The Endeavour voyage across the Pacific, 1768-1771
By Tony Rice
Captain James Cook, the World's Explorer - The Endeavour
James Cook's first journey across the Pacific, in 1768-71, provides the most superb visual record of one of the early voyages that characterised this period of eighteenth-century discovery. During his important mission in search of a southern continent--a find that would consolidate Britain's trading power--Cook and his crew, including Joseph Banks and the artist Sydney Parkinson, accumulated a mass of natural history and ethnographic material that would astonish the scientific establishment around the world. However, death and disease would have a catastrophic bearing on the fortunes of all those involved.
The Endeavour voyage across the Pacific PDF (194.9 KB)
Our fossil insect collection includes Rhyniognatha hirsti, the world's oldest fossil insect, dating back some 400 million years.