I
have had this item listed as a Buy It Now for $1000.00. I have decided to list it as an auction with
an auction starting bid of $300.00 which is 70% off my Buy It Now price.
This is a listing for a Nuphil Number Nu30. It also has the designation of L-24 by the 99 Company. Nuphil only produced 800 of these first day covers containing the New Zealand James Cook Commemorative Dollar. Nuphil and the 99 Company in the U.S.A. reached an agreement that Nuphil would sell the 99 Company certain PNCovers. The total produced by Nuphil and sold by both Nuphil and the 99 Company was 800 sets. In THE ORANGE BOOK A GUIDE BOOK OF PHILATELIC NUMISMATIC COVERS, FIRST EDITION - 1970 BY DORIS WALKER on the page that is entitled, "NUPHIL ASSOCIATES", it states, "These issues are included in 99's inventory as licensed imports." My eBay item # 435.
This FDC will 55 year old in October 2024.
This
Nuphil Nu30 comes with the 99 Company L-24 Card, which means that it was imported by the 99
Company and sold in the U.S.A. by them.
This
is a listing for a Nuphil Number Nu30 (L-24).
This is the New Zealand 50 Cent Coin from the 1969 New Zealand Uncirculated Set
(Polished Prooflike Sets). Only 50,000 of these Uncirculated Sets were minted
by the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, Australia.
This
1969 Captain James Cook Bicentenary 50 Cent Proof-like Coin is part of a 3
piece cover set (Nu28, Nu29 and Nu30 & L-22, L-23
and L-24) produced by Nuphil honoring Captain James Cook. I have all six
covers and I am offering them seperately.
They are worth more as a complete set ($9,000.00) but I have price them
seperately at $1,000.00 each. If a
collector or investor in rare numismatic is interested in all six cover I will
sell them together at a reduced price in an effort to keep them together.
This
is a First Day Issue of the Stamp, First Day Registered Cover with New Zealand
James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin enclosed. First Day Issue of
the New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin. This New
Zealand 50 Cent Coin is different that the earlier and later 50 Cent Coins with
the H.M. Bark Endeavour on the reverse. This New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary
Commemorative 50 Cent Coin has inscribed on the edge "COOK BI-CENTENARY 1769-1969".
The
Nuphil Nu30 (L-24) "New
Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin" Cover is Number 443 of only 800 produced.
The
"L-24 1969 NEW ZEALAND COOK COMMEMORATIVE HALF
DOLLAR BY NUPHIL - LICENSED IMPORT" card states the following:
"One of the limited issue specially struck for the Cook New
Zealand Voyage Bicentenary, this half dollar pays tribute to the Cook ship -
H.M. bark Endeavour. This design was
introduced with the first decimal coinage of this nation in 1967. The ship was built at Whitby, Yorkshire,
England in 1764. Cook was commissioned a
lieutenant in command of the Endeavour, sailing in 1768 on an expedition to
chart the transit of Venus. He returned
to England in 1771 having circumnavigated the globe and explored the coasts of
New Zealand and Australia.
The 6-cent stamp affixed to this Nuphil PNC also shows the
Endeavour. It and the 19-cent issue of
the bicentenary series honor two naturalists who accompanied Cook on this first
of his major Pacific voyages ... Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Also pictured is the matata plant, a native
growth.
James Berry not only scuptured the reverse of all decimal coins, he
also drew the pen sketches that form the envelope designs of the Nuphil set of
three PNCovers. Ship's wheels surround
the coins; the point of first landing at New Zealand is marked on the grid, with
its latitude and longitude recorded.
Prior to 1769 the rest of the world had only a sketchy knowledge of
New Zealand, recorded only during the passing visit of Dutch explorer Abel
Janzoon Tasman in 1642. Hostility of the
natives is said to have prevented a landing by his party. But on October 9, 1769, James Cook recorded
in the Endeavour's log: 'I went ashore with a party of men in the Pinnace and
yawl accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander; we landed abreast of the ship
and on the east side of the river...'
And so was recorded the rediscovery of New Zealand." NOTE: The infomration card is incorrect in
that the second stamp is not a 19 cent card but a 18 cent card.
New
Zealand 50 Cent Coin description:
Obverse:
Queen Elizabeth II - Design by Arnold Machin. Legend: ELIZABETH II NEW
ZEALAND - 1969.
Reverse:
H.M.B. Endeavour - Design by James Berry.
Edge: Reeded
- interrupted milling - 5 6.35mm plain segments.
Edge
Inscription: COOK BI-CENTENARY 1769-1969
Weight:
13.61 grams. Size: 31.75mm (diameter) Composition: 75% Copper, 25% Nickel
Mintage:
Circulation: 50,000. Prooflike: 50,000.
Mintmarks:
None.
Nuphil Nu30 Cover Front Description:
In
the Upper Left Hand Corner is the New Zealand Registered Stamp "R No. 443 Christchurch".
This NZ Registered Stamps sealed the envelope. The envelope can not be opened
without breaking this seal. Below this is a window displaying the New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent
Prooflike Coin that is surrounded by a ship's wheel surrounded by 8 wheel
handles. This is partially surrounded by the map of Young Nick's Head. This
reverse has the H.M.B. "ENDEAVOUR". Reginald George James Berry is
the designer of this Prooflike coin. The window material has aged distorting
the appearance of the coin. The edge of the coin is inscribed, "COOK BI-CENTENARY 1769-1969".
In
the Upper Right Hand Corder is two (2) of the New Zealand Captain Cook
Bi-Centenary Stamps. The 6 cent stamp which is
light green and dark green. The New Zealand 6 cent
stamp has a profile of Joseph Banks and the H.M.B. Endeavour, and
"COOK BICENTENARY". Below this stamp is the New Zealand 18 cent stamp. The 18 cent stamp is light brown, dark
brown and green. It has the profile of Dr. Daniel Solander with the wording
"COOK BICENTENARY". Date of Issue and cancellation of these stamps is
October 9, 1969. This is a first day issue stamp and cover. Stamps were
designed by Miss E. Mayo, Christchurch, New Zealand. The stamp also seals this
envelope. The envelope can not be opened without tearing the stamp. The stamp
and cover has the cancellation stamp, "COOK
BICENTENARY STAMPS' 'FIRST DAY OF ISSUE 9 OCT 1969' 'CHRISTCHURCH NZ". Below this is the Nuphil
address, "NUPHIL ASSOCIATES LTD. P.O. BOX 7053 CHRISTCHURCH NEW
ZEALAND".
The
crossed blue line represent a time when all New Zealand Registered Mail had to
be wrapped and tied with a blue ribbon.
Nuphil Nu30 Cover Back Description:
In
the Upper Left Hand side of the envelope is the "SYDENHAM
POST OFFICE 9 OCT 1969"
cancellation stamp.
In
the Lower Right Hand side is a window displaying the obverse of the New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent
Prooflike Coin. This is profile of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin.
The legend is "ELIZABETH II NEW ZEALAND 1969"
The window material has aged distorting the appearance of the coin.
The
crossed blue line represent a time when all New Zealand Registered Mail had to
be wrapped and tied with a blue ribbon.
This
particular Nuphil Nu30 come with the L-24 card which designates that it was
sold by the 99 Company.
Shipping within the USA is FREE. International shipping by eBay Gobal Shipping Program.
Payment can be made by any method approved by eBay.
Reginald George James Berry 1906-1979 (known as James) was born on 20 June 1906 in London, England, the second child of James Willie Berry, a clerk, and his wife, Amy Blanche Clarissa Wakefield. After the death of his father in 1911, James was sent to board at Russell Hill School from 1913 until 1922. He won prizes for art and his talent was fostered by an aunt, Lilian Berry, who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts. At 16 he became an insurance clerk, but finding the work uncongenial he emigrated to New Zealand on the Ionic arriving in February 1925. Subsequently he paid off his assisted passage as a farm cadet in Gisborne. A slight youth, five feet three inches tall, he worked exhausting 12-hour days, and played weekend cricket and tennis.
After two years in Gisborne Berry
began working as a commercial artist with the Goldberg Advertising Agency in
Wellington. He saved sufficient to buy a section, and to marry Miriel Frances
Hewitt, a secretary, at St Jude's Anglican Church, Lyall Bay, on 3 February
1932. They were to have five daughters and one son. In 1932 Berry left the
Goldberg Agency and took on freelance work, including the design of advertising
layouts for the New Zealand Radio Record and New Zealand Dairy
Exporter. From 1935 until 1942 he was staff artist at the Dominion,
and during this time produced the popular historical booklet New Zealand in
review (1940), which went to several editions. He was drafted to Mayer and
Kean, engravers, on war work from 1942 until May 1944. Thereafter he was
self-employed, designing book covers, illustrations, bookplates and,
increasingly, stamps, coins and medals.
Berry's delicate designs were
largely created for competitions. His first successful design for a health
stamp in 1933 led to a regular commission for this series for 25 years. Further
stamp designs were sought by New Zealand, Western Samoa, the Cook Islands,
Niue, Tonga, and once by Bermuda. Berry produced nine of the twelve designs for
the 1940 centennial stamp issue, and the entire peace issue of 1946. He went on
to design the notable series of lighthouse stamps for the Government Insurance
Department issues, the first of which appeared in 1947. While they enjoyed
popular approval, his designs were described as trite and mundane by some New
Zealand critics. However, in 1948 he was described in the American journal Weekly
Philatelic Gossip as 'the greatest postage stamp designer in the world'.
His first medal design, a
commemorative piece for the New Zealand Aero Club, appeared in 1935. The
previous year Berry had joined the New Zealand Numismatic Society, which
recommended his design for the reverse of their Waitangi-Bledisloe Medal, and
for the Waitangi Crown, both of which were issued in 1935. The crown was part
of a new series that replaced British coinage in New Zealand.
In 1950 Berry was invited to Tonga
to advise on the philatelic commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty
of Friendship with Great Britain, and Queen Salote's birthday. Stimulated by
this trip he promptly decided to become a commercial traveller around New
Zealand, so that he could pursue his interest in landscape painting, but a
massive heart attack in 1962 curtailed these activities. Later, he
optimistically embarked on ill-starred ventures such as bookselling, dealing in
coins, and speculation in real estate.
In 1964 New Zealand decided to
change to decimal currency; designs were invited, and Berry offered four sets,
featuring New Zealand flora and fauna. There was overwhelming public support
for Berry's designs in a nationwide newspaper poll, and one set was selected in
1966. It was subsequently approved by the Royal Mint and issued in 1967. Berry
was sent to the Royal Mint to acquire further skills and this experience was of
lasting benefit. Having gained in confidence, he competed for the British
decimal designs but was unsuccessful. However, his prestige in New Zealand was
such that the Dominion Sunday Times declared him to be '1966 Man of the
Year', and in 1968 he was appointed an OBE.
In 1978 Berry was made an honorary
member of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand. Membership of the New
Zealand Ex Libris Society and of the Friends of the Turnbull Library catered
for his interests in books, but his first allegiance lay with the Royal
Numismatic Society of New Zealand (formerly the New Zealand Numismatic
Society), of which he was variously secretary, vice president, president and
fellow.
In the
late 1960s and early 1970s James Cook's discoveries in the South Pacific were
commemorated in stamps, coins, plaques and statues. Berry was called on to
produce so many designs that he became an expert on the explorer. From 1971
there were frequent invitations to the Franklin Mint in Pennsylvania and in
1972 one to the Royal Australia Mint in Canberra. The Australian visit resulted
in his largest commission: 60 silver-on-gold medallions for the Medallic
History of Australia. The task took him over five years, but he found time in
1973 to deliver the Sutherland Lecture to the Royal Numismatic Society of New
Zealand in the form of a practical demonstration on 'The art production of
coins and medals', and to arrange an exhibition of his work in the National
Museum in 1975–76. Berry also received further commissions from Britain: for
medallions of Oliver Cromwell and Winston Churchill, from the Cook Islands for
additions to its decimal coinage, and from New Zealand for a series of
commemorative dollars. He was granted the rare honour of incorporating his
version of the Queen's head on four of these dollar coins.
In his last years Berry
travelled frequently. He mounted a retrospective exhibition in New Zealand
House, London, in 1977; subsequently his landscape painting took him to
Ireland, which because of tax concessions to artists was a more attractive
domicile than New Zealand. In 1978 he prepared an exhibition of his own
landscapes in Dublin, and in 1979 designed his last medal, for the papal visit.
He then paid final visits to relatives and friends in England before returning
to Auckland. There, on 6 November 1979, he boarded the plane for Wellington,
and immediately suffered a fatal heart attack. Three days later a crowded
funeral was held in Wellington's Anglican cathedral. He was survived by his
wife and children. During his lifetime, Berry completed more than 1,000 designs
for stamps, coins and medals. His talents received one final accolade: the gold
medal of the Accademia Italiana dell'Arte e del Lavoro in 1980.
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN (7 November 1728
– 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator
and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.
Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland
prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved
the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands,
as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Cook joined the British
merchant navy
as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War,
and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence
River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention
of the Admiralty
and Royal Society.
This notice came at a crucial moment in both Cook's career and the direction of
British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of
HM Bark Endeavour
for the first of three Pacific voyages.
In three voyages Cook
sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He
mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail
and on a scale not previously achieved. As he progressed on his voyages of
discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines
on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship,
superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage and an ability to
lead men in adverse conditions.
Cook was killed in
Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific
in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to
influence his successors well into the 20th century and numerous memorials
worldwide have been dedicated to him.
Cook was born in the village of Marton
in Yorkshire,
now a suburb of Middlesbrough.
He was baptised in the local church of St. Cuthbert, where his name can be seen
in the church register. Cook was the second of eight children of James Cook, a
Scottish farm labourer
from Ednam near
Kelso,
and his locally born wife, Grace Pace, from Thornaby-on-Tees. In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm
at Great Ayton,
where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local
school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he began work for his father, who
had by now been promoted to farm manager. For leisure, he would climb a nearby
hill, Roseberry
Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude. Cooks' Cottage,
his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in
Melbourne, having been moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick, in
1934.
In 1745, when he was
16, Cook moved 20 miles (32 km) to the fishing village of Staithes, to be
apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson. Historians have speculated that this is where
Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.
After 18 months, not
proving suitable for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be
introduced to friends of Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker. The Walkers were
prominent local ship-owners and Quakers, and were in the coal trade. Their house
is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy
apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English
coast. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, and he spent several
years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London.
As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy—all
skills he would need one day to command his own ship.
His three-year
apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea. After
passing his examinations in 1752, he soon progressed through the merchant navy
ranks, starting with his promotion in that year to mate aboard
the collier brig Friendship.
In 1755, within a month of being offered command of this vessel, he volunteered
for service in the Royal
Navy, when Britain was re-arming for what was to become the
Seven Years' War.
Despite the need to start back at the bottom of the naval hierarchy, Cook
realised his career would advance more quickly in military service and entered
the Navy at Wapping on 7 June 1755.
Cook married Elizabeth
Batts (1742–1835), the daughter of Samuel Batts, keeper of the Bell Inn, Wapping[ and one of his mentors, on 21 December 1762 at
St. Margaret's Church in Barking,
Essex. The couple had six children: James (1763–94), Nathaniel (1764–81),
Elizabeth (1767–71), Joseph (1768–68), George (1772–72) and Hugh (1776–93).
When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London. He attended St Paul's
Church, Shadwell, where his son James was baptised. Cook has no
direct descendants—all his children either pre-deceased him or died without
having children of their own.
Cook's first posting was with HMS Eagle,
sailing with the rank of master's mate. In October and November 1755
he took part in Eagle's capture of one French warship and the sinking of
another, following which he was promoted to boatswain in addition to his other duties.
His first temporary command was in March 1756 when he was briefly the master of
the Cruizer, a small cutter attached to the Eagle while on
patrol.
In June 1757 Cook passed his master's
examinations at Trinity
House, Deptford,
which qualified him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's fleet. He then joined the frigate HMS Solebay as master under Captain
Robert Craig.
During the Seven Years' War,
he served in North America as master of Pembroke.[13] In 1758, he took part in the major
amphibious assault that captured the Fortress of Louisbourg from the French,
after which he participated in the siege of Quebec City and then the Battle
of the Plains of Abraham in 1759. He showed a talent for surveying and cartography,
and was responsible for mapping much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence
River during the siege, thus allowing General Wolfe to make his famous stealth
attack on the Plains
of Abraham.
Cook's aptitude for surveying was
put to good use mapping the jagged coast of Newfoundland
in the 1760s. He surveyed the northwest stretch in 1763 and 1764, the south
coast between the Burin
Peninsula and Cape
Ray in 1765 and 1766, and the west coast in 1767. His five seasons
in Newfoundland produced the first large-scale and accurate maps of the
island's coasts; they also gave Cook his mastery of practical surveying,
achieved under often adverse conditions, and brought him to the attention of
the Admiralty
and Royal Society
at a crucial moment both in his career and in the direction of British overseas
discovery. Cook's map would be used into the 20th century—copies of it being
referenced by those sailing Newfoundland's waters for 200 years.
Following on from his exertions in
Newfoundland, it was at this time that Cook wrote that he intended to go not
only "... farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think
it is possible for a man to go."
In 1766, the Royal Society
engaged Cook to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus
across the Sun.
Cook, at the age of 39, was promoted to lieutenant and named as commander of the
expedition. The expedition sailed from England in 1768, rounded Cape Horn and
continued westward across the Pacific to arrive at Tahiti on 13 April 1769, where the observations
of the Venus Transit were made. However, the result of the
observations was not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped. Once the
observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders which were additional instructions
from the Admiralty
for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the
postulated rich southern continent
of Terra
Australis. Cook later mapped the complete New Zealand coastline,
making only some minor errors. He then sailed west, reaching the south-eastern
coast of the Australian continent on 19 April 1770, and in doing so his
expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern
coastline.
On 23 April he made his first
recorded direct observation of indigenous Australians at Brush Island
near Bawley
Point, noting in his journal: "...and were so near the Shore as
to distinguish several people upon the Sea beach they appear'd to be of a very
dark or black Colour but whether this was the real colour of their skins or the
Clothes they might have on I know not." On 29 April Cook and crew made
their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as
the Kurnell Peninsula, which he named Botany Bay
after the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks
and Daniel
Solander. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an
Aboriginal tribe known as the Gweagal.
After his departure from Botany Bay
he continued northwards, and a mishap occurred, on 11 June, when Endeavour
ran aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef, and then "nursed
into a river mouth on 18 June 1770.". The ship was badly damaged and his
voyage was delayed almost seven weeks while repairs were carried out on the
beach (near the docks of modern Cooktown, at the mouth of the Endeavour River).
Once repairs were complete the voyage continued, sailing through Torres Strait
and on 22 August he landed on Possession Island, where he claimed the
entire coastline he had just explored as British territory. He returned to England
via Batavia
(modern Jakarta,
Indonesia), where many in his crew succumbed to malaria, the Cape of Good Hope
and the island of Saint
Helena, arriving on 12 July 1771.
Cook's journals were published upon his return, and he
became something of a hero among the scientific community. Among the general
public, however, the aristocratic botanist Joseph Banks was a bigger hero. Banks even
attempted to take command of Cook's second voyage, but removed himself from the
voyage before it began, and Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster
were taken on as scientists for the voyage. Cook's son George was born five
days before he left for his second voyage.
Second voyage (1772–75). Shortly
after his return from the first voyage, Cook was promoted in August 1771, to
the rank of commander. Then, in 1772, he was commissioned by
the Royal Society to search for the hypothetical Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had
demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a
larger landmass to the south. Although he charted almost the entire eastern
coastline of Australia, showing it to be continental in size, the Terra
Australis was believed to lie further south. Despite this evidence to the
contrary, Alexander
Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that this
massive southern continent should exist.
Cook commanded HMS Resolution
on this voyage, while Tobias
Furneaux commanded its companion ship, HMS Adventure.
Cook's expedition circumnavigated the globe at a very high southern latitude, becoming
one of the first to cross the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773. He also
surveyed, mapped and took possession for Britain of South Georgia explored by Anthony de la
Roché in 1675, discovered and named Clerke Rocks and the South Sandwich Islands ("Sandwich
Land"). In the Antarctic fog, Resolution and Adventure
became separated. Furneaux made his way to New Zealand, where he lost some of
his men during an encounter with Māori, and eventually sailed back to Britain,
while Cook continued to explore the Antarctic, reaching 71°10'S on 31 January
1774.
Cook almost
encountered the mainland of Antarctica,
but turned back north towards Tahiti to resupply his ship. He then resumed his
southward course in a second fruitless attempt to find the supposed continent.
On this leg of the voyage he brought with him a young Tahitian named Omai, who proved to be
somewhat less knowledgeable about the Pacific than Tupaia had
been on the first voyage. On his return voyage, in 1774 he landed at the Friendly Islands, Easter Island, Norfolk Island,
New Caledonia,
and Vanuatu. His
reports upon his return home put to rest the popular myth of Terra Australis.
Another accomplishment
of the second voyage was the successful employment of the Larcum Kendall K1
chronometer,
which enabled Cook to calculate his longitudinal position with much greater
accuracy. Cook's log was full of praise for the watch which he used to make
charts of the southern Pacific Ocean that were so remarkably accurate that
copies of them were still in use in the mid-20th century.
Upon his return, Cook
was promoted to the rank of captain and given an honorary retirement from
the Royal Navy, as an officer in the Greenwich Hospital. His acceptance was
reluctant, insisting that he be allowed to quit the post if the opportunity for
active duty presented itself. His fame now extended beyond the Admiralty and he
was also made a Fellow
of the Royal Society and awarded the Copley Gold Medal, painted by Nathaniel
Dance-Holland, dined with James Boswell and described in the House of Lords
as "the first navigator in Europe". But he could not be kept away
from the sea. A third voyage was planned and Cook volunteered to find the Northwest Passage.
Cook travelled to the Pacific and hoped to travel east to the Atlantic, while a
simultaneous voyage travelled the opposite way.
Third voyage (1776–79). On his last voyage, Cook once again commanded
HMS Resolution, while Captain Charles Clerke commanded HMS Discovery.
Ostensibly, the voyage was planned to return Omai to Tahiti; this is what the
general public believed, as he had become a favourite curiosity in London.
Principally the purpose of the voyage was an attempt to discover the famed Northwest Passage.
After returning Omai, Cook travelled north and in 1778 became the first
European to visit the Hawaiian
Islands. In passing and after initial landfall in January 1778 at Waimea
harbour, Kauai,
Cook named the archipelago
the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth
Earl of Sandwich—the acting First
Lord of the Admiralty.
From the South Pacific, he went
northeast to explore the west coast of North America north of the Spanish
settlements in Alta
California. He made landfall at approximately 44°30′ north latitude,
near Cape
Foulweather on the Oregon coast, which he named. Bad weather forced
his ships south to about 43° north before they could begin their
exploration of the coast northward. He unknowingly sailed past the Strait of
Juan de Fuca, and soon after entered Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island.
He anchored near the First
Nations village of Yuquot. Cook's two ships spent about a
month in Nootka Sound, from 29 March to 26 April 1778, in what Cook called Ship
Cove, now Resolution Cove,[32]
at the south end of Bligh Island, about 5 miles (8 km) east across Nootka Sound
from Yuquot, a Nuu-chah-nulth
village (whose chief Cook did not identify but may have been Maquinna).
Relations between Cook's crew of the people of Yuquot were cordial if sometimes
strained. In trading, the people of Yuquot demanded much more valuable items
than the usual trinkets that had worked for Cook's crew in Hawaii. Metal
objects were much desired, but the lead, pewter, and tin traded at first soon
fell into disrepute. The most valuable items the British received in trade were
sea otter
pelts. Over the month-long stay the Yuquot "hosts" essentially
controlled the trade with the British vessels, instead of vice versa. Generally
the natives visited the British vessels at Resolution Cove instead of the
British visiting the village of Yuquot at Friendly Cove.
After leaving Nootka Sound, Cook
explored and mapped the coast all the way to the Bering Strait, on the way identifying what
came to be known as Cook
Inlet in Alaska. It has been said that, in a single visit, Cook
charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline on world maps
for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska and closed the gaps in
Russian (from the West) and Spanish (from the South) exploratory probes of the
Northern limits of the Pacific.
The Bering Strait proved to be
impassable, although he made several attempts to sail through it. He became
increasingly frustrated on this voyage, and perhaps began to suffer from a
stomach ailment; it has been speculated that this led to irrational behaviour
towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they found inedible.
Cook returned to Hawaii in 1779.
After sailing around the archipelago for some eight weeks, he made landfall at Kealakekua Bay,
on 'Hawaii
Island', largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Cook's arrival
coincided with the Makahiki,
a Hawaiian harvest
festival of worship for the Polynesian god Lono. Coincidentally the form of Cook's
ship, HMS Resolution, or more particularly the mast formation, sails and
rigging, resembled certain significant artifacts that formed part of the season
of worship. Similarly, Cook's clockwise route around the island of Hawaii
before making landfall resembled the processions that took place in a clockwise
direction around the island during the Lono festivals. It has been argued (most
extensively by Marshall
Sahlins) that such coincidences were the reasons for Cook's (and to
a limited extent, his crew's) initial deification by some Hawaiians who treated
Cook as an incarnation of Lono. Though this view was first suggested by members
of Cook's expedition, the idea that any Hawaiians understood Cook to be Lono,
and the evidence presented in support of it was challenged in 1992.
After a month's stay, Cook got
under sail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific. However,
shortly after leaving Hawaii Island, the foremast of
the Resolution broke and the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay
for repairs. It has been hypothesised that the return to the islands by Cook's
expedition was not just unexpected by the Hawaiians, but also unwelcome because
the season of Lono had recently ended (presuming that they associated Cook with
Lono and Makahiki). In any
case, tensions rose and a number of quarrels broke out between the Europeans
and Hawaiians. On 14 February at Kealakekua Bay, some Hawaiians took one of
Cook's small boats. Normally, as thefts were quite common in Tahiti and the other
islands, Cook would have taken hostages until the stolen articles were
returned. Indeed, he attempted to take hostage the King of Hawaii,
Kalaniōpuu.
The Hawaiians prevented this, and Cook's men had to retreat to the beach. As
Cook turned his back to help launch the boats, he was struck on the head by the
villagers and then stabbed to death as he fell on his face in the surf.
Hawaiian tradition says that he was killed by a chief named
Kalanimanokahoowaha. The Hawaiians dragged his body away. Four of the Marines
with Cook were also killed and two wounded in the confrontation.
The esteem in which he
was nevertheless held by the Hawaiians resulted in his body being retained by
their chiefs and elders. Following the practice of the time, Cook's body
underwent funerary rituals similar to those reserved for the chiefs and highest
elders of the society. The body was disembowelled, baked to facilitate removal
of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious
icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in
the Middle Ages. Some of Cook's remains, disclosing some corroborating evidence
to this effect, were eventually returned to the British for a formal burial at sea
following an appeal by the crew.
Clerke took over the
expedition and made a final attempt to pass through the Bering Strait. Following the death of Clerke, Resolution
and Discovery returned home in October 1780 commanded by John Gore,
a veteran of Cook's first voyage, and Captain
James King. Cook's account of his third and
final voyage was completed upon their return by King.
Navigation
and science
Cook's 12 years sailing around the
Pacific Ocean contributed much to European knowledge of the area. Several islands such as Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) were encountered for
the first time by Europeans, and his more accurate navigational charting of large areas of the
Pacific was a major achievement.
To create accurate
maps, latitude
and longitude
need to be known. Navigators
had been able to work out latitude accurately for centuries by measuring the
angle of the sun or a
star above the horizon with an instrument such as a backstaff or quadrant.
Longitude was more difficult to measure accurately because it requires precise
knowledge of the time difference between points on the surface of the earth.
The Earth turns a full 360 degrees relative to the sun each day. Thus
longitude corresponds to time: 15 degrees every hour, or 1 degree every 4
minutes.
Cook gathered accurate longitude
measurements during his first voyage due to his navigational skills, the help
of astronomer Charles Green and by using the newly published Nautical Almanac
tables, via the lunar distance method—measuring the angular
distance from the moon
to either the sun during daytime or one of eight bright stars during night-time
to determine the time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and comparing that
to his local time determined via the altitude of the sun, moon, or stars. On
his second voyage Cook used the K1 chronometer made by Larcum Kendall,
which was the shape of a large pocket watch, 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter. It
was a copy of the H4
clock made by John
Harrison, which proved to be the first to keep accurate time at sea
when used on the ship Deptford's journey to Jamaica, 1761–62.
Cook succeeded in
circumnavigating the world on his first voyage without losing a single man to scurvy, an unusual
accomplishment at the time. He tested several preventive measures but the most
important was frequent replenishment of fresh food. It was for presenting a
paper on this aspect of the voyage to the Royal Society that he was presented
with the Copley Medal
in 1776. Ever the observer, Cook was the first European to have extensive contact
with various people of the Pacific. He correctly concluded there was a
relationship among all the people in the Pacific, despite their being separated
by thousands of miles of ocean (see Malayo-Polynesian languages). Cook came up with
the theory that Polynesians originated from Asia, which was later proved to be
correct by scientist Bryan
Sykes. In New Zealand the coming of Cook is often used to signify
the onset of colonisation.
Cook was accompanied on
his voyages by many scientists, whose observations and discoveries added to the
importance of the voyages. Joseph Banks, a botanist, went on the first voyage along with
fellow botanist Daniel
Solander from Sweden. Between them they collected over 3,000 plant
species. Banks became one of the strongest promoters of the settlement of
Australia by the British, based on his own personal observations.
There were also several
artists on the first voyage. Sydney Parkinson was involved in many of the
drawings, completing 264 drawings before his death near the end of the voyage.
They were of immense scientific value to British botanists. Cook's second
expedition included the artist William Hodges, who produced notable landscape paintings
of Tahiti, Easter Island,
and other locations.
A number of the junior
officers who served under Cook went on to distinctive accomplishments of their
own. William Bligh,
Cook's sailing master, was given command of HMS Bounty in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and
return with breadfruit.
Bligh is most known for the mutiny
of his crew
which resulted in his being set adrift in 1789. He later became governor of New South Wales,
where he was subject of another
mutiny—the only successful armed takeover of an Australian colonial
government. George
Vancouver, one of Cook's midshipmen, later led a voyage of
exploration to the Pacific Coast of North America from 1791 to 1794.
In honour of his former commander, Vancouver's new ship was also christened Discovery.
George
Dixon sailed under Cook on his third expedition, and later commanded
an expedition of his own.
His contributions to
knowledge were internationally recognised during his lifetime. In 1779, while
the American colonies were at war with Britain in their war for independence, Benjamin Franklin
wrote to captains of American warships at sea, recommending that if they came
into contact with Cook's vessel, they were to:
...not consider her an
enemy, nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her, nor
obstruct her immediate return to England by detaining her or sending her into
any other part of Europe or to America; but that you treat the said Captain Cook
and his people with all civility and kindness, . . . as common friends to
mankind.
Unknown to Franklin, Cook had met
his death a month before this "passport" was written.
David Samwell, who sailed with Cook
on the Resolution, wrote of him:
He was a modest man, and rather bashful; of an agreeable
lively conversation, sensible and intelligent. In temper he was somewhat hasty,
but of a disposition the most friendly, benevolent and humane. His person was
above six feet high: and, though a good looking man, he was plain both in dress
and appearance. His face was full of expression: his nose extremely well
shaped: his eyes which were small and of a brown cast, were quick and piercing;
his eyebrows prominent, which gave his countenance altogether an air of
austerity.