"His Majesty's Ship, the Endeavour, which is lately arrived in the River from the East Indies, lost by the unhealthiness of the climate, 70 of her hands, tho' they were picked men, and had been several times in the Indies. However, those who survive will have made their fortunes by traffic, having brought home some of the richest goods made in the east, which they are suffered to dispose of without the inspection of the Custom House officers. This, our correspondent says, is allowed them by the Government as a reward for their hard and dangerous service during a voyage of three years."
The amount of the "richest goods made in the East" obtained from New Zealand, Australia, and Otaheite would be but a poor reward for three years' strenuous service; and Cook here finds his premonition as to his losses being exaggerated, only too true.
It is worthy of note that the number of punishments throughout the voyage was remarkably small, those entered in the ship's log being twenty-one, and the heaviest sentence, two dozen lashes for theft. In one case, that of Mathew Cox, A.B., for disobedience and mutinous conduct, the culprit proceeded civilly against Cook, on arrival in England, and the Admiralty solicitors were instructed to defend. The case was probably allowed to drop, as no result can be found.
LAST OF THE ENDEAVOUR.
The good ship which had so bravely borne her part, was not given much rest; but after being paid off at Woolwich, was despatched, under lieutenant James Gordon, to the Falkland Islands on 16th October, and returned with "perishable and unserviceable" stores; in 1772 and 1773 she again made voyages to the same destination, the last one to bring away the garrison and stores, as those islands were to be handed over to Spain. She was paid off at Woolwich in September 1774, and shortly afterwards was sold out of the Navy for the sum of 645 pounds. She is then believed to have been employed as a collier in the North Seas. Mr. Gibbs, of the firm of Gibbs and Canning of Newport, Rhode Island, one day pointed out to the English Consul the remains of an old vessel falling into decay, and informed him that it was Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour. His story was that the French Government being anxious to compete with England in the whale fishery, offered a bounty to the ships in that trade sailing under the French flag. A Mr. Hayden purchased the old ship from a Dunkirk firm and re-christened her La Liberte, loaded her with oil and consigned her, under French colours, to Gibbs and Canning at Newport. She was chased by an English ship, but escaped, and after laying alongside a wharf for some months received a cargo, but running aground in trying to leave the harbour, she was found in such a bad condition that she was allowed to remain to drop to pieces. Enquiries into this story gave satisfactory results, and a box made from her timbers was presented to J. Fennimore Cooper, the American author, with letters authenticating, as far as possible, the vessel from which the wood had been taken. Miss Cooper mentions this box in her preface to her father's Red Rover, and several other relics of the old ship are still to be found in the neighbourhood of Newport.
CHAPTER 12. 1771. PREPARATIONS FOR SECOND VOYAGE.
After reporting himself to the Admiralty on his arrival in England, Cook proceeded to his home at Mile End Old Town, where he was for some time employed in completing his Charts and Journals, and on 14th August, the Annual Register announces, he was introduced to His Majesty at St. James's, when he:
"presented his Journal of his Voyage, with some curious maps and charts of different places that he had drawn during the voyage; he was presented with a captain's commission."
He also found time to write two long and instructive letters to his old master and good friend, Mr. John Walker of Whitby, which are to be found in Dr. Young's work. They give a rapid glance at the different places visited, with a few pithy remarks as to their peoples and productions; mention the pleasing reception he had from the king, and he alludes to the probability of being despatched on a second voyage with two ships.
Edgeworth, in his Memoirs, states that about this time Cook was a frequent visitor at Denham Place, the home of Mr. Louis Way, F.R.S., but as that gentleman died in this year, and Edgeworth also refers to events of a later date as occurring at the same time, it is more probable that these visits were paid after the Second Voyage to Mr. Benjamin Way, also F.R.S., and a Director of the South Sea Company. In another place Edgeworth infers that Banks, Solander, and Cook were members of a club which met at Slaughter's Coffee House in 1765. Of course, this is an error, for Cook was then engaged in Newfoundland, and unknown to the Royal Society, whose members composed the club spoken of; in fact, Cook, though a frequent guest in after times, was never a member of the Royal Societies Club.