Artist: Geoff Hunt
Date: 1768
Size: 61 x 91 cm
Museum: National Maritime Museum Cornwall (United Kingdom)
Technique: Oil On Canvas
This painting by Geoff Hunt shows Cook's Endeavour leaving Plymouth in 1768. The Royal Society had requested the Admiralty's aid in observing the transit of Venus at Tahiti, to occur in June 1769, and Cook was given the command of the expedition. Secret instructions made clear that Cook also was to search for Terra Australis incognita, the "Southern Continent," which philosophers argued must exist to balance the land masses of the Northern Hemisphere. Cook and the Endeavour left Plymouth on August 26th 1768. The HM Bark Endeavour returned to port in 1771, a voyage of three years, having been reported missing, lost to the unknown sea. But the battered Whitby built ship with pennants flying and the great Royal Navy Ensign clearly to be seen on her quarter deck, sailed up the Channel and anchored off the Downs. There were only 56 on board now plus the indestructible goat.
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