COOK’S VOYAGES.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10473, 31 December 1927, Page 4

COOK’S VOYAGES.

COMPLAINT TcTkTNG GEORGE ITT. **. \ RESOLUTION DECLARED TO BE TOP-HEAVY.

Singularly enough, there* is nothing in the correspondence of George till, about Cook’s first voyage in the Endeavor, but in 1772, when the Resolution was being equipped, Cook was dissatisfied with the si tin, and he wrote to the Admiralty expressing his views. The Admiralty sent, on the. letters to the King, hence their appear in the. Windsor correspondence. Cook complained that tile Resolution was “found upon her trial to be so crank that, she would not bear proper to sail to, be set : upon her.” His opinion was that “it was owing to the additional works that, have been built upon her to make accommodations for several, gentleman passengers intended to embark in her.” Except for this defect, which could be remedied bv cutting down these excrescences, Cook emphatically declared that he thought her “the most proper ship., for this service 1 ever saw, and from the knowledge and experience I have had of these sort of vessels, I shall, always he of opinion that only such are proper to be sent on discoveries, to very distant parts.” Sir Joseph Banks, it would, appear, was one of the “gentleman passen-o-e'rs” for whose convenience the ship had been overburdened with tophamper. and he wrote a long letter, also forwarded by the Admiralty to the King, explaining that he required accommodation for his botanical work. As is well-known, Banks did not accompany Cook on the Resolution, but he expressed Ilia keen regret- that he could not go in:a ship “in which my people have not the room necessary . for performing . the different, duties of their professions. ’ “To explore is my wish,” he added “but the place to which I may be sent is almost indifferent to me, Whether the sources of the Nile or the South Pole are.to be visited, I am equally ready to embark in the undertaking whenever the public will furnish /me with- the. means ol doing it properly ; but. to. undertake so expensive a pursuit without any prospect but distress and disappointment, is neither consistent with prudence .nor public, spirit.” George 111. does not seem to have made any comment ,on this matter, but he preserved another letter from. Coolc, written 'from Madeira, vn which the navigator said that, he found the Resolution ”eveu better than we coujd expect; _. she steers, works, sails well,, and ..is remarkably stiff, and seems to promise to .be” a dry and very easy ship ,in the sea.’ ,It* is an unexpected .pleasure to _finn these letters among George 111.-s. papers.