CAPTAIN COOK’S FIGUREHEAD

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1929, Page 5

CAPTAIN COOK’S FIGUREHEAD

DID NOT EXIST. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Ql% 31. Lieut. Col. H. C. H. Burton, late of the Royal Artillery, writing to the Press Association from Nelson, says the reported, discovery of the figurehead of the “Endeavour,” is interesting. Unfortunately, it is .on record that when Captain Cook returned from, his first voyage (the only ope in which the “Endeavour” was employed) lie reported to the Admiralty that he had been put to some difficulty in Brazil because Hie Portuguese governor refused to believe the “Endeavour” was a man-o’-war, owing to her having no figurehead, and Cook, therfore, asketl the Admiralty to furnish his,ships on his second ( and third voyages with that they might be duly recognised as men-o’-war. ' i The absence of a figurehead on the “Endeavour” during the time she was employed by Capt. Cook is further borne' out by the original dockyard draft of the ship, showing the alterations made ,tb her. by the Admiralty when she was purchased into the service for Cook’s voyage. This drawing is.now the valued possession of the Sydney Yacht Club. The vessel is shown with a straight stem and no figurehead. These data are taken from a lecture on Cook’s ships by YV. Larid Clowes, an eminent naval historian, and published in the English Geographical Journal in their March 1927 number.