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Part 1 -    • Captain Cook's Voyage of Discovery Pa...  

Captain Cook’s Voyage of Discovery Part 2 – Epic Expeditions Episode 2

Our Journey picks up where we left off on episode one.
Captain Cook, Joseph Banks, and the rest of the inhabitants of the HMS Endeavor were sailing towards Cape Horn.
Their destination is King George's Island, present-day Tahiti, to measure the Transit of Venus, the most expensive scientific investigation up to that point in history.
The waters surrounding Cape Horn is incredibly dangerous and has earned a strong reputation.
An old saying goes, "Below 40 degrees latitude, there is no law; below 50, there is no God."
So, the Endeavor faced strong winds and high seas from the west, and it took the Cook and the crew five weeks to pass through South America.
Cook then has the Endeavor sail away from their destination, southwest for around 300 miles.
These waters were uncharted, and Cook wanted to explore them before heading north.
Cook didn't find anything so he turned the Endeavor northwest towards King George's Island.
When January 30th 1769 came, it was almost two months after departing Rio de Janeiro.
And by the end of February, the Endeavor was well into the Pacific Ocean with no hint of land around.
The nerves of everyone on board must have been on edge at this part of the voyage.
The Pacific was still mostly uncharted at this time and contained very few landmarks to aid navigation, and is also sprinkled with dangerous reefs.
Take the Spanish as an illustration.
The Spanish discovered the Solomon Islands in the 1500s and then could not find them again for 200 years! That's insane, haha.
Anyway, the Endeavor spent more than two whole months surrounded by nothing but open ocean.
Finally, on April 4th 1769, one of Bank's servants spotted land.
It was the gorgeous atoll of Vahitahi.
As they approached, a group of natives armed with weapons watched them with unfriendly eyes, and the Cook decided to keep going.
They passed several islands in the following days until they finally sighted King George's Island on April 11th.
The group was fascinated with the strong-looking tattooed natives that approached the Endeavor on large canoes with tall sails.
They observed surfing for the first time, watching the natives surf large waves that the Europeans would not dare swim.
The group exchanged items with the natives for food who particularly valued iron nails.
They would soon find out that the natives had sticky fingers.
Solander had his opera glasses stolen, Banks had his pistol taken, and Cook lost his stockings from his cabin no less.
The natives soon realized that they could swap for the items they wanted instead of taking them.
But that was not until one unfortunate event.
One of the natives tried to take a musket and was shot and killed as he ran away.
Banks served as a peacemaker after the incident and tried his best to mend relations after the event.
So after a few days, Cook had the Endeavor anchor at Matavai Bay on April 13th and began the preparations for the observation that was two months away on June 3rd.
Considering the loose fingers of the natives, if the wrong piece of equipment were stolen, the entire mission would be jeopardized.
So Cook decide to build a fort in addition to the observatory that had to be made.
They called it fort venus and consisted of stone walls and was equipped with two heavy guns.
On the night of completion, a native snuck passed the guard and stole a vital piece of the observatory.
Luckily the crew found the component broken near the fort and managed to repair it.


But the astronomers didn't know this at the time; they usually did not have reason to use telescopes during the day.
So back to the story at hand nine long months after they left England, Captain Cook and company completed their mission, but their voyage was far from over.
You see, before departing on the voyage Cook was handed sealed secret instructions that were not to be opened and read until after the transit was observed.
Now Cook finally broke the seal and read the secret instructions from the admiralty.
The instructions were to sail south from Tahiti, where there was believed to be a lost continent.
And If the lost continent was found:
Cook was to explore as much of it’s coast as possible and measure its depths.
He was also ordered to record the soil quality and potential resources of the land, including wildlife and harvest worthy vegetation, among many other parameters.
Cook and Banks would not see the shores of England for another 25 months.
Indeed the voyage of discovery was far from over.