Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1982

McNab—Historical Records of New Zealand – Vol. 11 (1914) pp. 180–182

McNab—Historical Records of New Zealand – Vol. 11 (1914) pp. 180–182

Where a facsimile of a log kept by some person on board the Endeavour is set out. The handwriting is not Cook's nor is it Richard Orton's, the ship's clerk. The log was in the possession of A. H. Turnbull when McNab was given the opportunity of reproducing it for his "Historical Records", but Turnbull had been unable to establish the authorship. Gore and Hicks had both been considered the possible writers, but both had been rejected, so the authorship remains uncertain, but there is no doubt that the descriptions in it were all made by an eye-witness who wrote down what he saw at the time. Cook records in his Journal that he sent an officer ashore to superintend the filling of water casks, together with the carpenter and some crew members to cut wood, but the writer of the log evidently remained on board sending the empty casks ashore and stowing the full casks in the hold. The area where this landing took place is just south of Old Man's Point on the Admiralty Bay coast of D'Urville Island. The Endeavour remained anchored in the area from Tuesday 27th March 1770 until Saturday 31st March when Cook weighed anchor and sailed westwards towards Australia. As is so aptly stated in –