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Critics' Opinion:
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First Published:
May 2019, 432 pages
Paperback:
Jul 2020, 448 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Kim Kovacs
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An unprecedented history of the storied ship that Darwin said helped add a hemisphere to the civilized world.
The Enlightenment was an age of endeavors, with Britain consumed by the impulse for grand projects undertaken at speed. Endeavour was also the name given to a collier bought by the Royal Navy in 1768. It was a commonplace coal-carrying vessel that no one could have guessed would go on to become the most significant ship in the chronicle of British exploration.
The first history of its kind, Peter Moore's Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World is a revealing and comprehensive account of the storied ship's role in shaping the Western world. Endeavour famously carried James Cook on his first major voyage, charting for the first time New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia. Yet it was a ship with many lives: During the battles for control of New York in 1776, she witnessed the bloody birth of the republic. As well as carrying botanists, a Polynesian priest, and the remains of the first kangaroo to arrive in Britain, she transported Newcastle coal and Hessian soldiers. NASA ultimately named a space shuttle in her honor. But to others she would be a toxic symbol of imperialism.
Through careful research, Moore tells the story of one of history's most important sailing ships, and in turn shines new light on the ambition and consequences of the Age of Enlightenment.
1
Acorns
Endeavour's life starts in an unrecorded time, in a subterranean space several inches deep. There, as summer fades into autumn, an oak tree begins life as an acorn.
An acorn is a capsule, protected by a waxy skin. Inside is stored a genetic code and enough nutrients, tannins and essential oils to sustain it during its fragile early weeks. In September, it begins to grow, slowly, until after a fortnight its shell bursts open. For the first time, the acorn's insides can be seen. The ochre hue of the kernel contrasts sharply with the mahogany-brown of the shell, which cracks under the strain. A root dives downward, a tiny probe, seeking water and nutrients. By November, as the earth above gets a coating of frost, the husk of its shell has been pushed clear. In its place are the earliest signs of a stem, which ventures up, seeking light.
After four months the acorn's shell is shattered and discarded and gone. The stem is now the central feature of the tiny plant. It continues to ...
Moore's prose occasionally bogs down the narrative, as does his tendency to elaborate on minor details...Endeavour is obviously a labor of love, however, extensively researched and engaging, and well worth plowing through the less relevant sections...continued
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(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
The HMS Endeavour, the eponymous subject of Peter Moore's book, was purchased by the British Navy in 1768. One of its missions was to transport a group of scientists to Tahiti where they could make astronomical measurements during a rare event called the Transit of Venus.
Venus is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the Sun and the Moon. Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, it is the second planet from the sun.
In astronomical terms, a transit is when a planet can be observed crossing the face of the star it orbits. From our position on the third planet from the sun, there are only two transits we can directly watch: Mercury and Venus. Due to differences in how Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun, a transit ...
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