Cook’s trusty Whitby Cat
QUESTION Was Captain Cook’s Endeavour a former coal ship?
HMS ENDEAVOUR was originally a collier, constructed by Thomas Fishburn of Whitby as a typical Whitby Cat (coal and timber ship) in 1764.
These vessels were common on the East Coast at that time, transporting coal from the durham and northumberland coalfields to meet the demands of a rapidly expanding London.
They were sturdily built, with a broad, flat bow, square stern and deep hold. They were also flat-bottomed, which made them suitable for use in shallow waters, as they could be beached for loading and unloading with little risk of damage.
Earl of Pembroke, as Endeavour was originally named, was bought by the royal navy and sailed from Plymouth in august 1768 on Captain Cook’s scientific expedition to the Pacific.
She rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine, Bora Bora and raiatea.
In September 1769, she anchored off new Zealand. In april 1770, Endeavour became the first ship to reach the east coast of australia, when Cook went ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay.
She did not return to Britain until 1771, arriving at dover on July 12.
during the next three years, she made voyages to and from the Falkland Islands, before being sold by the navy into private hands in 1775.
renamed Lord Sandwich 2, she was hired as a troop transport during the american War of Independence.
She was scuttled (sunk deliberately) during the blockade of narragansett, rhode Island, in 1778.
Geoff Hewitt, Preston, Lancs. THE admiralty was so pleased with the construction and capabilities of Endeavour during Cook’s first voyage that, when it was considering a second expedition, it once again looked at the availability of colliers. William Hammond, ship owner, master warden of Hull Trinity House and a friend of Cook, offered two virtually new colliers, the Marquis of Granby and Marquis of rockingham.
Initially renamed drake and raleigh, they were later named resolution and adventure. Being ideal for worldwide exploration, they were also used on Cook’s third voyage.
Russ Garbutt, Swanland, E. Yorks.
QUESTION Where does the word ‘sequin’ come from?
THE venetian republic began minting gold ducat coins in the 13th century. venetian ducats were highly valued and exchanged in a widespread area across the Mediterranean. The ducat became known as the
zecchino, after the name of the venetian mint, the Zecca, a word which, in turn, was derived from the arabic sikka, a die used in the manufacture of coins.
venetian zecchini changed with each ruling doge, or ruler, and can be dated by analysing the iconography on each coin.
By the 16th century, it had become fashionable for women across the Mediterranean to stitch venetian
zecchini and other coins to their clothes and head-dresses.
variations for the word zecchino — along with sikka — ultimately evolved into ‘sequin’, to describe any shiny, circular adornment used on clothing.
Thus the name of the coin has lived on long past the abolition of the venetian republic by napoleon in 1797.
Alison Rowse, Bexhill, E. Sussex.
QUESTION Have modern forensic methods such as DNA been used to try to identify two unknown children who died in the 1928 Charfield rail crash?
I WROTE about the Charfield railway disaster for True detective magazine in May 1988. In the early hours of october 13, 1928, a passenger and mail express on its way to Bristol, some 20 miles south of Gloucester, on the London, Midland and Scottish railway, over-ran danger signals at Charfield in the Cotswolds and struck a shunting goods train.
a second goods train ran into the wreck and all three trains burst into flames.
The cause was almost certainly thick fog, though it was claimed later the driver, Ernest aldington, had fallen asleep or a distant signal wire had been sabotaged.
Fifteen people died, including the driver of the second goods train. Two charred bodies were identified as children by dr Walsingham Ward. Ticket collector Henry Haines at Gloucester Station claimed to have seen a boy and girl, aged nine or ten, in the first compartment.
The remains of school uniforms were reportedly found with part of the motto for the Truro High School For Girls, Luce Magistra, and tags with the name G. S. S. Saunders.
It is not known if this was in hand luggage or suitcases from the baggage wagons thrown forward at impact.
no one identified the two children, which inspired a host of mysterious tales: the bodies had been taken away by a military-style ambulance; the local chief constable, James Watson, knew who they were and later cut his throat at the Pleasure Gardens at Eastbourne; and a mysterious lady in black visited the grave twice on the anniversary of the disaster.
I concluded that the bodies were wrongly identified adults.
There was a near-identical mystery following Britain’s worst rail disaster at Quintinshill, near Gretna, 13 years earlier. There were four unidentified bodies, all thought to be children, among the 230 victims.
It reminded me of Martin Middlebrook’s account of the Hamburg firestorm during World War II. numerous child- sized bodies were, in fact, adult remains shrunk in the extreme heat.
I concluded that the same phenomena may have occurred at Charfield and Quintinshill. only cremated ash and the remains of footwear were buried, so there would be nothing for modern forensics to work with.
Trevor Hart, Woodbridge, Suffolk.
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