Cruising back in time in FNQ

It is a small town that is big on history and Ralph Chant takes us on a trip back in time following in the footsteps of the first European to step onshore at what was to become Cooktown.

At about 1530hr on August 21 2009, I kicked the tilt lock on my boat trailer and my Cal 21 trailer-sailer slipped gently into the Endeavour River. I have made many such launchings, but this launching was the cause of great joy and seemed like it was always meant to be. I have rarely been so happy. This launching ended what had been a long and very enjoyable journey to Cooktown; a journey which commenced in 1958.  

A childhood memory

In the mid 1950s my mum and dad used to take my sister and me on an annual camping holiday to Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef. We lived in Cairns and, while the 17nm journey was no great voyage, in those days there were only weekend boat services to the island. Those quiet weekdays, free of day-trippers, created a sense of isolation that allowed a boy to use his imagination in a proper manner. 17nm was easily imagined to be 17,000nm and, in my imaginings, each Monday to Friday my ownership of the whole island was absolute.

While on those annual holidays I always found time to sit quietly against a tree by the beach and read for hours, sometimes days, on end. One story that stuck firm was the story of the men who were the first to plot my island’s true position (relative to the greater earth) and to give it its current name.

I also read how, having mapped and named my island, they sailed north from it on June 10 1770, only to run up on the Barrier Reef the very next day. Their achievement of hauling their ship off the reef, fothering her hull and sailing on to eventually make repairs on a sand shoal in what is now the Endeavour River is one of the great survival efforts in maritime history. While on my island I would often stare away to the north and imagine that, one day, I would sail my own yacht to those places and be where they had been and perhaps to see what they had seen.

In the interim, I contented myself with reading whatever I could find about those people and studying the maps they made and the maps that followed.

A small contribution to Cook’s atlas

In 1967 I joined the Army and served until 1990. From 1971 until 1986 I studied, practiced and prospered in the disciplines of lithographic artistry and cartographic photography. During that period, the Royal Australian Survey Corps (RASVY), along with its aeronautical and topographical chart production departments was also involved in the printing of large format hydrographic charts. Job satisfaction was full watching these charts come off the presses during those years.

James Cook was our first true surveyor. He commenced the true and accurate (modern) surveying of our continent.

The subsequent involvement of the military in the surveying of our continent from its coastline to its interior has been significant. I feel that along with every member of every military surveying expedition and organisation since 1770 we have simply been adding our collective inputs to the hydrographic and topographic atlas that James Cook initiated. For those who are concerned that I am overlooking the efforts of the Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish please understand that their contributions were essential. However, there are orders of control in the science of surveying. All who had preceded James Cook were simply not charting with the same order of accuracy that Lt Cook applied.

In the footsteps of heroes

This story arises out of two visits to Cooktown, by two different vessels, separated by 239 years; HMB Endeavour and SV Splash.

While James Cook was conducting his running-survey along our entire east coast, HMB Endeavour had to, from time to time, be in the hands of others.

While the spotlight of history rightly shines on Cook, there are some mighty interesting people to be seen in the penumbra of that spotlight. One such man is John Gore.

John Gore RN

Gore was born and raised in Virginia, USA in 1730. By 1755, he had joined the Royal Navy. In 1764 he joined the crew on HMS Dolphin as a master’s mate and set off on his first Pacific voyage. In 1766 Gore signed up for another Pacific expedition, again as master’s mate. In 1768, Gore signed up for his third and Cook’s first voyage into the Pacific. He kept a journal (Adm:51/4548/145/6 Journal 03 July 1768 to 07 December 1769) signed as the Master Hunter.

As a sailor, Gore was clearly the most travelled officer on Endeavour and someone who Cook relied on often. As a Master Hunter, he became a friend to Joseph Banks, being tasked by Banks to shoot specimens for the collection being assembled on Endeavour.

Endeavour River 1770

Having brought HMB Endeavour onto the ground in a sheltered river the work of repairing her commenced.

At the same time, the work of surveying, botanising and exploring this new place continued. Whenever Lt Gore shot a new creature, it was first drawn in detail by the ship’s artists. The creature’s whole weight and dimensions were recorded after which its head, entrails and skin were removed. The carcass weight was then recorded. Skins were preserved for transport back to England.

The carcass, having been thoroughly examined, was then subject to one final examination. The taste test. All carcasses were turned over to the ship’s cook. As the ship’s Master Hunter, Gore achieved some notoriety for his hunting skills.

Endeavour River 2006

On October 1 2006, having completed morning tea by the bank of the Endeavour River, I headed up to the James Cook Museum in Cooktown. There I had an appointment with Helen Crampton, museum curator, who kindly allowed me access to bits and pieces that were not available to the general public. We spent two full days sifting very carefully through the museum’s copies of the documents and journals that had been produced by Cook and Banks and others on the ship.

It was during this visit that I decided to bring my yacht to the Endeavour River and sail the tracks and attend the places described in these documents. From the many items that we researched, we made our best determination as to where the following might have taken place.

Endeavour River 1770

From the journal of Lt. Cook, “July 14th, 1770: Mr Gore being out in the country shot one of the animals before spoke of, it was a small one of the sort weighing only 28lbs clear of the entrails . . . ”

From the journal of Lt Cook, “July 27th, 1770: In the am [morning] caught in the sain as much fish as come to ¾lb a man and Mr Gore shot one of the animals before spoke of which weighed 80lbs and 54 exclusive of the entrails, skin and head, this was a large as most we had seen . . .”

Endeavour River 2009

From Cook’s journal, I knew that Gore had gone four to five miles up river on some of his hunts. On August 24 2009, I sailed SV Splash up the Endeavour River to a point where the mangroves broke out into clear country and which was about four miles from where the Bark Endeavour had been grounded. It would have been somewhere in this area that Lt Gore shot the wallaby and the kangaroo some 239 years earlier. These two animals are the first of their species, in any written record, to have died by gunfire. Guns fired by an American sharpshooter named Gore to boot.

During our time on the Endeavour River, we retraced many other activities undertaken by the people who had lived and cruised aboard HMB Endeavour. It was a most enjoyable cruise.

Cooktown today

Cooktown is a cruising sailor’s dream. A quiet, well serviced town with plenty of sheltered anchorages for yachts of all sizes.

After our initial launching, we found a vacant mooring off the south bank of the river. There is a service jetty where fuel, water and ice can be purchased. It is a commercial jetty so give way to the commercial fishing and tour operators.

One morning, Splash was queued up behind a trawler that was unloading live coral trout into aerated tanks on a truck. They were to be taken by plane to Cairns then by international flight bound for the orient. These fish would have been in Singapore, Hong Kong and other places before Splash’s crew had climbed into their bunks that night.

Cooktown is the cruising helmsman’s last port of call if sailing north to Lizard Island and the Torres Strait Islands.

There are many interesting day sails to be taken out from Cooktown and, for those aboard smaller yachts, a couple of very interesting rivers to explore. The Endeavour River in Cooktown and the Annan River just to the south of Cooktown are both navigable for boats with retractable keels, as far as the first road bridges.

Every year, on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, Cooktown puts on one of Australia’s best historical re-enactments during which a condensed reenactment of Cook’s visit is played out and a great time is had by all.

A highlight has always been a fireworks display. Over the past few years, the fireworks display has been a display of aquatic fireworks similar to those used by the Royal Navy in the late 18th century to impress the locals.

SV Splash 2009

August 24, when the sun had set and the dishes had been done and packed away, we peered over Splash’s stern and watched little snakes of phosphorescence dancing off our rudder and outboard motor leg. This gentle, glowing wake was caused by the tide powering in as Splash rode at her mooring in the river.

As we did on most nights, we left the companionway hatch fully open. This affords us a view of the night sky as we lay in our bunks. There were no mozzies.

The Cooktown sky is very different when compared to other skies under which Splash has anchored. As we lay in our bunks, staring at the sky, the stars grew more numerous as the influence of the moon waned. As the number of stars increased the whole star-field seemed to draw closer to the top of Splash’s mast, giving the impression that the sky was almost touchable. There cannot be too many more peaceful ways to fall to sleep.