H.M.S. Endeavour 1:50

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Description: The future HMS Endeavor was launched in 1764 and served as a coal cargo ship under the name Earl of Pembroke. It was then bought by the Royal Navy and adapted for the purpose of sailing around the world, which, in addition to discovering, had as its main objective the observation of the transit of Venus across the Sun in the Tahiti area. It was an event of paramount importance, recurring twice in eight years, but then for more than a century. Thanks to a method previously devised by astronomer Edmund Halley, it made it possible to determine the distance between the Earth and the Sun and thus

dimensions of the entire solar system. For the transit of 1769, expeditions of scientists to various places around the world were being prepared so that as many measurements as possible could be made regardless of the weather.

Under Captain James Cook in August 1768, Endeavor sailed from Plymouth, circumnavigated Horn's Cape, and discovered a number of hitherto unknown islands while sailing across the Pacific. The expedition was timely near Tahiti and made planned astronomical observations and measurements during the transit of Venus in early June. In September 1769, Endeavor anchored off the shores of New Zealand, which it circled and mapped thoroughly. At the same time, she discovered the strait between the North and South islands, which today bears Cook's name. In April 1770 Endeavor sailed to the coast of Australia in the area of