Description
the gold top finely chased and engraved with Admiral Milne's crest, the gold collar inscribed "From Adml. C.B.H. Ross C.B. To Admiral Sir David Milne G.C.B. Made of the spear which killed Captn. Cook R.N."
Dimensions
91cm long
Footnote
Provenance:
by descent from Admiral Milne.
"the ablest and most renowned navigator this or any country hath produced. He possessed all the qualifications requisite for his profession and great undertakings…"
Lord Palliser, Cook's superior officer
"... I had ambition not only to go farther than any one had been before, but as far as it was possible for man to go ..."
James Cook, R.N.
James Cook was born to a farmer on the 27th October 1728 in the little Yorkshire village of Marton. His family subsequently moved to Staithes on the East coast where he was apprenticed to a shopkeeper. They then moved to Whitby, where he started his maritime career working on the colliers, ships he was to continue to sail in for the rest of his life. In 1755 he joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman and four years later was part of a party surveying the St. Lawrence River in Canada. Between 1760-67 he surveyed the islands of Newfoundland, St. Pierre and Miquelon off the east coast of Canada, gaining particular distinction for observing and measuring a solar eclipse in 1766.
In 1766 the Government began looking for a man to command a ship for a cruise to the Pacific with the object of observing the transit of Venus. James Cook was given a ship, the Endeavour, of the serviceable Whitby collier type with which he was very familiar, and set sail from Plymouth in August 1768, for the first of his three great voyages.
The following autumn he received another commission, "to complete the discovery of the Southern Hemisphere". He was given two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure, which he took great care to stock with enough provisions, including lemons, to last for two years. He left England in July 1772, and sailed by way of the Cape far south among the icebergs of the Antarctic Ocean. After a run of "three thousand five hundred leagues" they put into Dusky Bay, New Zealand, where they landed domestic animals and planted English vegetables. Cook sailed his ship right round the Pole, and established that the great southern continent of the old maps was non-existent. He returned home, discovering and naming many islands on the way and crossing a greater space of sea than any ship had ever crossed before.
In less than a year Captain Cook was again in command of the Resolution, now promoted to the rank of post-captain, and had been presented with the gold medal of the Royal Society and a Fellowship. His navigation officer on this voyage was a young man of twenty-three of outstanding ability. His name was Bligh, subsequently Captain of The Bounty. The object of this third voyage was to find out whether there existed a north-east passage from Pacific to Atlantic; and for this purpose he sailed to the Pacific, visiting Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, Otaheite, and the Friendly Islands. Then course was set for North America. The Sandwich Islands were discovered in February, and the mainland of America sighted in March 1778. All summer they explored the coast from Oregon northwards, through the Bering Strait, right up to Icy Cape, but there was no sign of an ice-free north-east passage; and Captain Cook decided to return to Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands.
The ships dropped anchor in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii on 16th January 1779. They were greeted by an astonishing number of natives, estimated to be in the thousands, and given many gifts. A priest came on board and escorted Cook ashore to a long and moving ceremony in which it seemed he had been accorded the status of a god returning home as the legends had foretold.
However the attitude of the people soon began to change and, in spite of the fact that the crews had generally behaved themselves, it was made clear that the ships and their crews should now leave. It is speculated that the indigenous priesthood felt their power and respect was being undermined by the presence of this God from far away and were agitating for his speedy departure. Cook read the mood of the people and after some ceremonial gift giving on both sides, set sail on 4th February, 1779.
Six days later, following a storm in which Cook's vessels were severely damaged, the vessels were obliged to return to Hawaii to effect repairs. This time their welcome was less than enthusiastic. There were numerous incidents of petty theft by the natives and when during the night of 13th February one of the ship's cutters was stolen, Cook felt obliged to take some retaliatory action. His custom when confronted by such circumstances was to take hostage some senior person in the native hierarchy and hold them until the stolen articles were returned. On the morning of the 14th Cook went ashore accompanied by some marines to take King Kalaniopu hostage. A party arrived at the King's hut and he agreed willingly to accompany them back to the ship. When they arrived at the beach a large unruly crowd surrounded Cook. Apparently at some point a shot was fired by one of his marines and in the ensuing uproar Cook was stabbed in the back, clubbed to the ground and fell into the shallows where he was repeatedly stabbed and bludgeoned by the natives. His body was eventually surrendered to his crew, but not before it had been dismembered, and was buried at sea on 21st February, 1779.
An obelisk stands in his memory there, one of only two pieces of Sovereign territory still in North America. His reputation as an explorer, navigator and mapper of the Pacific is legendary and his work ensured the safe passage of countless ships throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries, contributing in no small measure to British domination of the Oceans well into the 20th century.
It is of course impossible to validate the inscription on this stick but it is of note that in 1804 Captain Bligh, Cook's navigator on his third and final voyage, was the commander of five ships doing service in the West Indies, one of which was captained by Charles Bayne Hodgson Ross. Ross was later Captain of the Marlborough and subsequently Albion on the North American station, where he would have sailed extensively with Captain David Milne.
It is of note that Captain Ross was responsible for taking Napoleon and his attendants on board the Northumberland to the island of St. Helena in 1815.
William James The Naval History of Great Britain 1793-1827 Published 1837
ROSS capt. Charles. Bayne. Hodgson. iii. (1804) 284, iv. (1806) 226, vi. (1813) 225, (1814) 300, (1815) 353.
MILNE lieut. D. i. (1795) 279, 280, 282, capt. ii. (1798) 219, iii. (1800) 46, 47, 48, r.-adm. vi. (1816) 398, 401, 405, 409.