Naming Rites

On 19 August 1768 Lieutenant James Cook addressed the assembled company of HMS Endeavour at Plymouth, reading them the obligatory Articles of War and Act of Parliament. The men had received two months’ wages in advance, and were advised they could expect additional pay depending on performance. They were, Cook recorded, ‘well satisfied’ and ready to ‘prosecute the voyage’.¹ But unfavourable weather delayed the departure, and it was not until 2pm on 26 August that the ship finally put to sea. On board were 94 persons and sufficient provisions for nearly 18 months.²

The aim of the voyage was to observe the transit of Venus across the face of the sun, which was duly carried out at Tahiti on 3 June 1769. Then, following secret instructions from the Admiralty, Cook went in search of the presumed Great Southern Land which, if found, was to be claimed in the name of King George.

Although Terra Australis proved non-existent, Cook was able to visit many other lands in the Pacific. Following his death in Hawai‘i, on 14 February 1779, he was much celebrated back in Britain. His place in the first, depicting Cook leading Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake and others carrying the River Thames in a chariot. And in a 1794 print, , by Philip James de Loutherbourg and John Webber, the navigator was shown being carried heavenward by Britannia and Fame. Subsequently, 26 memorials―plaques, busts and statues―were erected in Cook’s honour in the United Kingdom and, in a BBC poll taken in 2002, he was voted the twelfth greatest Briton of all time, sandwiched between fellow explorer Ernest Shackleton and Robert Baden-Powell.