In consequence of there resolutions, it was recommended to his Majesty, in a memorial from the Society, dated February 1768, that he would be pleased to order such an observation to be made; upon which his Majesty signified to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty his pleasure that a ship should be provided to carry such observers as the Society should think fit to the South Seas; and in the beginning of April following the Society received a letter from the Secretary of the Admiralty, informing them that a bark of three hundred and seventy tons had been taken up for that purpose. This vessel was called the Endeavour, and the command of her given to Lieutenant James Cook, a gentleman of undoubted abilities in astronomy and navigation, who was soon after, by the Royal Society, appointed, with Mr. Charles Green, a gentleman who had long been assistant to Dr. Bradley at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, to observe the transit.

While this vessel was getting ready for her expedition, Captain Wallis returned; and it having been recommended to him by Lord Morton, when he went out, to fix on a proper place for this astronomical observation, he, by letter, dated on board the Dolphin, the 18th of May 1768, the day before he landed at Hastings, mentioned Port Royal harbour, in an island which he had discovered, then called George’s Island, and since Otaheite: the Royal Society therefore, by letter, dated the beginning of June, in answer to an application from the Admiralty to be informed whither they would have their observers sent, made choice of that place.

The Endeavour had been built for the coal trade, and a vessel of that construction was preferred for many reasons, particularly because she was what the sailors call a good sea

Voyaging Accounts