Home again

Captain James Cook, The World's Explorer. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.cptcook.com/

We leave Batavia, but unfortunately we now have people sick with malaria and dysentery after waiting on land for twelve weeks.
Crew: seven have died, forty are sick, other crew are now weak.
Soon another  twenty three men die.
Finally on 10 July, 1771 we can see the land of Southern England.
It takes us two more days to reach land.  Hooray, the great journey has ended. What an amazing experience, a great achievement to sail where others have not been before.  I will always remember this journey. I wonder if Australia is the only large continent in the Southern Pacific. We will find out after another great journey into the huge, unknown oceans of the South.

The Long Journey

Australian Geographic. (2010). Voyage of Endeavour: Two centuries on. Retrieved from www.australiangeographic.com.au

1st stop: The island of Madeira.  We stock up on fresh food and water. 
Daily: We have to eat pickled cabbage, fresh fruit and vegetables to prevent us from catching diseases such as scurvy.
2 months later: We stop at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We make repairs to the boat and stock up again on fresh food.
13 April: We are at Tahiti
3 June: It is a clear, bright day. Perfect conditions for the Venus observations.
We leave Tahiti, bound for the great Southern land.  The weather is freezing, we see seaweed, seals and birds. Land must be near.
6 October: We sight land. It is the north-east coast of New Zealand. We circumnavigate this country for 6 months and discover that it is two islands. We sail west across the Tasman Sea.
19 April:  We can see land.  It is the coast of New Holland. We name this place Botany Bay after the many plant specimens that were collected from here.
We travel north towards the Great Barrier Reef.
11 June: Oh no, the boat is damaged from a piece of coral. We hastily throw all the heavy items overboard that we could do without. We keep pumping the water out and eventually the boat was light enough to float free.
We go ashore for boat repairs, this takes seven weeks.
While the repairs are being done, it is time to explore. We discover a strange animal, there isn't any animals like this at home. We find out that it is a kangaroo.
The ship is ready to sail again.  We head in the wind and make it safely through the reef.
August: We are sailing through Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea.
We stop at Batavia to clean the ship before we head home.  We only have three sick men.

The Journey Begins

 

The map of the first journey

 

 The Birth of the Commonwealth: Know Britain. Captain Cook's first voyage maps. (2004). Retrieved from www.know-britain.com/general/commonwealth.html
  

26  August 1768. It is the beginning of the great journey, we set sail from Portsmouth, England. There are 94 men on the ship and Captain Cook is in command. We have enough food to last for eighteen months! The first job that Captain Cook is given is to travel to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus across the sun. This is to work out the distance from earth to the sun. Then we are off to explore the great unknown southern land, what an adventure! 



Biography of Captain James Cook

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. (2010). Australian history timeline. Retrieved from http://www.aushistorytimeline.com/

I am excited to journey with Captain James Cook (October 27, 1728 - February 14, 1779).

I have discovered that Captain James Cook was born in a simple mud hut in Yorkshire and he was the first English explorer to map the East coast of Australia.  He made three journeys across the Pacific Ocean.  I am about to follow one amazing journey with Captain Cook on his ship called the Endeavour which began in 1768 from England to Botany Bay, New South Wales.