PURCHASE OF THE ENDEAVOUR.

The Navy Board, having been ordered by the Admiralty to propose a proper vessel to convey the observers to the South Seas, first suggested the Tryal Sloop, and then the Rose, but both being found unsuitable they were ordered to purchase one. On 29th March the Board wrote to Stephens that they had bought:

"a cat-built Bark, in Burthen 368 Tuns and of the age of three years and nine months, for conveying such persons as shall be thought proper to the Southward…"

At the same time, instructions were sought as to fitting and arming her for the service, and as to the name under with she was to be registered on the list of the Navy. A cat-built ship is described in the Encyclopaedias as one with round bluff bows, a wide deep waist, and tapering towards the stern. The name is derived from the Norwegian kati, a ship.

The cat-built bark, the now immortal Endeavour, was built by Messrs. Fishburn of Whitby, and owned by Mr. William Milner of that port. Dr. Young says that her original name was the Earl of Pembroke, but Sir Evan Macgregor wrote to Mr. Waddington in 1888 that she was purchased "under the name of the Endeavour, and was entered as a barque." The Warrant Entry Book from Board of Trade proves that Dr. Young was right, as the following entries will show:

"Deptford, March 23rd 1768. Two cats called the Valentine and the Earl of Pembroke to be surveyed and report which is the properest to be purchased."

"Deptford, March 28th 1768. Ship Earl of Pembroke to be received."

"Deptford, April 7th 1768. Ship purchased to be sheathed, filled, and fitted for a voyage to the southward. To be called The Endeavour Bark."

From the Records of the Survey Office, List of H.M. Navy, 1771 to 1776, it has been ascertained that her price was 2,800 pounds, and the cost of fitting her for the voyage was 2,294 pounds. The reason she was named officially either the Bark Endeavour or Endeavour Bark, was that there was another Endeavour in the Navy, stationed at that time at the Nore. Kippis says that Pallisser was entrusted with the selection of the ship, and that he called on Cook for assistance in the matter, and the fact that a Whitby-built ship was chosen, of a kind in which Cook had had considerable experience, adds to the probability of his statement. Dalrymple enters a claim, in letters to Dr. Hawkesworth, to having chosen the Endeavour for the voyage, but as she was not ordered to be surveyed, with a view to purchase, till 23rd March, when it was well-known the Admiralty had refused to allow him the command of the expedition, there is little force in his claim.