by Tim Flannery
We anchored near the south shore about a mile within the entrance for the conveniency of sailing with a southerly wind and the getting of fresh water, but I afterwards found a very fine stream of fresh water on the north shore in the first sandy cove within the island, before which a ship might lay almost landlocked, and wood for fuel may be got everywhere. Although wood is here in great plenty yet there is very little variety; the largest trees are as large or larger than our oaks in England and grows a good deal like them and yields a reddish gum; the wood itself is heavy, hard and black like lignum vitae; another sort that grows tall and straight something like pines, the wood of this is hard and ponderous and something of the nature of American live oaks; these two are all the timber trees I met with.
There are a few sorts of shrubs and palm trees and mangroves about the head of the harbour. The country is woody, low and flat as far inland as we could see and I believe the soil is generally sandy; in the wood are a variety of very beautiful birds such as cockatoos, lorikeets, parrots etc., and crows exactly like those we have in England. Waterfowl are no less plenty about the head of the harbour where there are large flats of sand and mud on which they seek their food: the most of these unknown to us, one sort especially which was black and white and as large as a goose but most like a pelican.
On the sand and mud banks are oysters, mussels, cockles etc., which I believe are the chief support of the inhabitants, who go into the shoaled water with their little canoes and pick them out of the sand and mud with their hands and sometimes roast and eat them in the canoe, having often a fire for that purpose as I suppose, for I know of no other use it can be for. The natives do not appear to be numberous, neither do they seem to live in large bodies but dispersed in small parties along by the water side; those I saw were about as tall as Europeans, of a very dark brown colour but not black, nor had they woolly frizzled hair, but black and lank like ours. No sort of clothing or ornaments were ever seen by any of us upon any one of them, or in or about their huts, from which I conclude they never wear any. Some we saw that had their faces and bodies painted with a sort of white paint or pigment.
Although I said that shellfish is their chief support yet they catch other sorts of fish, some of which we found roasting on the fire the first time we landed; some of these they strike with gigs and others they catch with hook and line; we have seen them strike fish with gigs, and hooks and lines were found in their huts. Stingrays I believe they do not eat because I never saw the least remains of one near any of their huts or fireplaces. However, we could but know very little of their customs as we were never able to form any connections with them; they had not so much as touched the things we had left in their huts on purpose for them to take away.
During our stay in this harbour I caused the English colours to be displayed ashore every day and an inscription to be cut in one of the trees near the watering place setting forth the ship’s name, date, etc. Having seen everything this place afforded we at daylight in the morning weighed with a light breeze at NW and put to sea, the wind soon after coming to the southward. We steered alongshore NNE and at noon we were by observation in the latitude of 33° 50’ s about two or three miles from the land and abreast of a bay or harbour wherein there appeared to be safe anchorage which I called Port Jackson.
JOSEPH BANKS
The Endeavour Holed, 1770
Perhaps it’s his well-known portrait as the corpulent, bewigged and gouty president of the Royal Society that makes us think of Sir Joseph Banks as stuffy. His Endeavour writings, however, reveal a lively, enquiring young man with a delightful sense of humour, fully worthy of the maidens bestowed upon him by Queen Purea of Tahiti.
The holing of the Endeavour on the Great Barrier Reef in June 1 770 is one of the most dramatic events in Australian exploration history. Banks’s account of the catastrophe is full of life, wonderment and terror. In it we meet a landlubber faced with the prospect of a watery death, and the marvelling of an outsider at the coolness of the ship’s crew in a moment of crisis.
Banks was perhaps secretly jubilant at the enforced stay at the Endeavour River in north Queensland, where Cooktown now is. It must have been frustrating for the great botanist to watch the coastline slip by for weeks at a time, with a captain unwilling to land. It was at Endeavour River that a European first saw a kangaroo, and where a sailor from the Endeavour encountered what appeared to be the devil himself!
8 June 1770—Still sailing between the main and islands; the former, rocky and high, looked rather less barren than usual and by the number of fires seemed to be better peopled. In the morn we passed within a quarter of a mile of a small islet or rock on which we saw with our glasses about thirty men, women and children standing all together and looking attentively at us. The first people we have seen show any signs of curiosity at the sight of the ship.
9 June—…After dinner came to an anchor and went ashore, but saw no people. The country was hilly and very stony affording nothing but fresh water, at least that we found, except a few plants that we had not before met with. At night our people caught a few small fish with their hooks and lines.
10 June—Just without us as we lay at an anchor was a small sandy island laying upon a large coral shoal, much resembling the low islands to the eastward of us but the first of the kind we had met with in this part of the south sea. Early in the morn we weighed and sailed as usual with a fine breeze along shore, the country hilly and stony. At nightfall rocks and shoals were seen ahead, on which the ship was put upon a wind offshore. While we were at supper she went over a bank of seven or eight fathom water which she came upon very suddenly; this we concluded to be the tail of the shoals we had seen at sunset and therefore went to bed in perfect security, but scarce were we warm in our beds when we were called up with the alarming news of the ship being fast ashore upon a rock, which she in a few moments convinced us of by beating very violently against the rocks.
Our situation became now greatly alarming: we had stood offshore three hours and a half with a pleasant breeze so knew we could not be very near it: we were little less than certain that we were upon sunken coral rocks, the most dreadful of all others on account of their sharp points and grinding quality which cut through a ship’s bottom almost immediately. The officers, however, behaved with inimitable coolness void of all hurry and confusion; a boat was got out in which the master went and after sounding round the ship found that she had ran over a rock and consequently had shoal water all round her. All this time she continued to beat very much so that we could hardly keep our legs upon the quarterdeck; by the light of the moon we could see her sheathing-boards etc. floating thick round her; about twelve her false keel came away.
11 June—In the meantime all kind of preparations were making for carrying out anchors, but by reason of the time it took to hoist out boats etc. the tide ebbed so much that we found it impossible to attempt to get her off till next high water, if she would hold together so long; and we now found to add to our misfortune that we had got ashore nearly at the top of high water and as night tides generally rise higher than day ones we had little hopes of getting off even then.
For our comfort, however, the ship as the tide ebbed settled to the rocks and did not beat near so much as she had done; a rock, however, under her starboard bow kept grating her bottom making a noise very plainly to be heard in the fore storerooms. This, we doubted not, would make a hole in her bottom; we only hoped that it might not let in more water than we could clear with our pumps.
In this situation day broke upon us and showed us the land about eight leagues off as we judged; nearer than that was no island or place on which we could set foot. It, however, brought with it a decrease of wind and soon after that a flat calm, the most fortunate circumstance that could possibly attend people in our circumstances. The tide we found had fallen two feet and still continued to fall. Anchors were, however, got out and laid ready for heaving as soon as the tide should rise but to our great surprise we could not observe it
to rise in the least.
Orders were now given for lightening the ship which was begun by starting our water and pumping it up; the ballast was then got up and thrown overboard as well as six of our guns (all that we had upon deck). All this time the seamen worked with surprising cheerfulness and alacrity; no grumbling or growling was to be heard throughout the ship, no not even an oath (though the ship in general was as well furnished with them as most in His Majesty’s service). About one, the water was fallen so low that the pinnace touched ground as she lay under the ship’s bows ready to take in an anchor, after this the tide began to rise and as it rose the ship worked violently upon the rocks so that by two she began to make water and increased very fast. At night the tide almost floated her but she made water so fast that three pumps, hard worked, could but just keep her clear and the fourth absolutely refused to deliver a drop of water. Now in my own opinion I entirely gave up the ship and packing up what I thought I might save prepared myself for the worst.
The most critical part of our distress now approached. The ship was almost afloat and everything ready to get her into deep water but she leaked so fast that with all our pumps we could just keep her free. If (as was probable) she should make more water when hauled off she must sink and we well knew that our boats were not capable of carrying us all ashore, so that some, probably the most of us, must be drowned: a better fate maybe than those would have who should get ashore without arms to defend themselves from the Indians or provide themselves with food, on a country where we had not the least reason to hope for subsistence had they even every convenience to take it as nets etc., so barren had we always found it; and had they even met with good usage from the natives and food to support them, debarred from a hope of ever again seeing their native country or conversing with any but the most uncivilised savages perhaps in the world.
The dreadful time now approached and the anxiety in everybody’s countenance was visible enough. The capstan and windlass were manned and they began to heave: fear of death now stared us in the face. Hopes we had none but of being able to keep the ship afloat till we could run her ashore on some part of the main where out of her materials we might build a vessel large enough to carry us to the East Indies.
At ten o’clock she floated and was in a few minutes hauled into deep water where to our great satisfaction she made no more water than she had done, which was indeed full as much as we could manage, though no one there was in the ship but who willingly exerted his utmost strength.
12 June—The people who had been twenty-four hours at exceeding hard work now began to flag; myself, unused to labour, was much fatigued and had laid down to take a little rest; was awaked about twelve with the alarming news of the ship’s having gained so much upon the pumps that she had four feet water in her hold. Add to this that the wind blew off the land a regular land breeze so that all hopes of running her ashore were totally cut off. This, however, acted upon everybody like a charm: rest was no more thought of but the pumps went with unwearied vigour till the water was all out, which was done in a much shorter time than was expected, and upon examination it was found that she never had half so much water in her as was thought, the carpenter having made a mistake in sounding the pumps.
We now began again to have some hopes and to talk of getting the ship into some harbour as we could spare hands from the pumps to get up our anchors; one bower, however, we cut away but got the other and three small anchors far more valuable to us than the bowers, as we were obliged immediately to warp her to windward that we might take advantage of the sea breeze to run in shore.
One of our midshipmen now proposed an expedient which no one else in the ship had seen practised, though all had heard of it by the name of fothering a ship, by the means of which he said he had come home from America in a ship which made more water than we did; nay so sure was the master of that ship of his expedient that he took her out of harbour knowing how much water she made and trusting entirely to it.
He was immediately set to work with four or five assistants to prepare his fother which he did thus. He took a lower studding sail and, having mixed together a large quantity of oakum chopped fine and wool, he sticked it down upon the sail as loosely as possible in small bundles each about as big as his fist: these were ranged in rows three or four inches from each other. This was to be sunk under the ship and the theory of it was this: wherever the leak was must be a great suction which would probably catch hold of one or other of these lumps of oakum and wool and, drawing it in either partly or entirely, stop up the hole. While this work was going on the water rather gained on those who were pumping which made all hands impatient for the trial.
In the afternoon the ship was got under way with a gentle breeze of wind and stood in for the land; soon after the fother was finished and applied by fastening ropes to each corner, then sinking the sail under the ship and with these ropes drawing it as far backwards as we could; in about half an hour to our great surprise the ship was pumped dry and upon letting the pumps stand she was found to make very little water, so much beyond our most sanguine expectations had this singular expedient succeeded.
At night came to an anchor, the fother still keeping her almost clear so that we were in an instant raised from almost despondency to the greatest hopes. We were now almost too sanguine, talking of nothing but getting her into some harbour where we might lay her ashore and repair her, or if we could not find such a place we little doubted to the East Indies.
During the whole time of this distress I must say for the credit of our people that I believe every man exerted his utmost for the preservation of the ship, contrary to what I have universally heard to be the behaviour of seamen who have commonly as soon as a ship is in a desperate situation began to plunder and refuse all command. This was no doubt owing entirely to the cool and steady conduct of the officers, who during the whole time never gave an order which did not show them to be perfectly composed and unmoved by the circumstances howsoever dreadful they might appear.
13 June—One pump, and that not half worked, kept the ship clear all night. In the morn we weighed with a fine breeze of wind and steered along ashore among innumerable shoals, the boats keeping ahead and examining every appearance of a harbour which presented itself; nothing, however, was met with which could possibly suit our situation, bad as it was, so at night we came to an anchor. The pinnace, however, which had gone far ahead was not returned, nor did she till nine o’clock, when she reported that she had found just the place we wanted, in which the tide rose sufficiently and there was every natural convenience that could be wished for either laying the ship ashore or heaving her down. This was too much to be believed by our most sanguine wishes: we, however, hoped that the place might do for us if not so much as we had been told yet something to better our situation, as yet but precarious, having nothing but a lock of wool between us and destruction.
14 June—Very fresh sea breeze. A boat was sent ahead to show us the way into the harbour, but by some mistake of signals we were obliged to come to an anchor again of the mouth of it without going in, where it soon blew too fresh for us to weigh. We now began to consider our good fortune; had it blown as fresh the day before yesterday or before that we could never have got off but must inevitably have been dashed to pieces on the rocks.
The captain and myself went ashore to view the harbour and found it indeed beyond our most sanguine wishes: it was the mouth of a river the entrance of which was, to be sure, narrow enough and shallow but, when once in, the ship might be moored afloat so near the shore that, by a stage from her to it, all her cargo might be got out and in again in a very short time; in this same place she might be hove down with all ease, but the beach gave signs of the tides rising in the springs six or seven feet which was more than enough to do our business without that trouble. The meeting with so many natural advantages in a harbour so near us at the very time of our misfortune appeared almost providential; we had not in the voyage before seen a place so well suited for our purpos
e as this was, and certainly had no right to expect the tides to rise so high here that did not rise half so much at the place where we struck, only eight leagues from this place; we therefore returned on board in high spirits…
17 June—Weather a little less rough than it was. Weighed and brought the ship in but in doing it ran her twice ashore by the narrowness of the channel; the second time she remained till the tide lifted her off. In the meantime Dr Solander and myself began our plant gathering. In the evening the ship was moored within twenty feet of the shore afloat and before night much lumber was got out of her…
20 June—Weather cleared up so we began to gather and dry plants of which we had hopes of as many as we could muster during our stay…
21 June—Fine clear weather: began today to lay plants in sand. By night the ship was quite clear and in the night’s tide (which we had constantly observed to be much higher than the day’s) we hauled her ashore.
22 June—In the morn I saw her leak which was very large: in the middle was a hole large enough to have sunk a ship with twice our pumps, but here providence had most visibly worked in our favour, for it was in great measure plugged up by a stone which was as big as a man’s fist. Round the edges of this stone had all the water come in which had so near overcome us, and here we found the wool and oakum or fothering which had relieved us in so unexpected a manner. The effects of the coral rock upon her bottom is difficult to describe but more to believe; it had cut through her plank and deep into one of her timbers, smoothing the gashes still before it so that the whole might easily be imagined to be cut with an axe. Myself employed all day in laying in plants. The people who were sent to the other side of the water in order to shoot pigeons saw an animal as large as a greyhound, of a mouse colour and very swift.† They also saw many Indian houses and a brook of fresh water.
23 June—The people who went over the river saw the animal again and described him much in the same manner as yesterday.