Model of HMS Endeavour.
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| Model of HMS Endeavour. |
When being used in the coal trade, colliers were little more than floating coal stores and it was the capacity of their large holds that made them ideal for exploration.
The ship was expected to be away from Britain for up to three years and needed to be self-sufficient for most of that time.
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| Repairing the Endeavour. |
Cook did not actually choose the Endeavour, but he would have been very familiar with the type as it was identical to the vessels he had sailed on when delivering coal from the north of England to London.
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| Plan of Deptford Dockyard. |
The Earl of Pembroke was bought by the Royal Navy for £2800. It was renamed Endeavour and taken to Royal Dockyard at Deptford in south-east London to be altered for the voyage.
The Endeavour's alterations received were given a high priority at the yard, and the work of fitting the new deck, masts, yards and sails cost a further £2500 (the cost of buying the ship and refitting it was around £1 million in today's values).
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| Admiralty Sheer Draughts of the Endeavour, 1768. © NMM |
A new deck was built by Deptford Dockyard. It ran the length of the ship, splitting the vast coal hold in two and creating the extra space needed to house the larger crew. The only problem was that the accommodation it created forward and aft (at the front and back of the ship) was little over 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches) high, so the men living in these spaces would have to bend double to move around.
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| Admiralty Deck Plan of the Endeavour, 1768 |
The Great Cabin (the large cabin at the stern) would normally have been the captain's. On this voyage the space was shared by Cook, the scientists and the artists and used as a workroom. It was the best-lit and aired cabin in the ship and so the best place for book work.
The sleeping cabins were often less than two metres square. Although Joseph Banks had his own cabin, he was a tall man and tended to sling his hammock in the Great Cabin.