18 April 1770

James Cook's Journal: Daily Entries

Table of Contents On this day ... 18 April 1770 Endeavour Voyage Maps James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia Joseph Banks's Journal Sydney Parkinson's Journal The authorised published account of Cook's Voyage by John Hawkesworth 1770 Index Search Contact us Search for Nautical Term in Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine...

18 April 1770 Wednesday 18th Winds southerly a hard gale with heavy squals attended with showers of rain and a great sea from the same quarter - At 3 PM Close reef'd the Topsails, handed the Main & Mizn topsail & got down topgallant yards - At 6 oClock the gale increased to such a height as to Oblige us to take in the Fore topsail and Main sail and to run under the Fore sail and Mizen all night sounding every 2 hours but found no ground with 120 fathoms - At 6 AM set the Mainsail and soon after the fore topsail and before noon the Main-topsail both close reef'd - At Noon our Latitude by Obsern was 38°..45' So Longitude from Cape Fare-well 23°..43' Wt and Course and distance run sence yesterday noon N. 51° West 82 Miles. Last night we saw a Port Egmont Hen and this morning two more, a Pintado bird several Albetrosses and black sheer-waters. The first of these birds are certain signs of the nearness of land, indeed we cannot be far from it for by our Longitude we are a degree to the westward of the East side of Vandieman Land according to Tasmans ^the first discoverers Longitude of it who could not err much in so short a run as from this land to NewZzeland and by our Latitude we could not be above 50 or 55 Leagues to the northward of the place where he took his departure from. Voyaging Accounts © Transcription by Paul Turnbull of National Library of Australia, Manuscript 1 page 223, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook/17700418.html