This will ever chiefly depend on the kind,
the size, and the properties of the ships chosen for the service.
These primary considerations will not admit of any other that may interfere
with the necessary properties of the ships. Therefore, in choosing the
ships, should any of the most advantageous properties be wanting, and the
necessary room in them, be in any degree diminished, for less important
purposes, such a step would be laying a foundation for rendering the
undertaking abortive in the first instance.
As the greatest danger to be apprehended and provided against, on a voyage
of discovery, especially to the most distant parts of the globe, is that of
the ship's being liable to be run a-ground on an unknown, desert, or
perhaps savage coast; so no consideration should be set in competition with
that of her being of a construction of the safest kind, in which the
officers may, with the least hazard, venture upon a strange coast. A ship
of this kind must not be of a great draught of water, yet of a sufficient
burden and capacity to carry a proper quantity of provisions and
necessaries for her complement of men, and for the time requisite to
perform the voyage.
She must also be of a construction that will bear to take the ground; and
of a size, which in case of necessity, may be safely and conveniently laid
on shore, to repair any accidental damage or defect. These properties are
not to be found in ships of war of forty guns, nor in frigates, nor in East
India Company's ships, nor in large three-decked West India ships, nor
indeed in any other but North-country-built ships, or such as are built for
the coal-trade, which are peculiarly adapted to this purpose.
In such a vessel an able sea-officer will be most venturesome, and better
enabled to fulfil his instructions, than he possibly can (or indeed than
would be prudent for him to attempt) in one of any other sort or size.
Upon the whole, I am firmly of opinion, that no ships are so proper for
discoveries in distant unknown parts, as those constructed as was the
Endeavour, in which I performed my former voyage. For no ships of any other
kind can contain stores and provisions sufficient (in proportion to the
necessary number of men,) considering the length of time it will be
necessary they should last. And, even if another kind of ships could stow a
sufficiency, yet on arriving at the parts for discovery, they would still,
from the nature of their construction and size, be less fit for the
purpose.
Hence, it may be concluded, so little progress had been hitherto made in
discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere.
