1770

1770	19-Apr	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, made a landfall on the east coast of Australia. Cook named the headland Point Hicks in honour of Lt Zackary Hicks who reported the first sighting.
1770	21-Apr	Lt James Cook RN HMS Endeavour, described and named Batemans Bay, NSW.
1770	26-Apr	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook RN, arrived at Botany Bay. He named the bay for the abundance of botannical specimens collected by Joseph Banks and his assistants.
1770	6-May	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, sailed from Botany Bay. During the day Cook observed a small opening north of Botany Bay which he named Port Jackson in honour of Sir George Jackson, Secretary to the Admiralty.
1770	7-May	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour recorded some broken land that appeared to form a bay’. He named it Broken Bay.
1770	11-May	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, discovered an inlet ‘that appeared to be from the mast head to be sheltered from all winds’, and named it Port Stephens.
1770	17-May	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, sighted and named the Glasshouse Mountains, Qld.
1770	26-May	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, discovered and named Cape Capricorn, Qld.
1770	4-Jun	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, entered the Great Barrier Reef through a passage which Cook named Whitsunday ‘as it was discovered on the Day the Church observed that Festival’.
1770	6-Jun	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, discovered and named Magnetic Island ‘because there the compass needle showe d a discrepancy with magnetic north’.
1770	11-Jun	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, ran aground on a reef off Rockingham Bay, Qld.
1770	22-Jun	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, was careened in the mouth of the Endeavour River, Qld. The vessel had been badly holed on a reef.
1770	27-Jul	William Bligh joined his first ship, the 10-gun sloop HMS Hunter, as an able-bodied seaman. His name appeared in the muster roll of HMS Monmouth in 1762, but it is considered unlikely he actually joined the ship.
1770	4-Aug	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, sailed from Endeavour River, Qld, after repairs.
1770	20-Aug	Lt James Cook, RN HMS Endeavour discovered Bird Island Qld. He named it for the great number of birds found nesting there.
1770	21-Aug	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, took possession of the east coast of Australia and named it New South Wales. The island off Cape York where he made his proclamation he named Possession Island.
1770	22-Aug	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, sailed through Torres Strait and established that New Guinea was an island and not a part of the Australian continent.
1770	3-Sep	Lt James Cook, RN, put into ‘Cook Bay’ on the south-west coast of New Guinea. The position of ‘Cook Bay’ has never been accurately established. His course from this point was west to Java.
1770	10-Oct	HMS Endeavour, Lt James Cook, RN, arrived at Batavia. Cook refitted the bark before resuming his return voyage to England.
1770	24-Dec	Lt James Cook, RN, HMS Endeavour, discovered and named Christmas Island.
1771	30-Jan	Surgeon George Bass, RN, was born at Aswarby, Lincolnshire.
1771	12-Jul	Lt James Cook, RN, reported on the performance of his compasses to the Admiralty. ‘Endeavour... I am to acquaint you that I never once was able to make use of the compass in a troubled sea, and the reason for this, I could not make the brass box keep a horizontal plane; the motion of the ship always made it incline one way or another, from which it would not of itself return; I think it is far too complex an instrument ever to be of general use at sea’. Cook carried two compasses in the Endeavour - the conven-tional steering compass mounted in the binnacle and an Azimuth compass.
1772	12-Feb	Capt de Kerguelen, French ships Fortune and Gros Venture, discovered Kerguelen or Desola-tion Island.
1772	18-Mar	Capt Francois de Saint Alouari, French ship Gros Venture, explored the southern and western coast of Australia as far north as Shark Bay.
1772	25-Mar	The French ships Mascarin and Marquis de Castres, Capt Marion Dufresne, arrived off New Zealand. A boat landed at the Bay of Islands was attacked by Maoris and 27 Frenchmen were killed. Dufresne claimed New Zealand for Louis XV of France.
1772	8-Nov	Capt Don Domingo de Boenechea, Spanish frigate Aguila, claimed Tahiti for Spain. Several weeks earlier he had raised the Spanish flag on Easter Island.
1773	6-Jan	Capt de Kerguelen of the French Navy took possession of Kerguelen or Desolation Island for France. This was the site of the first French settlement in the Pacific.
1773	17-Jan	Cdr James Cook, RN, made the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle.
1773	8-Feb	HMS Resolution, Cdr James Cook RN, and HMS Adventure, Lt Tobias Furneaux, were parted by rough seas off Kerguelen Island. Furneaux sailed west to explore the coast of Tasmania to establish whether it was an island or a part of mainland Australia.
1773	23-Feb	Cdr James Cook, RN, completed his circumnavigation of Antarctica when he crossed his track of 1772.
1773	9-Mar	Lt Tobias Furneaux, RN, HMS Adventure, discovery vessel, discovered the islands in Bass Strait which now bear his name.
1774	16-Mar	Capt Matthew Flinders, RN, was born at Donington, Lincolnshire.
1775	7-Mar	HMS Endeavour, bark, was sold out of service for £645. Cook’s famous ship ended her days as hulk in an American port.
1775	29-Jul	Cdr James Cook, RN, HMS Resolution, recorded in his journal: ‘We made land about Plymouth, Maker Church at 5 o’clock in the afternoon bore N 10⁰ W, distance 7 leagues; this bearing and the distance shew’d that the error of Mr. Kendall’s Watch, in Longitude was only 7’45" which was too far to the West. James Cook’. This observation, made at the conclusion of Cook’s second voyage, proved beyond doubt the efficiency of the chronometer in navigation.
1776	2-Mar	Capt James Cook, RN, appeared before the Board of Longitude in London and gave an account of his voyages of exploration. Cook’s vessels were supplied with the most advanced navigational instruments that could be made available by the Board.
1776	17-Mar	William Bligh, RN, was appointed Master of HMS Resolution, which was one of Cook’s vessels on his third voyage of exploration.
1776	25-Jun	Capt James Cook, RN, HMS Resolution, sailed from Portsmouth on his last voyage.
1776	25-Dec	Capt James Cook, RN, HM ships Resolution and Discovery, arrived at Kerguelen or Desolation Island and named it after Capt de Kerguelen, the French navigator.
1779	14-Feb	Capt James Cook RN, and four Marines were killed in an attack by natives at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii.
1779	19-Jul	The Admiralty issued a regulation ordering the issue of lime juice in all ships as a remedy for scurvy.
1779	22-Jul	Capt Charles Clerke, RN, who had assumed command of HMS Resolution and the expedition after the death of Capt James Cook, died at sea off Kamchatka.