The Endeavour Returns a Bounty!
Ross Pratley owns a small part of the keel from HMB Endeavour, which will be auctioned in Sydney this month.
Ouch, the Title of this article is so bad it actually hurts! Surely you can do better! Why not enter the SWS I CAN DO BETTER Competition. And there’s a PRIZE!
When it comes this piece of plank from Captain Cook’s keel…..do I hear $400,000 for a slice of wood with some writing on it? What will you pay me for a chunk of history that may, or may not, have belonged to Captain Cook’s Endeavour. This splinter that may, or may not, have run aground in 1770, on the Great Barrier Reef. A branch that may, or may not, have lay in Kealakekua Bay as Cook stood on that final Hawaiian Beach, as locals tapped out a rhythmic death chant, before landing a fatal blade, deep in the neck of the mighty man.
Hang on! $400,000 is not sounding so bad.
It was Sir Joseph Banks who upon hearing the ENDEAVOUR was to be scuttled, despatched a minion with a small axe on a mission to secure the Botanist a chunk of keel. It was, we are told, his sister Sarah Sophia who wrote the following words upon an inscription:
“This is part of the keel of the Ship Endeavour, which under the command of James Cook, Esq, circumnavigated the Globe in 1768-1770, Broken up at Newport, Rhode-Island, USA, 1796.”
And now the framed shard is to fall under the hammer once more.
Back to the Competition.
At this point in time you’re most likely thinking: Great! I’m about to win an ounce of Cook’s ship. Almost.
If you didn’t happen to notice the dreadful pun in the title of this article – congratulations, you are officially resistant to the lure of what is known in our house as, The Dad Joke (and I’m allowed to write that, because I’m a mum). So your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to try your hand at writing an alternate TITLE FOR THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE.
And there’s a prize? The winner will receive an SWS Certificate declaring officially how great we think you are! (one day when we work out how to turn a crust from this project, prizes will be cash! But until that fine day, it’s an emailed certificate. Can’t afford a stamp) To enter THE SWS I CAN DO BETTER competition, leave your alternate title ideas in the COMMENTS section below.
Go for it!
Small piece of timber from Captain Cook’s Endeavour up for $400,000 auction
A small section of timber from the keel of Captain Cook’s HMB Endeavour is to be auctioned in Sydney in four weeks with a reserve price of $400,000.
The “unique provenanced piece of timber” just 22 centimetres long and two centimetres wide is inside a small display case and bears an inscription believed to have been written by the sister of botanist Sir Joseph Banks, Sarah Sophia Banks.
It reads: “This is part of the keel of the Ship Endeavour, which under the command of James Cook, Esq, circumnavigated the Globe in 1768-1770, Broken up at Newport, Rhode-Island, USA, 1796.”
The catalogue entry for lot 853 states: “There are only two pieces of this historic ship in private hands, this one and the other is in a Sydney collection, excessively rare and of the highest importance to Australian history.”
Jim Noble of Noble Numismatics, conducting the auction at the State Library of NSW on July 27, said Sarah Banks was a terrific collector of coins, medals and ephemera.
“Her collection was given to the British Museum in 1818 and she had documented every token that had been struck in the late 18th century,” he said. “We feel that the most likely person who would have written the inscription for Joseph Banks would have been his sister.
“When Banks heard that the hulk was about to be sunk in Newport, he sent someone there specifically to get pieces of it. I heard the reserve figure is $400,000. Those sort of figures don’t seem to worry anyone these days,” Mr Worland said.
To great fanfare, marine archaeologists announced in September 2018 that they believed they had finally identified the resting place of HMB Endeavour at Rhode Island, off the US east coast.
Kieran Hosty, marine archaeology manager at the Australian National Maritime Museum, said: “We have been actively searching for the remains of the vessel in Rhode Island and, as we know what timbers HMB Endeavour was built out of, we have been using the process of Timber Species Identification to aid us in that work.
“There have been a range of objects associated with HMB Endeavour come up for auction over the past 25 years. They always gain considerable interest.”
Kevin Sumption, director and chief executive of the Australian National Maritime Museum, said COVID-19 had delayed further investigations.
“There are some critical pieces of information the team require before we can definitively identify the vessel,” he said.