowes and Cecil Trew, from whose “Story of Sail” the accompanying sketch is taken, say that it. is not proved whether she originally carried a square mizzen topsail, ansenee of which defined the later barque rig, but after refitting by the Admiralty she certainly carried this sail.

Public records filed in Loudon bear out the spelling used on the stamp. The letter of instructions, sent by the Lords of the Admiralty to Captain James Cook on his appointment, begins with the words “Whereas we have appointed you First Lieutenant of H.M. Bark the Endeavour. ..” She was registered as “H.M. Endeavour Bark” to distinguish her from the H.M.S. Endeavour, then stationed nt the Nore. The Endeavour was a "cat-built bark,” very bluff in the bow, as pictured in the stamp, and unlike the majority of the King's ships she carried no figurehead. This deficiency caused Cook considerable trouble, as the Portuguese authorities at Rio de Janeiro declined to recognise her as a British naval vessel.

The Endeavour is depicted in the stamp as sailing before a wind dead aft, as indicated 'by her burgee; and the sails are all shown full with the exception of the jibs, apparently flapping empty in opposite directions, blanketed by the foresail and fore topsail. The vessel, before her purchase by the Admiralty for the expedition of which Cook was placed in command, was a Whitby collier. She was . formerly known as the Earl of Pembroke, was of 368 tons burthen, and from all accounts accorded closely with the general appearance of the boat depicted on the centennial stamp.

It was also remarked that to describe a full-rigged ship as a barque would make New Zealand the laugh-ing-stock of the world; but it appears that the term “bark” was in use long years before the restricted type of vessel to which it has latterly applied made its appearance upon the seas. Indeed, the term is recorded from as far back as the fifteenth century, and not till the early nineteenth century did it acquire its present-day significance.