Nicholas Young (born c. 1757) was a British cabin boy aboard the Endeavour during Captain James Cook's first voyage of discovery. In 1769, Cook named the headland Young Nick's Head in Poverty Bay, New Zealand after him. [1] In The Remarkable Story of Andrew Swan, [lower-alpha 1] it is stated that Young hailed from Greenock, on the Clyde. [2]
Young was eleven years old when the Endeavour departed Plymouth, England on 26 August 1768. He was the personal servant of the Endeavour’s surgeon, William Brougham Monkhouse. [3] In early October 1769, Cook offered a reward of rum to the man who first sighted land, and promised that 'that part of the coast of the said land should be named after him'. [1] This was awarded to Young who first sighted land from the masthead at about 2pm on 6 October 1769. [4] [5]
About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, one of our people, Nicholas Young, the surgeon's boy, descried a point of land of New Zealand from the starboard bow at about nine leagues distance bearing west by north. We bore up to it and, at sunset, we had a good view of it. The land was high and appeared like an island. We regaled ourselves in the evening on the occasion. The land was called ‘Young Nick's Head,’ and the boy received his reward.
After Young returned to Plymouth in July 1771, he became the servant of the Endeavour's botanist, Joseph Banks. In 1772, Young accompanied Banks on an expedition to Iceland, but nothing further is known about his life. [3] [6]
On 10 October 1969, a bronze statue of Nicholas Young was unveiled by Governor-General Sir Arthur Porritt at Churchill Park on Waikanae Beach, Gisborne as part of the Cook Bicentenary Celebrations. [7] The monument, sculpted by Frank Szirmay, depicts Young pointing towards the white cliffs of Young Nicks Head. [8] [9]
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer 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 Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771.
Gisborne is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District. It has a population of 38,200. Gisborne District Council has its headquarters in the central city.
East Cape is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. It is at the northern end of the Gisborne District of the North Island. East Cape was originally named "Cape East" by British explorer James Cook during his 1769–1779 voyage. It is one of four New Zealand cardinal capes he named, along with North Cape, West Cape and South Cape.
Poverty Bay, officially named Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay, is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for 10 kilometres (6 mi) from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the northeast. The city of Gisborne is located on the northern shore of the bay and the small settlement of Muriwai is located at the bay's southern end. The name is often used by extension to refer to the entire area surrounding the city of Gisborne.
Young Nick's Head / Te Kurī is a headland at the southern end of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay in New Zealand's North Island. The area is the landing place of the Horouta and Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru waka which carried Māori settlers to the region around 1350 AD. In Māori, the promontory is named Te Kuri o Pāoa.
Cape Kidnappers, known in Māori as Te Kauwae-a-Māui and officially gazetted as Cape Kidnappers / Te Kauwae-a-Māui, is a headland at the southeastern extremity of Hawke's Bay on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island and sits at the end of an 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) peninsula which protrudes into the Pacific Ocean. It is 20 kilometres (12 mi) south-east of the city of Napier. Access to the cape by road stops at Clifton, which is the departure point for many tourists visiting the gannet colony. The Cape Kidnappers Golf Course lies between the headland and the nearby coastal community of Te Awanga.
North Cape / Otou is the northernmost point of New Zealand's main islands. At the northeastern tip of the Aupōuri Peninsula, the cape lies 30 kilometres (19 mi) east and three kilometres (1.9 mi) north of Cape Reinga. The name North Cape is sometimes used to refer just to the cape that is known in Māori as Otou and which overlooks Murimotu Island, and sometimes just to the eastern point of Murimotu Island. It is also used to refer to the whole larger headland stretching about five kilometres from Murimotu Island westwards to Kerr Point and including the Surville Cliffs. Statistics New Zealand uses a statistical area called North Cape for population data, extending south down the Aupōuri Peninsula to the Houhora Heads.
Zachary Hicks was a Royal Navy officer, second-in-command on Lieutenant James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific and the first among Cook's crew to sight mainland Australia. A dependable officer who had risen swiftly through the ranks, Hicks conducted liaison and military duties for Cook, including command of shore parties in Rio de Janeiro and the kidnapping of a Tahitian chieftain in order to force indigenous assistance in the recovery of deserters. Hicks' quick thinking while in temporary command of HMS Endeavour also saved the lives of Cook, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander when they were attacked by Māori in New Zealand in November 1769.
Herman Diedrich Spöring Jr. (1733–1771) was a Finnish explorer, draughtsman, botanist and a naturalist.
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".
Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti is a Māori iwi (tribe) on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island. Its rohe covers the area from Tawhiti-a-Paoa Tokomaru Bay to Te Toka-a-Taiau Gisborne on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
Wharekahika or Hicks Bay is a bay and coastal area in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated 150 km east of Ōpōtiki and 186 km north of Gisborne city, along State Highway 35 between Potaka and Te Araroa.
A national reserve in New Zealand is an area that has been designated as having national importance under section 13 of the Reserves Act 1977. They are administered by the Department of Conservation.
The first humans are thought to have arrived in New Zealand from Polynesia some time around 1300 AD. The people, who later became known as Māori, eventually travelled to almost every part of the country. Their arrival had a significant impact on the local fauna, particularly the flightless birds such as moa.
Doubtless Bay is a bay on the east coast of the Northland Region, north-east of Kaitaia, in New Zealand. It extends from Knuckle Point on Karikari Peninsula in the north to Berghan Point at Hihi in the south. There are rocky headlands, backed by many extensive beaches, such as Tokerau Beach, Taipa, Cable Bay, Coopers Beach, and Mangonui Harbour.
The Gisborne District or Gisborne Region has a deep and complex history that dates back to the early 1300s. The region, on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island, has many culturally and historically significant sites that relate to early Māori exploration in the 14th century and important colonial events, such as Captain Cook's first landfall in New Zealand.
Frank Szirmay (1916–1985) was a Hungarian New Zealand sculptor. In 1956 Szirmay fled the Hungarian revolt with his family, and they emigrated to New Zealand. Szirmay's step-daughter is well-known sculptor Marté Szirmay.
Tuia 250 was a government-sponsored commemoration for the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Captain Cook on HMS Endeavour in Aotearoa in 1769–1770. Highlights of the event were a fleet of Polynesian double-hulled waka and tallships retracing Cook's route and the British High Commissioner delivering an 'expression of regret' to local iwi over the killings of the indigenous Māori people by Cook and his crew.
Puhi Kai Iti / Cook Landing National Historic Reserve commemorates the arrival of both Māori and Pākehā in New Zealand. The Cook Monument, unveiled in 1906, was intended to mark the location where James Cook first landed on the islands in 1769 during his first voyage. The granite obelisk monument is now "barely within sight or scent of the sea", as the shoreline was altered by land reclamation as part of expansion at the port of nearby Gisborne. The reserve is one of three national historic reserves in New Zealand.