May 28, 2004
Endeavour
James Cook and the Transit of Venus, Science @ NASA:
On August 12, 1768, His Majesty's Bark Endeavour slipped out of harbor, Lt. James Cook in command, bound for Tahiti. The island had been "discovered" by Europeans only a year before in the South Pacific, a part of Earth so poorly explored mapmakers couldn't agree if there was a giant continent there ... or not. Cook might as well have been going to the Moon or Mars.
Posted by jackhodgson at May 28, 2004 08:26 AM