COOK'S ENDEAVOUR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 9 October 1926, Page 4

COOK'S ENDEAVOUR

AN HISTORIC SHIP BUILDING AND FINAL FATE Through the publication in the London "Times," of an article from the "Evening Post" Riving extracts from tho Ziinmcrmann narrative of Captain Cook's third voyage and death, a eftcr lias jusl been received from Bath by Mr Johnnnes C. Andersen, of the Turn. bull Library, from a descendant, of the Whitby .shipbuilder Thomas Fishburn. The writer says that Whitby at the time of Cook's'voyages was well known for the excellence of its whaling vessels; and the correspondent adds that "they were told as children that ii was for that, reason that, the British Government had chosen a Whitby-built ship ; and that, further, it had been selected from the yards of Thomas Fish-burn, his great ..great-grandfather. He wished to know if there was any corroboration «if that in any papers or hooks in the Turnbull Library. Tho late Robert. M'Nab had gone into tho history of the Endeavour in connection witli'the wreck of another Endeavour m Dusky Sound. New Zealand. It had been supposed thai, this and Cook's Endeavour were the same, ship, but. Mr M'Nab showed I bat this was not so. He made inhumes to see if he could learn what actually had become of Conk's ship. There were two stories current. According to one, n barque called the Earl of Pembroke, built at Whitby, was purchased by the Admiralty in 1768, and renamed the Endeavour. This was Cook's ship. _He gave the reason for selecting a Whitbybuilt vessel. He said: "The ship selected must not be of great draught?'yet of sufficient burden and capacity _ to carry a proper quantity of provisions and necessaries for a complement of men for the full lime necessary. She must be constructed to take, the. ground with a minimum of danger, and to lie comfortably on shore while accidental damage was beinj; repaired. Tho only vearel fulfilling these requirements was the Whitbv ship intended for the coal trade, the Earl of Pembroke being a ship of this class." .HISTORY OF THE ENDEAVOUR. The future history of this Endeavour is well known. It is the ship that sailed round New Zealand in 1770 and arrived in England again in 1771, and was put into commission to sail to the Falkland Islands as a store ship. In 1774 she was paid off, on the 22nd October, after completing her third vovago to tho Falkland Islands. In 1775 she was sold on the 7th March for £645. After this there are conflicting accounts regarding her. Some claim that she is identical with "La Liberie," a, French vessel which ended her days at Rhode Island, and that her history is as follows: —1790, sold to a Captain William Hayden. in France, when her namo was changed to "La Liberie" : 1791, fitted out as a French whaler at Dunkirk, and sailed from there;, 1793. arrived at Newport Harbour on' 23rd August from a whaling voyage near tho" Capo of 'Good Hope; 1794. while attempting to leave Newport she was disabled, and subsequently she was condemned, dismantled, and sold; 1815, a great gale in Newport Harbour demolished her hull. In 1827. from a piece of the hull dragged out of the mud, a presentation box was made and given to Fennimorc Cooper, the American novelist, by his admirers. A rival contention is that, in 1825 tho Endeavour was on the Thames, near Greenwich, on show lo visitors; and in 1834 was used, between Greenwich and Woolwich, as a receiving ship for female convicts. When the American contention was first published in 1834 it evoked lengthy correspondence in the Newport, Providence, and Boston papers, and met with most emphatic opposition from ship masters and others, who contended that Cook's Endeavour was not in Newport Harbour, but in tho Thames, above Greenwich. ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE After careful examination of the evidence, Mr M'Nab came to the conclusion that tho long-accepted Newport belief was not established, and that the balance of testimony was in favour of the contention that Cook's Endeavour ended her days in the Thames Mr Andersiie's correspondent, however, in his letter just received, favours the .Newport story. Ho says that with tho assistanco of tho particulars sent to him ho has been able to learn more about tho Endeavour, supplementing it from a. Whitby publication, "Tho Ancient Port of Whitby and Its Shipping." In this, under an illustration of the Endeavour, then called the Earl of Pembroke, is given the following:— "Built at Whitby, 1764; builder, Thomas Fishburn; ownor, Mr Thomas Milner, of WluTby; purchased for £2BOO by Government for Captain Cook's first voyage to the South Seas and re-named Endeavour. Sailed in July, 1768. Tho vessel bad a crew of 84 seamen, and was armed with ten carriage guns and twelve swivels." When Cook was appointed to command the expedition, the choice of a suitable vessel was entrusted to Sir William Palliscr (after whom Palliscr Bay was named), and to Lieutenant Cook, who selected a Whitby-built ship, not from any sentimental predilection on Cook's part, but because their build allowed them to be beached for repairs without injury—a necessary quality in places far removed from civilisation ; and also for their capacity for large crews and stores; and for their strength. Two other of Cook's ships for his second voyage, the Resolution and (he Adventure, were also built by Thomas Fishburn. The Endeavour passed through many vicissitudes, and was finally broken 'up at Newport, U.S.A. The remnant of an old hulk, embedded in the mud, was shown to an old Whitby resident, who happened to be at Newport, by the British Consul there, who told him that what he saw was "all that remained of tho good ship Endeavour, in which Captain Cook first circumnavigated tho globe."