Jim’s Australiana Spot – 2UE - September 25, 2011

A glimpse into the Life of James Cook  

The voyages of James Cook

QUESTIONS ARE CRYPTIC TODAY - PRIZES ARE JIM'S NEW DOUBLE CD.

About this time of the year 242 years ago the Endeavour was approaching New Zealand... let's look at a typical day through the eyes of The Captain, the naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks, and the artist, Sydney Parkinson.

Captain Cook: Little wind. At 3 PM hoisted out a Boat to try the current but found none, saw several Grampusses. AM. had a Boat in the water, and Mr Banks shot an Albatross which measured 10 feet 8 Inches from the tip of one wing to the other; he likewise shot two Birds that were very much like ducks ^ excepting their head^s and bills their Plumage were dark brown; we first saw of these Birds in the Latitude of 48° St after our first coming into those Seas —

Sir Joseph Banks: Calm: I go in the boat and take up Dagysa rostrata, Serena, polyedra, Beroe incrassata, coarctata, medusa vitrea, Phyllodoce velella, with several other things which are all put in spirits. See a seal but cannot come near him to shoot. Shoot Diomedea exulans, Procellaria velox, pallipes, Latirostris, longipes and Nectris fuliginosa.

Parkinson: On the 2nd, the sea was as smooth as the Thames, and the weather fair and clear. Mr. Banks went out in a little boat, and diverted himself in shooting of Shear-waters, with one white Albatross, that measured, from the tip of one wing to the other, ten feet, seven inches; and also picked up a great many weeds of various kinds: the water looked as green as it does in the channel.

LONGITUDE: Cook's journal is full of corrections about LONGITUDE it was an obsession at the time and he later tested clocks (chronometers) for the admiralty, including Larcum Kendall's famous K1 which cost £450 to make and was a copy of the famous H4 made by John Harrison and 3 by John Arnold. You can SEE these today at Greenwich Museum in London. The ones by Arnold gained time and were erratic - the one made by Kendal lost just a few seconds Cook called it his 'never failing guide'.

Don't forget there is an incredible exhibition of Norman Lindsay's works at Rowe gallery Blackheath - for more details check out this website

'A Vision of Captain Cook'
Kenneth Slessor

Two chronometers the captain had, One by Arnold that ran like mad, One by Kendal in a walnut case, Poor devoted creature with a hangdog face. Arnold always hurried with a crazed click-click Dancing over Greenwich like a lunatic, Kendal panted faithfully his watch-dog beat, Climbing out of Yesterday with sticky little feet. Arnold choked with appetite to wolf up time, Madly round the numerals his hands would climb, His cogs rushed over and his wheels ran miles, Dragging Captain Cook to the Sandwich Isles. But Kendal dawdled in the tombstoned past, With a sentimental prejudice to going fast, And he thought very often of a haberdasher’s door And a yellow-haired boy who would knock no more. All through the night-time, clock talked to clock, In the captain’s cabin, tock-tock-tock, One ticked fast and one ticked slow, And Time went over them a hundred years ago.

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