.jpg)
Historical Records of New Zealand Vol. II.
The Lords of the Admiralty to The Navy Board
The Lords of the Admiralty to The Navy Board.
Gentlemen,—
Having taken into our consideration your letter of this date, representing that you are of opinion that his Majesty's ship the Rose may be a proper ship to be employed on the service, the Tryal was proposed to be fitted for, except that you doubt of her being able to stow the quantity of provisions required on such an occasion, but that if we are inclined to make use of a cat-built* vessel for the said service, which in their kind are roomly, and will afford the advantage of stowing and carrying a large quantity of provisions so necessary on such voyages, and in this page 45 respect preferable to a ship-of-war, a vessel of this sort of about three hundred and fifty tons may, you apprehend, be now purchased in the river Thames, if wanted. We do hereby signify to you our approval of the employing a cat-built vessel instead of a ship-of-war on the aforesaid service, and desire and direct you to purchase such a vessel for the said service accordingly.
We are, &c.
,C. Townshend.
Py. Brett.
C. Spencer.
* These vessels were distinguished for their great carrying capacity and comparatively small draught. They were largely used in the Baltic, and in the coal trade on the north-eastern coast of England. Cook admitted that it was in consequence of having a vessel of this class—such as the Endeavour was—that he was able “to traverse a far greater space of sea, till then unnavigated, to discover greater tracks of country in high and low south latitudes, and to persevere longer in exploring and surveying more correctly the extensive coasts of those newly-discovered countries, than any former navigator, perhaps, had done during one voyage.”— Voyage towards the South Pole, vol. i, p. xxvi.
Marginal Note:—To purchase a vessel of about 350 tons to go to the southward of the Equinoctial Line to observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disk.*
* The significance of the Transit of Venus was first pointed out by Dr. Halley, in a paper read before the Royal Society in the year 1691, On the Visible Conjunctions of the Inferior Planets with the Sun.—Philos. Trans. (abridged edition), vol. iii, p. 448. He demonstrated that by the observation of this phenomenon alone, the distance of the sun from the earth might be determined with the greatest certainty. He returned to the subject in 1716, in another paper, On a New Method of Determining the Parallax of the Sun or his Distance from the Earth.—Philosophical Transactions (abridged edition), vol. vi, p. 243. The observations of the first Transit of Venus, which occurred after the publication of Halley's “new method,” were not very successful. Some of the calculations were erroneous; and, as one of the consequences, the most favourable localities were not used as observing-stations. When the time approached for the second Transit—viz., that of 23rd May, 1769—the Royal Society determined to make amends. The matter was successfully represented to the Government of the day—that of the Earl of Chatham. The Endeavour was placed at the disposal of the Royal Society. Cook, then a master, was raised to the rank of lieutenant, placed in command by the Admiralty, and selected by the Royal Society to observe the Transit in conjunction with Mr. Green. The island of Otaheite, then newly discovered by Wallis, was selected as the observing-station. The history of the expedition will be found at length in Hawkesworth's Voyages, vols. ii and iii.