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| Mapping the
Pacific Ocean |
The three voyages of Captain James Cook (1768-71,
1772-75, and 1776-79) mapped the Pacific Ocean from Cape Horn to
Australia, from the Antarctic to Alaska. Helped by accurate new
clockwork time- keepers to measure the ship's east-west longitude,
they added more details to the map of the world than has ever been
done in the space of years.
Like those of the great explorers before him, Cook's voyages were
not made in specially-designed vessels but in ordinary merchant
ships of the time. Cook's two famous sips, the Endeavour of the
first voyage and the Resolution of his second and third voyages,
were sturdy colliers built for the North Sea coal trade, known as
"Whitby cats".
Cook's Endeavour was the for former collier Earl of Pembroke, rerigged
and rebuilt with extra cabins for the officers and scientists she
was to carry, and given an outer protective skin of planking to
resist attack by the wood-boring worms of tropic seas. This outer
skin was fastened in place with extra broad-headed nails driven
in edge to edge. This was a cheap alternative to the new technique
of protecting a ship's hull with sheets of copper plating.
Endeavour measured 30 meters (97 feet) from bow to stern, and 8.8
meter (29 feet) across the beam. She carried ten guns on carriages
and 12 light swivel guns for defense , and was equipped with three
boats for exploring in shallow waters. A new deck was built across
the former coal hold to provide more living space. When Endeavour
sailed from Plymouth in 1768 she carried 94 mes: officers, scientists,
servants, and crew. |
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 When published,
Cook's journal became a best-seller. These pages show birds and
a tattooed Maori warrior from New Zealand, discovered by Cook in
October 1769. |
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Hadley's quadrant of 1731 enabled accurate sightings of stars or
the sun at sea despite the ship's movement. |
| Relic of
a new age of accuracy in ocean navigation, mentioned in Charles
Dickens's book Dombey and Son, this wooden midshipman holding a
sextant was a shop sign for a maker and seller of charts and instruments
in London. |
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| Apart from
his discoveries, Cook proved that with proper health care and nutrition
it was possible to sail around the world without a single man dying
from disease aboard ship. |
Pocket Globe
of 1790 shows the track of Endeavour in 1768-11. The inside of the
carrying-case shows the stars of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. |
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Section
through Cook's famous Endeavour, showing her cramped quarters and
living spaces that were home for 94 men on Cook's first voyage. |
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