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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.

5 April, 1768.

Gentlemen,—

Whereas you have represented to us by your letter of the 29th of last month that, in pursuance of our directions of the 21st, you have purchased a cat-built bark of the burthen of 368 tons, for conveying to the southward such persons as shall be thought proper for making observations on the passage of the planet Venus over the sun's disk, we do hereby desire and direct you to cause the said vessel to be sheathed, filled, and page 46 fitted in all respects proper for that service, and to report to us when she will be ready to receive men.*

And you are to cause the said vessel to be registered on the list of the Royal Navy as a bark by the name of the Endeavour, and to cause her to be established with six carriage-guns of four pounds each and eight swivel guns.

We are, &c.,


C. Townshend.


Py. Brett.


C. Spencer.

The letter is not amongst the Records.

* At the time this letter was written, Alexander Dalrymple, the eminent hydrographer, was regarded as commander of the expedition. In a pamphlet published by him in 1773, and entitled—A Letter from Mr. Dalrymple to Dr. Hawkesworth, occasioned by some groundless and illiberal imputations in his account of the late Voyages to the South—he claims to have chosen the Endeavour, and to have had actual command of the ship. In the postscript to a second letter, which—in consequence of Dr. Hawkesworth's death—was not published, he refers to his reasons for “preferring the Endeavour to the other ship, which was smaller.” Locker, in his Memoirs of Naval Commanders, gives the following account of the circumstances which led up to Cook's appointment:—

“In 1768 the Royal Society made application to the King to appoint a ship to convey to the South Seas Mr. Alexander Dalrymple (a gentleman of great nautical science) and other persons qualified to observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disk. They further proposed that a brevet commission should be given to Mr. Dalrymple to command the vessel.

“When the case of Mr. Dalrymple was referred to Sir Edward Hawke, he declared that none but a King's officer should bear the royal commission, and that he would rather lose his right hand than sign an act so dishonourable to his profession. In this dilemma it was suggested that Mr. Cook was fully qualified for the proposed service, he being a master in the Royal Navy, and already distinguished as an able mathematician. The Admiralty thereupon gave him a lieutenant's commission to command the Endeavour.” See also Kippis, p. 51.

It is evident from this that Kippis was wrong in stating (p. 17) that the Endeavour was selected by Sir Hugh Palliser and Lieutenant Cook after the appointment of the latter on the 25th May, 1768.