In a world first, all three of explorer Captain James Cook’s handwritten journals from his three Pacific voyages will be on display together. The National Library of Australia’s Endeavour Journal will be joined by Cook’s two other journals, on loan from the British Library in London, to mark the 250th anniversary of the beginning of his three Pacific voyages.
Sam Neill says he is fascinated with those “initial awkward, often funny, sometimes tragic first encounters” between Captain Cook, his crew, and the people they met in the Pacific.
When we think about Cook’s time in the Pacific, ‘funny’ isn’t usually the first, or even the second, word that comes to mind. But in this six-part series helmed by Neill, viewers discover the very human, and sometimes humorous, side of Cook’s three voyages to the Pacific.
Two hundred and fifty years ago today, Lieutenant James Cook sailed a 30m coal carrier named Endeavour out of Plymouth, England, plotting a course for wonder, immortality and a turquoise-edged, red-hearted paradise we’d come to call Australia. There should have been fireworks that day; angel-voiced choristers and a hundred stout men with snare drums lining the Plymouth dockyards.
As celebrations kick off in Plymouth, England this weekend to mark 250 years since Captain James Cook set sail for Australia in 1768, local maritime historians are pushing for the establishment of a Cook Heritage Trail along the east coast of Australia. While the federal government announced plans to mark the Cook legacy with a $50 million park at Kurnell in Botany Bay by 2020, including a $3 million commemorative statue of Captain James Cook, amateur historians are calling to redraw our east coast map and rename land features according to Cook’s log.
If you regularly follow our blog or attend our events you’ll know that this week, 26 August to be precise, marks 250 years since Captain James Cook set sail from Plymouth on board the Endeavour on a voyage of exploration (1768-1771). His mission was two-fold: to record the 1769 Transit of Venus from Tahiti, which would help calculate the distance of the earth from the sun, and to search for a mysterious southern landmass that everyone was so curious about.
To mark the 250th anniversary since the greatest voyage of all time, Royal Mail has released a series of intricate stamps – and they’re a collectors’ dream. A new collection of limited edition stamps have been released to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook setting sail on one of the greatest voyages of discovery of all time. Launched by the Royal Mail, the 10 designs each feature drawings, paintings and landscapes captured with nearly 100 men including astronomers, artists and scientists on board HM Bark Endeavour.