ER SHEATHING.

Admiral Wharton assumes that as Cook expresses himself averse from having
exploring ships sheathed in copper, owing to the difficulty of making
repairs in case of accident far from proper facilities, and from the
frequent mention of "heeling and boot-topping" in the Journal of the
Endeavour, it is most probable that she was sheathed in wood. This
assumption is correct, for there is no mention of copper sheathing in the
Surveyor's books, nor at the time of her being repaired at the Endeavour
River, nor at Batavia, when it is impossible that any account of her
damaged bottom could be given without the mention of copper if any such
sheathing had been used. The Naval Chronicle says the first ship of the
Royal Navy to be sheathed with copper was the Alarm frigate in 1758; and
it is also said that the Dolphin, the ship in which Captain Wallis sailed
round the world, was the only coppered ship in the service at this time,
and she remained the only one for some years.

On 5th May, at a Council Meeting of the Royal Society, Captain John
Campbell, R.N., proposed that Cook, who was in attendance, and had been
appointed by the Admiralty to the command of the Endeavour, was a fit and
proper person to be one of the observers for the Society in the Southern
Seas. Cook was called in, and accepted the position in consideration of
such a gratuity as the Society should think proper, and an allowance of
120 pounds per year "for victualling himself and another observer in
every particular." Mr. Green was also called in, and accepted the place
as the other observer for the gratuity of 200 guineas for the two years
the voyage was expected to take, and at the rate of 100 guineas a year
afterwards. A list of the instruments to be supplied by the Society was
also prepared at the same meeting, and the workmen engaged on them were
ordered to show them to Messrs. Green and Cook, and give any desired
information. A portable observatory, said to have been designed by
Smeaton, the builder of the Eddystone Lighthouse, framed of wood and
covered with canvas, was also prepared. Mr. Maskelyne, knowing the value
of a good watch when observing for longitude, lent the Society one of his
own, made by Graham, to be entrusted to Mr. Green, and it was signed for
with the other instruments supplied. Chronometers, of course, at that
time were in process of evolution, several makers were endeavouring to
gain the prize which had been offered for a rel