Captain Cook's First Voyage: Round the World in the Endeavour

Endeavour anchored at the entrance of Plymouth Sound on 14 July 1768 and spent six weeks getting ready. Cook sent an express to London for Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and was ordered to enlarge his crew from 70 to 85 men. He told them plainly that they should expect no additional pay for the voyage. On 26 August the ship put to sea with 94 people and nearly 18 months of provisions. Drake's Island lies at the north of the sound, and Plymouth Hoe forms its northern limit.

Location precision: The ship lay at anchor in the sound; the pin marks Drake's Island, at the north of the sound.

Visitor guidance: Plymouth Hoe forms the northern limit of the sound and looks across it to Drake's Island.

On 16 January 1769, in rain and snow, Endeavour anchored in the Bay of Success on Tierra del Fuego. Three of the local people came on board without the least hesitation. The weather turned very cold, and when Mr. Banks and his party did not return, Cook admitted to great uneasiness. When they were back, two of Banks's servants had perished in the night with cold. The ship sailed on 21 January. Cook used the bay as a watering point again on his second voyage.

Location precision: Cook anchored somewhere inside the bay; the pin marks the bay itself.

The reason for the whole voyage played out here. Endeavour anchored in Matavai Bay in April 1769, and Cook chose the north-east point of the bay for an observatory and a small fort under the ship's guns: Fort Venus. On 3 June "not a Cloud was to be seen the whole day." Cook, Green and Solander watched Venus cross the Sun and saw a dusky shade round the planet, but their timings of the contacts differed more than expected. Cook wrote that the point was named from the observation. It lies about 8 km east of Papeete.

Visitor guidance: Point Venus is a peninsula on Tahiti's north coast, about 8 km east of Papeete, at the north-east end of Matavai Bay.

In October 1769 Cook set foot in New Zealand here, leading only the second group of Europeans known to have reached it. The first encounters went badly: four or five Māori were killed, among them a man named Te Maro. Tupaia could speak with the local people, yet the encounters still ended in killing, and Cook's journal shows regret at failing his orders to avoid hostilities. He left, naming the bay Poverty Bay "because it afforded us no one thing we wanted." Today it is officially Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay, and Gisborne stands on its northern shore.

Location precision: Cook anchored by the mouth of a small river on the bay; the pin marks the bay as a whole.

Visitor guidance: The city of Gisborne stands on the northern shore of the bay.

In January 1770 Cook anchored in Ship Cove and used it as a base to replenish food, water and wood. He found a fine stream of excellent water, a shore camp with vegetable gardens and a pen for pigs went up, and on 31 January he climbed Motuara Island, hoisted the Union flag, named the inlet Queen Charlotte's Sound and took formal possession of it and the adjacent lands for the king. An old man there told him there was a passage into the eastern sea; the Endeavour sailed out on 5 February through Cook Strait.

Location precision: The claim was made on nearby Motuara Island; the pin marks the Ship Cove anchorage.

Visitor guidance: Meretoto / Ship Cove is a Category 1 historic place managed by the Department of Conservation; a Cook monument there was unveiled in 1913.

On 29 April 1770 Cook made his first landfall on the Australian continent, at a beach now known as Silver Beach. Two men seemed resolved to oppose the landing, and neither Cook nor Tupaia could understand one word they said. Cook fired a warning shot, then a second loaded with small shot, and the crew landed. The party took 40 to 50 spears, and the beads left with children in the huts were found untouched next morning. Called Stingray Harbour at first, the bay became Botany Bay for the specimens collected by Banks and Solander. The ship left on 6 May.

Location precision: Cook's journal does not fix the spot; the pin marks the landing-place area at Kurnell near Silver Beach.

Visitor guidance: Kamay Botany Bay National Park, managed by the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, covers the Kurnell landing area; a plaque for the first landing was placed on the cliff at Inscription Point in 1822.

Cook named Cape Tribulation "because here began all our Troubles," and on 11 June 1770 the ship struck the Great Barrier Reef and stuck fast. The crew threw overboard guns, ballast and stores; a sail fothered under the hull reduced the leak; Cook picked a place to lay her ashore. The seven weeks of repairs saw Banks and Solander document over 200 new plant species, and a crewman see a mouse-coloured animal swift of foot. The word kangaroo entered English from the local Guugu Yimidhirr. Cooktown now stands at the river mouth.

Location precision: The ship was beached near the docks of modern Cooktown; the pin marks the river mouth.

Visitor guidance: Cooktown stands at the mouth of the Endeavour River, where Cook beached the ship in 1770.

On 22 August 1770 Cook landed with Banks and Solander on an island on the south-east side of the passage. From the highest hill he could see no land to the west-south-west and did not doubt there was a passage. Then he hoisted English colours and, in the name of King George the Third, took possession of the whole eastern coast, calling it New Wales (the Admiralty copy of his journal says New South Wales). Three volleys were fired, answered by the ship. The island is home to the Kaurareg, who won native title in 2001.

Location precision: The journal places the landing on an island at the passage's south-east point; the pin marks Possession Island, as named on Cook's chart.

Endeavour anchored in Batavia Road in October 1770 with, Cook could record, not one man on the sick list. But Batavia was known for malaria, and the stay turned the voyage grim. The ship was moved to Onrust, where a shipyard had stood since 1615, to be careened; the surgeon, Mr. Monkhouse, died of a fever. Seven of the expedition died at Batavia and 23 more on the way home, among the dead Tupaia, Herman Spöring, Charles Green and Sydney Parkinson. Cook likened Endeavour to a hospital ship. She sailed on 26 December.

Visitor guidance: Onrust is part of an archaeological park created in 2002 to protect the ruins and open them to visitors.

The long voyage ended on 12 July 1771, when Endeavour anchored in the Downs and Cook went ashore at Deal, Kent. In his journal he wrote that he landed "in order to repair to London." His return was unexpected: newspapers and journals had long reported fears that the ship had been lost at sea. The voyage had lasted almost three years. The Downs is a roadstead off the east Kent coast, where there are records of as many as 800 sailing ships at anchor at one time.

Location precision: The Downs is a stretch of sheltered sea off Deal, not a single spot; the pin marks the roadstead.