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 Nu28. It also
has the designation of L-22 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 # 433.
The Nuphil Number Nu28 is 55 years old in October 2024.
This Nuphil Nu29 comes with the 99 Company L-22 Card, which means that it was imported by the 99 Company and sold in the U.S.A. by them.
This
is a Special James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative Proof Medal. These Proof
Medals were minted by the Franklin Mint, U.S.A for Nuphil Associates Limited of
Christchurch, New Zealand to commemorative Captain James Cook's Bicentenary
discovery of New Zealand.
This
is a First Day Issue of the Stamps, First Day Registered Cover with James Cook
Bicentenary Commemorative Proof Medal enclosed.
This
1969 Captain James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative Proof Medal 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.
The
Nuphil Nu28 (L-22) "James Cook Bicentenary
Commemorative Proof Medal" Cover is Number 443 of
only 800 produced.
The
"L-22 1969 NEW ZEALAND COOK MEDAL BY NUPHIL - LICENSED IMPORT" card
states the following:
"This PN Cover by Nuphil Associates Ltd. of New
Zealand commemorates the bicentenary of Captain James Cook's voyages to the
South Pacific beginning in 1769. The 'solid
nickle silver' medal with full proof finish was struck by the Franklin
Mint. Its designer was James Berry, also
responsible for the art decorating New Zealand's decimal coin reverses.
The James Cook medal obverse carries a profile portrait of the famed
explorer who with his crew in 1769, was the first European to set foot on New
Zealand soil. His ship, the bark
'Endeavour', is shown on the reverse; within the ocean half of the design is
the map of New Zealand encircled with rigging held by two dolphins. The hallmark is set within the milled edge of
the medal.
Two bicentenary stamps are affixed to the cover. The 4-cent carries Captain Cook's profile
along with the major navigational instrument available to him two centuries
ago...the transit, that measured angles by focusing on stars or planets as they
crossed a given meridan. A transit is
also the astronomical term for the passing of a heavenly body across the disc
of another, similar to an eclipse of the moon.
A transit of Venus occurs twice every 50 to 60 years when it passes
directly between the earth and the sun, appearing as a small black dot on the
sun. Such an occurrence happened during
the Cook voyage to New Zealand. The
stamp's incription 'terra incognita' relates to the 'unknown land' that
explorers like Cook discovered and charted.
The grid on the envelopes, necessary for postal registration in New
Zealand, becomes the longitude and latitude designation of Cook's arrival at
the new land as part of the cover art - also by Berry. Each of the 800 PNC's produced carries a
numbered registry receipt.
The 18-cent stamp depicts Dr. Daniel Solander, one of two
naturalists who accompied Cook on his first voyage. Also pictured is the native plant, matata.
The first-day-issue postmark is a bicentenary commemorative of
October 8, 1969, in Chrischurch, New Zealand."
Included
in this listing is the a copy of Nuphil Associates Limited flier detailing the
Franklin Mint's Captain Cook Bicentenary Proof Medals description. This flier
was only given with the PNC purchased from Nuphil. The flier states the following:
"SPECIAL BICENTENARY MEDAL: JAMES COOK
CAPTAIN JAMES COOK was one of the world's most celebrated
navigators. Leaving England in the Bark "Endeavour" in 1768, he
rounded Cape Horn en route to Tahiti, taking a scientific expedition to observe
the transit of the planet Venus.
He then sailed for New Zealand, and he and his crew were the first
Europeans to set foot in that country. This was on the east coast of the North
Island on 9 October 1769, and the bicentenary celebrations are now continuing
in the South Island. The visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburg to
Australia early this year will mark the 200th anniversary of Cook's landing at
Kurnell in Botany Bay, near Sydney.
Captain Cook left his mark in North America also. His charting of
the St. Lawrence river contributed much to the fall of Quebec and the winning
of Canada for Britian, and for several years after this he was engaged in
mapping America's north-east coast. On his third voyage to the Pacific, he
explored the western coast-line from Seattle to the northern tip of Alaska,
seeking the North-west Passage to the Atlantic. He then sailed back to Hawaii,
which he had previously discovered and where, through a misunderstanding, he
was killed by natives who had revered him. Thus the Hawaiian half-dollar of
1928, is the rarest of the commemoratives, was the only coin to bear an effigy
of the great navigator until the New Zwaland Cook Dollar of 1969.
For display in their COIN-COVERS as a companion to the
commemorative dollar and 50-cent coins of 1969, Nuphil Associates commissioned
James Berry, who designed the coin reverses, to execute a special James Cook
medal. This was struck in full proof Solid Nickel Silver by the Franklin Mint.
800 of these medals were used in the First Day COIN-COVERS but a limited number
are available for sale separately. These may be obtained from the above address
at $US5.00 each. The price includes registered postage by air mail."
Nuphil Nu28 (L-22) 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 the Franklin
Mint James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative Proof Medal 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 side of the medal has the bust profile of
Captain Cook facing left. The date "1769" on the left side of the
bust and "1969" on the right side of the bust. Below this is
"James Cook". Reginald George James Berry is the designer of this
Proof Medal. His initials RB appear beneath the bust of Captain James Cook.
Reginald George James Berry is also the designer of the 1969 New Zealand James
Cook Commemorative Dollar. On the dollar James Berry uses his JB initial on
that design.
In
the Upper Right Hand Corder is two (2) of the New Zealand Captain Cook
Bi-Centenary Stamps. The 4 cent stamp which is
light blue, dark blue and a Red Planted. The New Zealand 4 cent stamp has a profile of Captain James Cook, a
navigation sexton, the Red Planted Venus, with the wording "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 Nu28 (L-22) 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 the obverse of the "Franklin
Mint James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative Proof Medal". At the top
of the medal is the legend "H.M. BARK "ENDEAVOUR". Below this
the Endeavour sailing on the ocean and below this is a map of New Zealand in a
circle. The legend at the bottom is "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.
This
particular Nuphil Nu28 come with the L-23 card which designates that it was
sold by the 99 Company.
Payment can be made by any method
approved by eBay.
Shipping within the USA is FREE. International Shipping is by eBay Global Shipping program.
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.