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 | Volume 7 (2014) |
JAMES COOK IN THE COROMANDEL
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 Captain James Cook 1728 - 1779. Click to enlarge the photo. |
Captain James Cook had a timetable in mind as he approached the locality that is present day Tauranga on November 3rd, 1769. After six weeks at sea from Tahiti he had sighted New Zealand on October 1769 and he was now looking for a suitable place to witness the transit of Mercury - when the planet Mercury would pass in front of the sun thus enabling it to be viewed against the sun.
This had been witnessed before on at least six previous occasions beginning in 1631. So far the coast had offered few opportunities as no suitable harbour or safe anchorage had presented itself. He had to find a safe place and a fine sunny day for the observations.
James Cook in his ship the Endeavour, a converted coal carrier from the English east coast was in the unique position of being on a coast for which he had absolutely no maps and where he had to rely completely on whatever he had already on the ship to guide him safely. Moreover the natives who he had so far encountered had greeted him with threats to kill him and his crew should he set foot on their land. He knew that this is what they said because he carried with him Tupaia, a Tahitian, who was able to communicate with the Maori they encountered. He discovered quite quickly that most of the threats made were bluster and that Maori were keen to trade.
Local Maori thought Cook and men were ‘goblins’ who could remove their skin (clothes) and scalp (hats) and who must have eyes in the back of their heads as they rowed backwards. Trade seems to have centred around food such as the excellent lobsters described by Joseph Banks the wealthy botanist on board, large quantities of fresh fish which the seamen no doubt enjoyed and any surplus was salted down. The Europeans were also interested in Maori items such as weapons and clothing and in turn Maori quickly saw the possibilities of items such as nails and woven cloth.
The Endeavour at first moored close in but late in the afternoon of the 4th of November she was shifted to a safer anchorage some one and a half miles off what is now Cook’s Beach. Trade continued but on the next occasion when Cook was ashore First Lieutenant Gore who was in charge attempted to exchange some cloth for a dog skin cloak only to have the cloth taken without the cloak being given in exchange. In anger he fired a musket loaded with round shot killing the Maori trader. Although Cook on his return was annoyed that this had happened, local Maori seemed to accept that the trader had been at fault and trading continued on most fine days of their visit to Mercury Bay.
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Cook’s astronomer Charles Green and Cook with a party went ashore at 8 am on November 9th, 1769 to observe the transit of Mercury at present day Cooks Beach. Banks, who did not go recorded this as being one of the few fine days ‘with not the smallest cloud intervening to Obstruct him’. Today a monument marks the spot where the observation was made. The observation concluded that Mercury had little or no atmosphere. Observations of the transit of Venus had already been made at Tahiti. The party had a total of four telescopes and two clocks as well as an astronomical quadrant. The observation of the transit of Mercury also helped Cook determine the exact position of his observation point with regard to latitude. The following day Cook and others explored the river flowing into the bay on which is now the town of Whitianga. The following days saw some unpleasant weather but the crew of the Endeavour managed to collect a large quantity of seafood. Banks and the scientific staff of course explored the unique native flora and fauna which often entailed shooting birds for examination. It is still possible to see the stream where Cook and his men refilled their water butts and cut firewood. This is the Purangi River named by Cook as ‘Oyster River’ because of the good quality oysters that they enjoyed from here. The Purangi inlet can be found at the far eastern end of Cook’s beach. Cook named other prominent geographical features in the area including The Alderman Islands, Tower Rock, Shakespeare Cliff and of course Mercury Bay itself. The Mercury Bay museum at Whitanga today contains many interesting displays relating to Cook’s 12 day visit to the area.
At 7 am on 15th November the weather having improved and sufficient water and supplies been gathered the Endeavour set sail heading north around Tower Rock and towards a headland at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula that Cook named Cape Colville. The Endeavour encountered strong south westerly gales and was forced to stand well off shore for four days. These gales diminished to the point where by the 18th canoes of Maori were again approaching the ship and throwing stones at it whereupon Cook fired a musket shot through a canoe and the Maori retired ashore. Parkinson's Journal 11th - 18 November 1769:
Cook and the Endeavour crept slowly south after rounding Cape Colville and after anchoring for the night, in the morning sailed and then anchored at a position about nine miles north of present day Thames and in about 6 fathoms (18 metres) of water. The following day November 20th, Cook with Joseph Banks and some seamen in a rowing boat were carried by a considerable tidal flow, upriver for some miles. Cook named this river the Thames but today this river is the present day Waihou. It now has stopbanks (levees) and is in every way different from the river that Cook saw which was a river with swampy and ever changing banks clothed with lush forests to the waters edge. Upon landing in the very swampy conditions they measured one of many tall trees and found one that measured 89 feet (about 30 metres) to the first branch with as Cook observed a girth of some 19 feet 8 inches (almost 7 metres) and as Cook noted ‘it was as streight as an arrow and taper’d but little in proportion to its length. He goes on to say that there were other species of trees entirely new to them.
This of course was Cook the sailor. England was at that time facing a shortage of timber for ships’ masts and spars and he was looking at the trees in that regard. Luckily he didn’t know that timber of the native kahikatea Podocarpus dacrydioides was unsuitable for such a purpose the timber being too light and soft. Nearby and undiscovered was the timber treasure of northern New Zealand - Kauri Agathis australis the gum of which had already been observed amongst the mangroves in Mercury Bay. Cook found it difficult to get leaves from such a tall tree and a smaller one was cut down so that the timber could be studied. Unfortunately the tree cut down was not the same species as the tree that had been measured. The journey back to the Endeavour had to be postponed because the tidal flow was against them and Cook, Banks and the others spent a night sitting in the boat in intermittent rain showers. On the morning of the 22nd they caught the outgoing tidal current and arrived back at the ship. This was the longest time that James Cook spent away from the Endeavour in the entire first voyage and indicates the importance he placed on the area and the potential that he saw in it. Parkinson's Journal 19th - 21 November:
On the morning of 24th November,1769 the Endeavour sailed north rounding present day Waiheke Island and heading further north towards Northland. He did not explore any more of the Hauraki Gulf probably because it would have been extremely difficult to establish from off the coast just where the safe passages were, especially those shielded by islands. The Coromandel area especially Mercury Bay (Whitianga) and Thames and the Waihou River offers a unique chance to retrace the steps of James Cook and his crew at their first and in many ways most thoroughly explored landfall on the New Zealand coast. |
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