James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
HMS Endeavour was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771.
HMS Sultana was a small Royal Navy schooner that patrolled the American coast from 1768 through 1772. Her role was to prevent smuggling and to collect customs duties. She was retired and sold in 1773 when unrest in Britain's American colonies required larger, better armed patrol craft.
HMS Discovery was the consort ship of James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1776–1780. Like Cook's other ships, Discovery was a Whitby-built collier originally named Diligence when she was built in 1774. Purchased in 1775, the vessel was measured at 299 tons burthen. Originally a brig, Cook had her changed to a full-rigged ship. She was commanded by Charles Clerke, who had previously served on Cook's first two expeditions, and had a complement of 70. After Cook was killed in a skirmish following his attempted kidnapping of Hawaiian leader Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Clerke transferred to the expedition's flagship HMS Resolution and John Gore assumed command of Discovery. She returned to Britain under the command of Lieutenant James King, arriving back on 4 October 1780.
HMS Dolphin was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1751, she was used as a survey ship from 1764 and made two circumnavigations of the world under the successive commands of John Byron and Samuel Wallis. She was the first ship to circumnavigate the world twice. She remained in service until she was paid off in September 1776, and she was broken up in early 1777.
Isaac Smith (1752–1831) was a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and cousin of Elizabeth Cook wife of Captain James Cook, with whom he sailed on two voyages of exploration in the South Pacific. Smith was the first European to set foot in eastern Australia and the first to prepare survey maps of various Pacific islands and coastlines including Tierra del Fuego in South America.
The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun, and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "undiscovered southern land".
HMS Edgar was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 16 November 1758 at Rotherhithe. The physician Thomas Denman served on Edgar until 1763. She was sunk as a breakwater in 1774.
HMS Eagle was a 58-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
HMS Electra was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was built by the Enterprise Ethéart, Saint-Malo, as the French Curieux-class brig Espiègle and launched in 1804. She was armed in 1807 at Saint Servan. The British frigate Sybille captured her on 16 August 1808. There was already an Espiegle in the Royal Navy so the Navy took the vessel they had just captured into service as HMS Electra, her predecessor Electra having been wrecked in March. Electra captured one American privateer before she was sold in 1816.
HMS Surprise was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which served throughout the American Revolutionary War and was broken up in 1783.
HMS Aquilon was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1758, she saw active service against the French during the Seven Years' War, capturing seven enemy vessels in the first eight months of 1761. She was declared surplus to Navy requirements and sold into private hands in 1776.
HMS Niger was a 32-gun Niger-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
HMS Trial or Tryall was a 10-gun two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, designed by Joseph Allin and built by him at Deptford Dockyard on the Thames River, England. She was launched on 17 July 1744. She and her sister ship, Jamaica, were the only sloops to be built in the Royal Dockyards between 1733 and 1748.
HMS Spy was a Bonetta-class sloop launched at Rotherhithe in 1756 for the Royal Navy. The Navy sold her in 1773. From 1776, or perhaps earlier she was a transport. Then from 1780 to 1783, as Mars, she was first a privateer and then a slave ship, engaged in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. Between 1783 and 1787 her name was Tartar, and she traded with the Mediterranean. From 1787, as Southampton, on she was a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She made at least four complete whaling voyages and was last listed in 1792.
Grenville was launched at Deptford in 1764 as an East Indiaman. She made four voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before her owners sold her in 1777 to the Royal Navy, which renamed her HMS Tortoise and employed her as a transport. She foundered in 1779.
HMS Swallow was a 14-gun Merlin-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1745, she initially served in home waters as a convoy escort and cruiser before sailing to join the East Indies Station in 1747. There she served in the squadron of Rear-Admiral Edward Boscawen, taking part in an aborted invasion of Mauritius and the Siege of Pondicherry. In 1755 Swallow returned home to join the Downs Station, as part of which she fought at the Raid on St Malo, Raid on Cherbourg, and Battle of Saint Cast in 1758. She was also present when the French fleet broke out of Brest prior to the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759.
HMS Deal Castle was a member of the standardize 20-gun sixth rates built at the end of the 17th Century. After she was commissioned she was in Newfoundland, The West Indies, Irish Sea Jamaica and back to Home Waters. She was captured by the French in 1706.
HMS Nightingale was a development of the standardize 20-gun sixth rates and were built at the beginning of the 18th Century. After she was captured by French privateer galleys in 1707 then recaptured four months later. She was renamed HMS Fox and continued service until she was rebuilt at Deptford. Her breaking was completed in January 1738.
HMS Deal Castle was a 24-gun sixth-rate ship of the Royal Navy, purchased in 1706 and in service in West Indies, North America and English waters until 1727 when she was rebuilt at Sheerness. She commissioned after her rebuild in May 1727 and served in Home waters, North America and the West Indies. She was finally broken at Deptford in August 1746.
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