Endeavour, HMB

HMB Endeavour was the Royal Navy bark that carried Lieutenant James Cook on his first Pacific voyage, 1768 to 1771. Built at Whitby in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, she was bought by the Admiralty in 1768, rated His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour, and fitted to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus from Tahiti, then to search for the southern continent. Cook charted New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia, claiming the latter at Possession Island in August 1770.