May 1770, Navigating Moreton Bay

Endeavour's Daily Sailing Records

Ship's Log which records significant parameters by the hour each day.

Endeavour's Log for the 17 May 1770. Columns: (24 hours from midday 16 May to midday 17 May), Speed (knots), Ship's Course, Wind, Sounding (fathoms), Comments. Note the bottom right Latitude is at midday 17 May.

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Ship's Journal which is a more personal record of Cook's thoughs and events.

Cook's Journal 17 May 1770 extract which reads ". . place may always be found by 3 hills which lay to the northward of it in the Latitude of 26 deg 53 min S. these hills lay but a little way inland, and not far from each other. they are very remarkable on account of their singular form of elivation, which very much resembles glass houses which occasioned my giving them that name . ."

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Running Survey

Daily Working documentation of the running surveys. The Greenwich Museum advises "Unfortunately it appears most of Cook's original charts and notes have not survived. Those that have look to be primarily held by the British Library and The National Archives. The following page from The National Archives catalogue lists surviving Cook material by institution, as you can see most of it is with the British Library including drawings, maps, charts etc".

This catalogue does not appear to have any materials relevant to Cook's running surveys during his Endeavour voyage.

A reminder about nautical measurements in 1770

Distance
Nautical miles (nm) = 1.852 km
League = 3 nm (5.556 km)

Bearings, Latitude & Longitude
DegreeS(360): arcminute(60): arcsecond(60)
At the equator 1 arcmin = 1 nm

Speed
Knots = nm/hr

Depth
Fathom = 6 feet = 1.83 m

Ship's Day
24 hrs midday to midday, ie, the 17 May 1770 in Cook's journal
covers from midday 16 May to midday 17 May

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Chart of the east coast of New-Holland by James Cook 1770
Plate 1st / W. Harrison sc
Creator Cook, James, 1728-1779
Call Number MAP NK 5557 A
Created/Published [London] : Published according to Act of Parliament by A Dalrymple, Oct. 4th 1789

This appears to be the first official publication of Cook's charts. A digital copy of which is available from the National Library of Australia from Trove.

Below is an extract as he sailed past Moreton bay and the Glass Houses While the chart is reasonably accurate there are some errors, which will be obvious to those who are familiar with this area.

There was much public interest in the voyage of the Endeavour. Dr J Hawkesworth publish an edited version in three volumes in 1773 of Cook's, Banks and Solander's Journals. He renamed Morton as Moreton and since this was the only published version this error persited. [5]

References:

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