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Tucked away in one of the many shoe boxes in the Marlborough Historical Society's Archives is an object, which if it would bear testimony, would undoubtedly tell a fascinating tale. Since it is not the function of historians to speculate unduly on what might have been we had better keep to the known facts, or at least to what can be reasonably inferred.

The object referred to is of course a 'Cook Medal' or more strictly a "Resolution and Adventure Medal".¹ As the name suggests it was a medallion struck for Cook's second voyage, although there is a possibility this particular example may have been presented on his third voyage, since a number of the 2000 base metals struck were disposed on that occasion as well.

The idea of having the medals for presentation came from Sir Joseph Banks, who of course was the botanist on the first voyage. He would have been aware that the French were in the habit of doing this, Bouganville had evidently done so on his voyage of 1766. Banks certainly would have seen the political significance of issuing such medals as proof of discovery, particularly since this period was the age of Anglo-French Imperial rivalry, and had culminated in the British crushing of French military power in Canada and India, for example, just twelve years previously. He had 2000 platina medals struck by the Birmingham firm of Boulton and Fothergill at a cost of 50 pounds 1 shilling and 6 pence. He also had numerous gilt and silver medals struck to give to his friends.

The medal has a portrait of George II on the obverse with the lettering George III King of gt.Britain-France-and Ireland Etc. around it. The reference to France of course was a fiction dating back to the time some 400 years previously when English kings did actually hold parts of France. The reverse side had two vessels, representing the Resolution and Adventure upon it. Underneath was the exergue "Sailed from England, March Mdcclxxii". This, like the King's style, mentioned above, turned out to be something of a fiction also.

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Originally, it had been intended that the expedition should sail in March 1772, but it had been delayed to allow structural alterations to be made to the Resolution to accommodate Bank's party. Banks was still unimpressed and withdrew at the end of May. The expedition sailed without him on 13th July, 1772.

The Admiralty had been persuaded sometime prior to this to meet the cost of the medals. These medals, as mentioned earlier, were platina, a brass alloy of copper, zinc and iron, although platina was described in 1792² as an alloy of brass and spelter (zinc), indicating it would be a brass with a very high zinc content. This, of course, would go a long way towards explaining the condition of the medal in the Marlborough Historical Society's care. The ravages of a salty environment have certainly taken their toll. However, it is not as simple as this.

The medal has a slightly swollen appearance possibly because a large piece has flaked off the obverse side allowing moisture to get in. It is badly bubbled, and is pitted quite deeply in three spots. The hole drilled to take the suspender has corroded out leaving a recess of some 4 millimetres in depth on the edge. This may in fact explain why the medal shows few signs of wear; the suspender probably pulled out early on leaving the medal impossible to wear. There is some evidence of someone having attempted to drill a hole through the section in which the suspender was located. This attempt was probably given up when the metal on the edge broke away. The drill mark penetrates half way through the medal. However, there is one complicating problem with the metal of the medal — it is copper. Platina evidently had a gilt like colour and the medals were sometimes variously described as gilt or gold. For example, another of these medals found in 1896 by T. D. McManaway at Ramshead, Pelorus Sound was described as gold in the New Zealand Numismatic Society's Report of 1931, gill in 1964 and base metal in 1963.³ There is no doubt about this medal however: it is definitely copper.

This poses no real problem except in as much as it means this medal cannot be one of the two thousand platina medals and there is no mention page 26of a batch of copper ones being produced. However, there is an interesting and more likely explanation. All the marks on the medal are consistent with it having been made from the first die. There were few copper medals made from this die. This only serves to make this example rarer of course; the second earliest recorded find in New Zealand at Otanerau Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound in 1860 was also noted as being copper, although from which die this was struck is not clear. The matter of the first die requires some explanation.

The medals were struck from two steel dies which were engraved by hand and then case-hardened. The first reverse die cracked and in the end was discarded:—

"Now you must know that a flaw in a Medal dye like a hole in one's stocking increases in a greater ratio than ye square of uses or wear of it, so that ye dye for ye reverse is so bad that I cannot think of disgracing the Cabinets of the King & your Friend with impressions of so tattered a dye."

Matthew Boulton in a letter to Banks, 16 March, 1772.⁴

What probably happened is that towards the end of the first die's life Boulton decided to eke out its existence by swapping to a softer metal. Copper would have been an obvious choice.

The medals struck from the first and second dies differ in several details, the most obvious being that as the crack in the first die spread, it distorted the image on the medal. It is shown in this medal as a pronounced bump on the bottom of the medal which proceeds as a ridge through the 'R' of 'MARCH' and the 'L' of 'SAILED' and ends as quite a large extrusion of sea overflowing the base line. This also suggests that it was probably struck towards the end of the first die's life. Thus in all likelihood there were not 2000 platina medals, but a mixture — most of platina — and the rest of copper. Boulton probably felt constrained to do this because of his perception that the medals were needed urgently as the expedition was at this time overdue. It is also consistent with the fact that a large number of medals did not have suspension loops although Boulton in his correspondence with Banks, implies that they did.⁵

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When Banks went on to order more silver medals and two gold ones, Boulton obviously decided the time had come to produce a new die. So in the correspondence with Banks on the 16th March 1772, mentioned earlier, he went on to say:—

"I have therefore come to a resolution this afternoon (which I wish I had done a week ago) to have a new reverse dye grvd & that I hope to get done so that the 2 Gold & ye 32 Silver ones shall be delivered to your order in London on Tuesday evening, the 24th Int."⁶

Where and when was this medal presented then? On balance it seems more than likely to have been on his second voyage, although as mentioned earlier, the third voyage cannot be discounted. We are on safer ground as to where it was presented; there are many references to them having been presented in the vicinity of Ship Cove. This is hardly surprising given the amount of time he spent there.

"Our people were received with every mark of friendship, and the Captain distributed many presents to them. Among these was a number of brass medals, gilt about 1¾" in diameter."

(Forster) 6 June 1772, Motuara Island.⁷

"I made them presents of Hatchets, Knives. Cloth and Medals."

(Cook) 24 October, 1774, Queen Charlotte Sound.⁸

How many Maori hands the medal passed through and in what circumstances will never be known. What is known with a reasonable degree of accuracy is its history since once again passing into pakeha hands.

It was found by a Mr Thomas Henderson on the site of an abandoned Maori settlement in Tuna Bay, Tennyson Inlet, Pelorus Sound. This bay later became the location of Duncan & Sons', sawmill. The date for its discovery has been suggested as 1893 based on reputed conversations held about it by A. S. Duncan and Sir George Grey at that time. But since A. S. Duncan died in 1883 this would seem unlikely. Further, there is a report in the Marlborough Press on May 24, 1878. which mentions the medal as being in Mr Duncan's possession — so the date of discovery is more likely to have been sometime before 1878.

Upon Mr Duncan's death the medal evidently passed to his family, and subsequently passed to Marlborough College.⁹ The coming of age of the Marlborough Historical Society in 1960 — demonstrated by its activity in the collection of archival material — prompted the Board of Governors to pass the medal over to the Society for safe keeping.

It was by no means the only medal found in Marlborough. As mentioned earlier, one was found by James Jackson in Otanerau Bay in 1860, and another in an old iron 'go ashore' on the site of a Maori settlement at Ramshead, Pelorus Sound in 1896. Yet another in extremely good repair was discovered at the Wairau Bar in 1980 by Mr Charles Woolf, nephew of Captain Vendore, the pilot there at the time. Obviously, since the number of medals found bears some correlation to those originally distributed, some may yet come to light. It is significant that of the eight verified finds in New Zealand, four have been in Marlborough.

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In closing it is perhaps worth pondering on an incident related by Worser Heberley in his autobiography dealing with the clashes between the Ngati-Toa and allies and the Ngai Tahu in Cloudy Bay in 1835:—

"Myself and some of the Ngatiawa tribe made a rush for the Pah for plunder it was very dark, and the first thing I fell over was a man's leg and thigh … I got up and in feeling around, I found a double barrelled gun and a mere the mere was one of the three that Captain Cook brought out from England, I gave it to native … the mere had the ship's name on it and the date, the name and date was worn partly out, I could not make out the date distinctly but there was 1700 and another figure I could make out … "¹⁰

Was this a mere or was it an early reference to a Cook Medal? Does anyone know of any references to such meres being made or presented?

Whatever it was, it gives a tantalising glimpse of the tale these objects would tell if they could speak.