Everything about Hms Adventure 1771 totally explained
HMS
Adventure was a
barque of the
Royal Navy that sailed with
Resolution on
James Cook's second expedition to the
Pacific in
1772–
1775. She was the first ship to
circumnavigate the globe from west to east.
She began her career as the
North Sea collier Marquis of Rockingham, launched at
Whitby in
1771. She was purchased by the Navy that year and named
Rayleigh, then renamed
Adventure. She was 39.7 m long, 8.7 m abeam and her draft was 4 m.
Soon after his return from his first voyage in 1771, Commander Cook was commissioned by the
Royal Society of London to make a second voyage in search of a supposed southern continent,
Terra Australis Incognita. Cook was given the command of
Resolution, with Commander
Tobias Furneaux accompanying him in
Adventure. Furneaux was an experienced explorer, having served on
Samuel Wallis's
circumnavigation in
Dolphin in
1766–
1768.
Resolution and
Adventure left
Plymouth on
13 July 1772 and on
17 January 1773 were the first European ships to cross the
Antarctic Circle. On
8 February 1773 the two ships became separated in a fog and Furneaux directed
Adventure towards the prearranged meeting point of
Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, charted by Cook in
1770.
On the way to the rendezvous,
Adventure surveyed the southern and eastern coasts of
Tasmania (then known as "
Van Diemen's Land"), where
Adventure Bay was named for the ship. Furneaux made the earliest British chart of this shore, but as he didn't enter
Bass Strait he assumed Tasmania to be part of
Australia. Most of his names here survive; Cook, visiting this shore-line on his third voyage, confirmed Furneaux's account and delineation of it, and named after him the islands in
Banks Strait.
Adventure arrived at Queen Charlotte Sound on
7 May 1773 and
Resolution followed on
17 May. From June to October the two ships explored the southern Pacific, reaching
Tahiti on
15 August, where
Omai of
Ulaietea embarked on
Adventure (Omai later became the first Pacific Islander to visit Europe before returning to Tahiti with Cook in
1776). After calling at
Tonga in the
Friendly Islands the ships returned to
New Zealand but were separated by a storm on
22 October. This time the rendezvous at Queen Charlotte Sound was missed —
Resolution departed on
26 November, four days before
Adventure arrived. Cook had left a message buried in the sand setting out his plan to explore the South Pacific and return to New Zealand. Furneaux decided to return home and buried a reply to that effect.
Before he could leave, a fight broke out between
Adventure's crew and the local
Māori people, in which ten crewmen and two Māoris were killed. This was reportedly prompted by an unknowing breach of
tapu by a sailor, who placed a tin can that had held food on a chief's head.
Adventure set out for home on
22 December 1773 via
Cape Horn, returning to England on
14 July 1774.
After her voyage with Cook the
Adventure was converted to a fire ship in 1780, then sold back to her original owners in Whitby in 1783, whereupon she returned to the life of a cargo carrier, eventually running between Britain and North America. In 1811 she was wrecked in the
Saint Lawrence River.
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