Batemans Bay Heritage Museum is currently closed to the community due to COVID-19. Extracts from the Museum's Cook and the Pacific exhibition are available on the Cook250 Page of the Society's website.
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Meanwhile, Myf Thompson, shares her take on that momentous voyage 250 years ago:
Imagine what it was like sailing with 93 other souls on a 30 metre Whitby 'cat', a former collier tricked out as a research vessel, heading to places where no-one you knew had ever been, to watch an astronomical event you didn't understand, to find a probably mythical land in uncharted ocean. All under a captain who forced you to eat your greens and wash twice a week.
Such was the lot of crew on board the 'Endeavour'.
2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the first of three Pacific Voyages of Discovery.
King George III commissioned the 'Endeavour' to observe the Transit of Venus across the sun, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, a junior Royal naval officer with proven skills in cartography and mathematics.
Funded by the Navy and Royal Society of London the mission was officially to record a rare astronomical event of significance to the scientific community requiring measurements to be taken from vantage points around the known world.
Cook sailed to Hawaii in 1769 and completed this task. Instead of returning to England, secret military instructions revealed he was to continue sailing to locate 'the unknown southern land' which had to be out there. Somewhere. In uncharted waters.
And he was to find it and claim it before enemies like France got a look in. In September 1769 the expedition reached New Zealand, being the second Europeans to visit there, following the first European discovery by Abel Tasman 127 years earlier. Cook and his crew spent the following six months charting the New Zealand coast, before resuming their voyage westward across open sea.
In April 1770 they became the first known Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia, making landfall near present-day Point Hicks.
Cook gave European names to all the prominent features on the coasts he surveyed.
Inspiration for these names came from a variety of sources: from the shape, colour or general characteristics of the landscape, eg Mt Dromedary (Gulaga), the ship's crew if they had been the first to sight the land, eg Point Hicks [Tolywiarar], Admiralty notables, and the experiences of the ship's company, eg Botany Bay [Gwea].
An exception was Bateman Bay - which Cook named for a friend.
April 21/22 1770: "... an open Bay wherein lay three or 4 small Islands bore NWBW distant 4 ^5 or 6 Leagues this Bay seem'd [sic] to be but very little shelterd [sic] from the sea winds and yet it is the only likely anchoring place I have yet seen upon the Coast."
Who was Bateman?
Earlier in his career, Cook was master of the survey ship Northumberland under the command of Nathaniel Bateman. Following service in the seven year war against France in Quebec, they were tasked with producing charts of the St Lawrence River and the Canadian coastline.
These charts are amongst the finest examples of coastal cartography of the period and are jointly signed by Bateman and Cook. Naming the Bay after Nathaniel was a tribute to their mutual respect and skill in nautical charting.
Close but no cigar.
Standing several furlongs off the coast, Cook noted the Bay but it was left to Lt Robert Johnston, 50 years later, to reveal the bay as an ocean outlet for the river system we know today as the Clyde [Bhundoo].
Cook circumnavigated the world twice. His charts of the southern Pacific Ocean were so remarkably accurate that copies of them were still in use in the mid-20th century.
Unlike Cook, who was celebrated long before his early death, Bateman's distinguished career ended in court martial and dismissal for "not supporting" during a sea battle. It was felt by many in the naval fraternity to be harsh and unjustified scapegoating, instigated by the controversial Admiral George Rodney to cover an ill-conceived campaign.
Nathaniel received a pension, but he never served at sea again and disappeared into obscurity. However, his friendship with Cook ensures Nathaniel's name remains part of Australia's and our local heritage, through Batemans Bay and Batemans Marine Park.
The difference between a map and a nautical chart
A nautical chart represents hydrographic data, providing very detailed information on water depths, shoreline, tide predictions, obstructions to navigation such as rocks and shipwrecks, and navigational aids. In the "Age of Sail" such detail often meant the difference between life and death.
A chart is used by mariners to plot courses through open bodies of water as well as in highly trafficked areas. Because of its critical importance in promoting safe navigation, the nautical chart has a certain level of legal standing and authority.
The term "map," emphasizes landforms and encompasses various geographic and cartographic products. Some examples of maps might be road maps or atlases, or city plans. A map usually represents topographical information. They provide a reference guide showing predetermined routes like roads and highways. Nautical charts provide detailed information on hidden dangers to navigation. Maps provide no information on the condition of a road.