Captain Cook in Google Earth: Cape Manifold to Thirsty Sound

After rounding Cape Manifold, Endeavour anchored overnight and then passed Cape Townshend. They soon found shoal water and had to brake hard using an anchor when they found only 3.5 fathoms of water on Donovan Shoal.

Edging cautiously over this shoal, Endeavour made for an inlet to the west, still with the smaller boats going ahead and sounding. They anchored and then explored the inlet, which Cook named Thirsty Sound on account of finding no fresh water.

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Today, I added this leg of Cook’s exploration of the Australian coast to my Google Earth tour which presents his first voyage round the world. The screenshot above shows Endeavour anchored in Thirsty Sound on 29May1770.

Copyright © Colin Hazlehurst, 2012

If you would like to follow Cook’s voyage, you will need to install the latest version of Google Earth on your computer; then go to the Captain Cook blog  and click on the links on the right-hand side of the page, under the ‘Google Earth’ heading. After the animation is loaded in Google Earth, you need to expand an entry in the Table of Contents. You will see a ‘Play’ icon which you double-click to start the animation. Don’t forget to enable your speakers to hear the spoken journal.