CIA-RDP96-00792R000400510001-7

2000/08/15 : CJA- RA
PEARL OF POLYNESIA, craggy
Bora Bora rises within a barrier
of coral and lashing surf that
thwarted Cook's only attempt to
harbor here. Shattering the little
island's isolation, an airstrip
on the islet at lower right
now regularly attracts visitors
from neighboring Tahiti.

Approved For Release 2000/08/15 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400510001-7
Whisper-soft firelight enhances the beauty of a Tahitian
dancer being anointed with coconut oil. During Cook's
visits here. even a sliver of metal would win for a sailor the
company of an island girl. Such bartering forced Cook to
post guards on the ships to keep seamen from prying nails
out of the planking.
All in a lather, a Tahitian youth surges to shore on a board.
Here Cook first observed canoe surfing. It was the "al-
most amphibious" Hawaiians, though, who first demon-
strated the surfboard, which, one of Cook's lieutenants
wrote, "sends them in with a most astonishing Velocity. .. . "
"A BETTER SHIP for such a Service I would
never wish for," commented Cook of his
Endeavour, a craft only 106 feet long
and 29 feet wide. A converted collier, she
incorporated all the features Cook demanded
in his oceangoing vessels. The round
bluff bow and wide deep waist provided
uncommon spaciousness; the small size
and broad bottom permitted easy beaching
for repairs and stability if the ship were
to ground. Below the waterline Endeavour
had an extra skin of thin planking fitted
to the bull with thousands of closely spaced
flatheaded nails-a precaution against
wood-boring shipworms. Outfitted
for peaceful exploration, the
crowded bark also carried ten
carriage guns and 12 swivel
guns for defense.
Devoted to the scientific
aspects of the voyage.
Cook volunteered the
Great Cabin for use
by the expedition
naturalists-even
though the room
was one of the few places
in the ship where Cook,
more than six feet tall.
could stand erect. Here
he confer, with a scientist
on the main deck above the cabin.
Endeavour ended her career on a Rhode
Island reef in 1795, but her accomplishments
still inspire men. Apollo 15 astronauts
gave her name to their command spacecraft
They saw their lunar voyage, with its emphasis
on scientific discovery, as a modern parallel of
Cook's trailblazing first expedition.
FRIAL MAGME (C. N G 5.
By a primitive but reliable means. an under-
between his boat's keel and the ship-killing
coral. A Polynesian priest, Tupaia, used the
same method two centuries ago to guide
Endeavour through these reef-strewn waters.
Voluntarily piloting the craft through the So-
ciety Islands, Tupaia, aboard ship with Cook.
directed islanders in accompanying canoes to
plunge into the sea and check the depth wher-
ever he suspected danger.
Elsewhere in such circumstances, crewmen
forged ahead in small boats to plumb the depths
with lead-weighted lines In 1970 when Cook
blundered into "the very jaws of distruction" .. -
the Great Barrier Reef-his ship depended on
a sounding boat for more than 1,000 miles.
Approved For Release 2000/08/15 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400510001-7