Captain Cook's Bark Endeavour at sea
His Majesty's Bark Endeavour is shown under sail on the open ocean — alone, far from land, making good progress in a fresh breeze with a moderate sea running. It is a simple portrait of the ship at sea, the kind of day that made up the vast majority of Cook's first voyage: weeks of steady sailing between landfalls.
The Endeavour was originally the coal carrier Earl of Pembroke, purchased by the Admiralty in 1768 for Cook's scientific expedition to the Pacific. She was small for such an ambitious voyage, but her flat-bottomed hull — designed for the shallow rivers of the northeast coast coal trade — proved ideal for exploration, allowing Cook to beach her for repairs and to navigate the shoal waters of uncharted coastlines. She carried Cook, Joseph Banks, and a complement of 94 men on a voyage of nearly three years that encompassed the observation of the Transit of Venus at Tahiti, the circumnavigation of New Zealand, and the charting of the east coast of Australia.
The painting captures the ship in her element — alone on the ocean, pushing solidly onto the next discovery. Sold through Marine Artists gallery to the USA.
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