Mapping Cook's Endeavor

Fans of Captain Cook and his adventures and accomplishments might be interested to learn about the work of the Rhode Island Marine Archeaology Project (RIMAP), led by Dr. D. K. Abass.  RIMAP's mapping of  Revolutionary War-era British naval vessels in Newport harbor may have turned up Cook's Endeavour, the ship that took him on his very first voyage of exploration.

The route of Cook's first voyage, HMS Endeavour, 1768-1771

Cook's voyages are well documented.  Not only did he provide the Royal Navy with an account of his ventures, but several crewman on the three voyages also published their own accounts.  Sydney Parkinson, a Scots botanical illustrator, naturalist, and artist, was employed by Joseph Banks, a British naturalist and botanist, to accompany him on Cook's first voyage.  Banks and Swedish botanist Daniel Solander collected hundreds of plant and animal specimens and it was Parkinson's job to draw them in detail.  Parkinson also became fascinated with the people they encountered on the voyage and drew many of them as well, recording his experiences in a journal he kept during the voyage.  Sadly, Parkinson died of dysentery in 1771 while aboard ship.  Although Banks, as his employer, claimed all of his drawings and papers, including his journal, he lent it to Parkinson's brother, who published the journal with some of the drawings in 1773.  We're fortunate to have a copy in the Bell Library collection.

The image at right, depicting the distinctively tatooed face of a New Zealand chief, is one of several published in A journal of a voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty's ship the Endeavour, London, 1773 (Bell 1773 fPa).  Parkinson's images offered the European reading public their first glimpse of Pacific Islanders.

According to the caption on this image (left), sticking out one's tongue at an enemy is a gesture of defiance. 

Check out the Bell Library's online exhibit:  Captain Cook's Voyages of Discovery