While in Sydney last week, we visited the Maritime Museum for the first time, and paid the extra to go on board the replica Endeavour. The photo a few posts back was of one of the windows into the (relatively large and well appointed) "Great cabin".
This proved to very interesting, and what I found most remarkable about it was the lack of headroom in the rear midshipmen mess/officers cabins. This leaflet from the museum doesn't make it clear how low it is, although it does mention that one area the marines slept in was 1.2 m high. I think the area I am talking about is a little higher, but believe me it's cramped, especially given my aversion to spending time in areas where I can't stand up straight. It was due to the ship having an extra deck built into it to accommodate the large crew to be taken on his expedition.
I was also surprised to be reminded of the large body count that Cook's most famous voyage racked up. Looking over the Wikipedia entry, we find:
* a sailor dragged overboard when he got entangled in the anchor chain
* two of Bank's servants freeze to death while trying to return to the ship in a snowstorm after rounding Cape Horn
* after stopping in Batavia, 30 (in a crew of 94) died from dysentery or malaria (including the ship's surgeon, and his brother)
* the museum leaflet linked above also mentions a marine who committed suicide by jumping overboard
Life was quite different in the 18 th century, hey? A wife saying goodbye to her husband at the dock when he set off on a long expedition seemingly had a pretty good chance of never seeing him again.
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