Voyage of discovery Outward voyage Endeavour departed Plymouth on 26 August 1768, carrying 18 months of provisions for 94 people. Livestock on board included pigs, poultry, two greyhounds and a milking goat. The first port of call was
Funchal in the
Madeira Islands, which
Endeavour reached on 12 September. The ship was recaulked and painted, and fresh vegetables, beef and water were brought aboard for the next leg of the voyage. While in port, an accident cost the life of master's mate Robert Weir, who became entangled in the anchor cable and was dragged overboard when the anchor was released. To replace him, Cook
pressed a sailor from an American sloop anchored nearby.
Endeavour resumed her voyage on 21 January 1769, heading west-northwest into warmer weather. She reached
Tahiti on 10 April, where she remained for the next three months. The transit of Venus across the Sun occurred on 3 June, and was observed from three separate observatories set up on the shore (there had been concerns that cloud might obscure the event, so additional positions were established to reduce this risk). The main observatory at Fort Venus (now called
Point Venus) was equipped with three telescopes and manned by astronomer Charles Green, Cook, and Robert Molyneux, the master of the
Endeavour.
Pacific exploration The transit observed,
Endeavour departed Tahiti on 13 July and headed northwest to allow Cook to survey and name the
Society Islands. Landfall was made at Huahine, Raiatea and Borabora, providing opportunities for Cook to claim each of them as British territories. An attempt to land the pinnace on the
Austral Island of
Rurutu was thwarted by rough surf and the rocky shoreline. On 15 August,
Endeavour finally turned south to explore the open ocean for
Terra Australis Incognita.
Endeavour spent the next six months sailing close to shore,
Shipwreck For the next four months, Cook charted the coast of Australia, heading generally northward. Just before 11:00 pm on 11 June 1770, the ship struck a reef, today called
Endeavour Reef, within the
Great Barrier Reef system. The sails were immediately taken down, a
kedging anchor set and an unsuccessful attempt was made to drag the ship back to open water. The reef
Endeavour had struck rose so steeply from the seabed that although the ship was hard aground, Cook measured depths up to less than one ship's length away. Cook then ordered that the ship be lightened to help her float off the reef. Iron and stone ballast, spoiled stores and all but four of the ship's guns were thrown overboard, and the ship's drinking water pumped out. The crew attached
buoys to the discarded guns with the intention of retrieving them later, but this proved impractical. Every man on board took turns on the pumps, including Cook and Banks. When, by Cook's reckoning, about of equipment had been thrown overboard, on the next high tide a second unsuccessful attempt was made to pull the ship free. In the afternoon of 12 June, the longboat carried out two large bower anchors, and block and tackle were rigged to the anchor cables to allow another attempt on the evening high tide. The ship had started to take on water through a hole in her hull. Although the leak would certainly increase once off the reef, Cook decided to risk the attempt and at 10:20 pm the ship was floated on the tide and successfully drawn off. The anchors were retrieved, except for one which could not be freed from the seabed and had to be abandoned. As expected the leak increased once the ship was off the reef, and all three working pumps had to be continually manned. A mistake occurred in
sounding the depth of water in the hold, when a new man measured the length of a sounding line from the outside plank of the hull where his predecessor had used the top of the cross-beams. The mistake suggested the water depth had increased by about between soundings, sending a wave of fear through the ship. As soon as the mistake was realised, redoubled efforts kept the pumps ahead of the leak. The prospects if the ship sank were grim. The vessel was from shore Despite this, Banks noted in his journal the calm efficiency of the crew in the face of danger, contrary to stories he had heard of seamen panicking or refusing orders in such circumstances. Midshipman Jonathon Monkhouse proposed
fothering the ship, as he had previously been on a merchant ship which used the technique successfully. He was entrusted with supervising the task, sewing bits of
oakum and wool into an old sail, which was then drawn under the ship to allow water pressure to force it into the hole in the hull. The effort succeeded and soon very little water was entering, allowing the crew to stop two of the three pumps. , for repairs after her grounding on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770. By Johann Fritzsch, published 1786.
Endeavour then resumed her course northward and parallel to the reef, the crew looking for a safe harbour in which to make repairs. On 13 June, the ship came to a broad watercourse that Cook named the
Endeavour River. Cook attempted to enter the river mouth, but strong winds and rain prevented
Endeavour from crossing the
bar until the morning of 17 June. She grounded briefly on a sand spit but was refloated an hour later and
warped into the river proper by early afternoon. The ship was promptly beached on the southern bank and
careened to make repairs to the hull. Torn sails and rigging were also replaced and the hull scraped free of barnacles. An examination of the hull showed that a piece of coral the size of a man's fist had cleanly sliced through the timbers before breaking off. Surrounded by pieces of oakum from the fother, this coral fragment had helped plug the hole in the hull and preserved the ship from sinking on the reef.
Northward to Batavia After waiting for the wind,
Endeavour resumed her voyage on the afternoon of 5 August 1770, reaching the northernmost point of
Cape York Peninsula fifteen days later. On 22 August, Cook was rowed ashore to a small coastal island to proclaim British sovereignty over the eastern Australian mainland. Cook christened his landing place
Possession Island, and ceremonial volleys of gunfire from the shore and
Endeavours deck marked the occasion. to
Java, August and September 1770
Endeavour then resumed her voyage westward along the coast, picking a path through intermittent shoals and reefs with the help of the pinnace, which was rowed ahead to test the water depth. By 26 August she was out of sight of land, and had entered the open waters of the
Torres Strait between Australia and
New Guinea, earlier navigated by
Luis Váez de Torres in 1606. To keep
Endeavours voyages and discoveries secret, Cook confiscated the log books and journals of all on board and ordered them to remain silent about where they had been. After a three-day layover off the island of
Savu,
Endeavour sailed on to
Batavia, the capital of the
Dutch East Indies, on 10 October. A day later lightning during a sudden tropical storm struck the ship, but the rudimentary "electric chain" or
lightning rod that Cook had ordered rigged to
Endeavours mast saved her from serious damage. The ship remained in very poor condition following her grounding on the Great Barrier Reef in June. The ship's carpenter, John Seetterly, observed that she was "very leaky – makes from twelve to six inches an hour, occasioned by her main keel being wounded in many places,
false keel gone from beyond the
midships. Wounded on her
larbord side where the greatest leak is but I could not come at it for the water." An inspection of the hull revealed that some unrepaired planks were cut through to within . Cook noted it was a "surprise to every one who saw her bottom how we had kept her above water" for the previous three-month voyage across open seas. After riding at anchor for two weeks,
Endeavour was heaved out of the water on 9 November and laid on her side for repairs. Some damaged timbers were found to be infested with
shipworms, which required careful removal to ensure they did not spread throughout the hull. Broken timbers were replaced and the hull recaulked, scraped of shellfish and marine flora, and repainted. Finally, the rigging and pumps were renewed and fresh stores brought aboard for the return journey to England. Repairs and replenishment were completed by Christmas Day 1770, and the next day
Endeavour weighed anchor and set sail westward towards the
Indian Ocean.
Return voyage Though
Endeavour was now in good condition, her crew were not. During the ship's stay in Batavia, all but 10 of the 94 people aboard had been taken ill with
malaria and
dysentery. By the time
Endeavour set sail on 26 December, seven crew members had died and another forty were too sick to attend their duties. Over the following twelve weeks, a further 23 died from disease and were buried at sea, including Spöring, Green, Parkinson, and the ship's surgeon William Monkhouse. During his
third voyage (second on
Resolution), Cook was killed during his attempted
kidnapping of the ruling chief of Hawaii at
Kealakekua Bay on 14 February 1779.
Later service While Cook was fêted for his successful voyage,
Endeavour was largely forgotten. Within a week of her return to England, she was directed to
Woolwich Dockyard for refitting as a naval transport. Under the command of Lieutenant James Gordon, she then made three return voyages to the
Falkland Islands. The first, under the command of sailing master John Dykes, was to deliver "sufficient provisions to serve 350 men to the end of the year 1772"; she sailed from Portsmouth on 8 November 1771, but due to terrible weather did not arrive at
Port Egmont (the British base in the Falkland Islands) until 1 March.
Endeavour sailed from Port Egmont on 4 May in a three-month non-stop voyage until she anchored at Portsmouth. The second voyage was to reduce the garrison and replace HM Sloop
Hound, John Burr Commander, with a smaller vessel, namely the 36-ton
shallop Penguin, commander Samuel Clayton. She was a collapsible vessel and was no sooner built than taken apart, and the pieces were stowed in
Endeavour.
Endeavour sailed in November with Hugh Kirkland as the sailing master, and additionally the crew of
Penguin, and four ship's carpenters whose job was to reassemble
Penguin on arrival, which was 28 January 1773. On 17 April
Endeavour and
Hound sailed for England with their crew. One of
Penguin crew was Bernard Penrose who wrote an account. Samuel Clayton also wrote an account. The third voyage sailed in January 1774 with her purpose to evacuate the Falklands entirely as Britain was faced with political difficulties from the American Colonies, the French and the Spanish. The government assessed that if British ships and troops were engaged in America, Spain might seize the Falklands, capturing the small garrison at Port Egmont with maybe loss of life – this, it was feared, would trigger an outcry which might topple the government.
Endeavour left England in January 1774, sailing from the Falklands with all the British inhabitants on 23 April, leaving a flag and plaque confirming Britain's sovereignty.
Endeavour was
paid off in September 1774, being sold in March 1775 by the Royal Navy to shipping magnate
J. Mather for £645. Mather returned her to sea for at least one commercial voyage to
Archangel in Russia. Once the
American War of Independence had commenced, the British government needed ships to carry troops and materiel across the Atlantic. In 1775 Mather submitted
Endeavour as a transport ship, being rejected. Thinking that renaming her would fool Deptford Yard, Mather resubmitted
Endeavour under the name
Lord Sandwich. As
Lord Sandwich she was rejected in no uncertain terms: "Unfit for service. She was sold out Service Called
Endeavour Bark refused before". Repairs were made, with acceptance in her third submission, under the name
Lord Sandwich 2 as there was already a transport ship called
Lord Sandwich.
Lord Sandwich 2, master William Author, sailed on 6 May 1776 from Portsmouth in a fleet of 100 vessels, 68 of which were transports, which was under orders to support Howe's campaign to capture
New York. Lord Sandwich 2 carried 206 men mainly from the Hessian du Corps regiment of
Hessian mercenaries. The crossing was stormy, with two Hessians who were in the same fleet making accounts of the voyage. The scattered fleet assembled at Halifax then sailed to Sandy Hook where other ships and troops assembled. On 15 August 1776
Lord Sandwich 2 was anchored at Sandy Hook; also assembled there was
Adventure, which had sailed with
Resolution on Cook's second voyage, now a storeship, captained by John Hallum. Another ship there at that time was HMS
Siren, captained by Tobias Furneaux, who had commanded
Adventure on Cook's second voyage. New York was eventually captured, but
Newport, Rhode Island, remained in the hands of the Americans and posed a threat as a base for recapturing New York, so in November 1776 a fleet, which included
Lord Sandwich 2 carrying Hessian troops, set out to take
Rhode Island. The island was taken but not subdued, and
Lord Sandwich 2 was needed as a
prison ship. ==Final resting place==