Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
boats, sent out to find a suitable bay or inlet, had no luck. Then the
wind rose again, making manoeuvring more difficult. It was five days
before Cook could run the
Endeavour
into a small estuary and bring
her bows out of the water for the carpenter and his men to get to
work.
But when the repairs were completed Cook's troubles were not
over. How could he get away? The wind was almost continuously on-
shore. And when he was under sail, how to extricate himself from the
maze of shoals and reefs into which he had wandered? Boats were
sent north and south to look for a channel to the open sea. The res-
ults were not encouraging. And if he did get free of the reef would he
be able to make sea room away from the massive breakers pound-
ing on the outer edge of the Great Barrier? The fifteen days follow-
ing 29 July, when he was at last able to take advantage of a slight
breeze from the land and leave the creek, were a severe test of his
seamanship and captaincy. With the wind on his starboard quarter,
he moved cautiously north-eastward, preceded by the pinnace. Fre-
quently he was forced to anchor, then turning round, seek another
channel. Cook was baffled, as he honestly recorded in his journal:
I was quite at a loss which way to steer when the weather would
permit us to get under sail. For to beat back to the SE the way we
came as the master would have had me done would be an endless piece
of work, as the winds blow now constantly strong from that quarter
without hardly any intermission. On the other hand if we do not find a
passage to the northward we shall have to come back at last.
17
When the wind rose, he had to put out all the anchors to hold
Endeavour
fast and, once, the ship spent three days swinging at her
cables and surrounded by reefs and islands. As well as sending the
boats out to reconnoitre, Cook made his own observations from the
masthead and high points ashore. It was not until 13 August that
