Trip Report: Day 2, The Morning

The firehearth is the first stop once you go down the companionway. I think there should be something more interesting for the first stop. A visitor is impatient to see what's there and an stove, no matter what sort of stove, is not something you want to stop and look at right then.

A new guide, for the first couple of sessions, is paired with someone more experience until they get an idea of how to do things. I'm not actually sure I ever got the name of the guy who was at the firehearth with me. Name tags would have made things much easier. Anyway, the first two visitors arrive and he starts talking to them. Meanwhile, I'm reading one of the "flash cards" which has the information on that spot on one side and things that guides should be aware of on the other. As I listen, he's talking about how one man from each mess would come up to the stove with the food, which isn't on the card. He's still going when the next lot of visitors turn up. Eep. I tell them the bit about the tables and the food being brought up, and then start to read from the card. I soon discover that the words on the card weren't, well they might have been intended to be read out, but they're not written in a way that is easy to read out loud. I stumble on some of the phrasings and need to stop and redo some sentences.

The next visitor that I have to talk to, I put the card aside and give my version of what it said, although I have to read the bit about what they ate each day. That was a bit much to remember.

The stove was state of the art when it was first made. It's actually a working copy. The BBC made a documentary back in 2001 (The Ship) and they used the stove to cook all the meals for six weeks.



On the side here, is where the wood goes. This whole thing here is full of water and these coppers are where the food is put in and boiled. Now, at each of the table, six men sat and for every meal, one of the men would bring up the food in a rope bag, that would then be cooked in the copper.



Each bag has a wooden tag with a number on it, and when the food was cooked, the numbers was called and the man would come up, get the food and take it back to the table. This way, Thompson, the one-handed cook, was able to cook for 94 men over 3 years.



On this side is a oven for cooking pies and bread for the officers and gentlemen.



Around the back here is a spit. As you can see, the oven is sitting on stones to protect the deck.

Breakfast was taken at 6 am, it consisted of wheat porridge and scurvy grass. At midday was dinner of boiled salt beef, sauerkruat and vegetable, as you can see in the barrels.



Cheese and pease pudding were sometimes added. The evening meal was eaten cold -- whatever a man had saved from dinner and once a week raisin pudding. There was a daily allowance of one gallon of beer and a pound of dry biscuit.



Around here are the cabins and workshops for the bosun, sailmaker and carpenter. They're used as cabins by the modern crew.

Then the bell sounds and the half hour is up.

I head over to the midi-mates mess.



John (or Jim, sorry) is here and he talks to the first lot of visitors while I read the flash card. The first thing of note about this area is the headroom, or lack thereof.



This is at the end of the mess deck.



When the collier Earl of Pembroke was converted to a Royal Navy exploration ship, they had to add an extra deck and, structurally, the easiest place to put it was here. In the middle of the ship, that worked out well, but towards the stern, the officer's mess and great cabin are above.

To get through here, you bend over and walk along to the door of the midimates mess and, make sure you keep your head down still, you go in and sit on one of the sea chests. Now you can put your head up.

This space in here was the midshipmen's and mate's mess. Here eight young man hung their hammocks, ate and socialised. When they weren't working, this is pretty much where they lived. They kept their belongings in the sea chests. A lot of the mess supplies were kept on shelves and along the back. One of the midshipman was Johnathon Munkhouse, who was 17. He was the younger brother of the surgeons. Another man in here was master's mate, Richard Pickersgill, age 19, he'd been to Tahiti before, two years earlier on the Dolphin.



Around the sides are the officer's cabins. Although they slept in there and worked at their desks, they messed up above. A lot of effort has gone into making the contents of the cabins as accurate as possible. The curtains and linen in the cabins is hand loomed and hand sewn. The journals are on handmade paper.



On the right here is the master's cabin. Robert Molyneux was just 22. His job was navigation, (something I've forgotten) and keeping stores. He held equal rank with the lieutenants and was in charge of the third watch. Except for the headroom, he's got one of the bigger cabins.



Next to him, is the third lieutenant. John Gore was American. Above his bunk, you'll see a gun. He'd said to be the first man to have shot a kangaroo. He was one who brought the ships home at the end of the third voyage, after Cook was killed in Hawaii.

On the end, just outside the door, is the captain's clerk's cabin. He was responsible for some of the record keeping on the ship. He doesn't seem to have been too popular. He got his ear cut in a brawl in his cabin. How enough men managed to fit into his cabin to have a brawl is the question.



On the other side, the gunner's cabin is at the far end, outside the door. He was responsible for the guns and cannons. He got punished for stealing rum, but rejoined Cook for the second voyage.



Next along on the left is the surgeon's cabin. The equipment in his cabin is apparently put together from an actual list. William Munkhouse was the older brother of one of the midshipman. Both brothers died on the voyage. After leaving New Holland, the Endeavour stopped at Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta).



The story I was told was that in order to avoid picking up the diseases that were prevalent in Batavia, they didn't get water here but instead stopped at a small island, however the water here was also foul. Whether it was picked up there or in Batavia, malaria and dysentery killed almost 1/3 of the crew on the way home.



The last cabin on the left is for the second lieutenant, Zachary Hicks. He was second in command after Cook. His journal can be seen the cabin, it was copied by quill onto handmade paper. He died of TB.



The stern loading ports here are used for loading timber and things too long to come down the hatches.

Have a good look in the cabins, there's a lot to see in each one.



When you're done, go out that door on the left and there's a ladder on the right. Go up there and you'll find the officer's mess.

My next half hour was a break. Which sounds like a good idea.