Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
once by the king and feôted by London society. It would have been
foolish not to ride this wave of national prestige.
But, as always, there was another motive for promoting a
second expedition with all despatch. Details of Bougainville's voyage
were now known and there seemed little doubt that the French
would follow up his discoveries. Particularly worrying was the fact
that he had stopped at Tahiti. This island had emerged as the obvi-
ous base for all further Pacific endeavours. It was centrally situated,
possessed good harbours, an abundance of food, water and timber
and was populated by a people almost unique among the Polyne-
sians for their friendship. The thought of the French establishing a
superior presence there was intolerable. The Admiralty, therefore,
wanted Cook to return to the scene of his former triumphs as soon
as possible. They expressed the hope that all could be in readiness
by the following March.
Cook was promoted to the rank of commander and the Navy
Board was instructed to provide him with two ships. It was probably
Cook's idea to revert to the old scheme of providing a consort vessel.
His disastrous plight on the Great Barrier Reef would have been con-
siderably eased with a second ship at his disposal which, if neces-
sary, could have taken aboard all survivors of the shipwreck and
sought another way out of the coral labyrinth. In the event, the re-
version to a two-ship expedition did not work. Throughout Cook's
second voyage of thirty-six months his flagship and consort were
twice separated and spent only twelve months together. There was
no question, now, what kind of craft was best suited to a long voyage
in the southern hemisphere. The
Endeavour
had proved herself bey-
ond a shadow of doubt. The Navy, therefore, bought two more col-
liers from the same Whitby yard, the
Marquis of Granby
(462 tons)
and the
Marquis of Rockingham
(340 tons). Both were comparatively
new and in excellent condition. After refitting, they were renamed
the
Resolution
and the
Adventure.
(An early suggestion to call them
