Captain James Cook

The First Voyage 1768 - 1771

A series of marine paintings by Robin Brooks

Two paintings from the first voyage. HM Bark 'Endeavour'.

'Worst of all Losses', marine painting by Robin Brooks

 © Robin Brooks 2007

The Worst Of All Losses


Thursday 1st September 1771
Oil on canvas 12" x 16"
(30.5 cm x 40.5 cm)

E Stacey Marks, and thus to a private collector.

Captain Cook's Endeavour sailed from Plymouth on Friday 26th August 1771. On the sixth day out, Thursday 1st September, they encountered severe weather.

Summary of the 1st Voyage

"Very hard gales with some heavy showers of rain in the most part of these 24 hours, which brought us under our two courses, broke one of Main topmasts Puttock plates, washed overboard a small boat belonging to the Boatswain and drowned between 3 and 4 dozen of our poultry, which was the worst of all. Towards noon it moderated so that we could bear our Main topsail close reef'd."
- The Journals of Captain James Cook, the voyage of the Endeavour, 1768-1771, Volume 1, Hakluyt Society.




Marine painting: 'Triumph of the Navigators' by Robin Brooks

 © Robin Brooks 2007


Triumph of the Navigators


July 13th 1771
Captain Cook's Endeavour
Oil on canvas 20" x 30" (51 cm x 76.5 cm)
In the collection of a private UK collector.

"We are united by our interest in Captain Cook, I think your painting is certainly a beauty"
Dava Sobel - Author of 'Longitude', East Hampton, New York 1997


In this spirited painting, the artist, with unerring skill, captures the exhilaration and excitement of Endeavour's gallant crew as they near England's shores.

On a voyage of almost three years, surviving every kind of tribulation, Endeavour, with patched sails straining and her cordage breaking, triumphantly appears, almost racing up channel and through the Dover Straits, under a south west gale.

Surely no painting celebrates better the achievement of James Cook, seaman, circumnavigator and cartographer, Captain James Cook, Son of the land, Master of the sea.

Summary of the 1st Voyage




Limited Edition marine print of 'Triumph of the Navigators' by Robin Brooks

Voyages of Captain Cook
Exclusive Limited Edition Print


'The Triumph of the Navigators' has been released as a superb limited edition print. The print is available as a lithograph on paper, strictly limited to 850. Prints are stamped, embossed and numbered by the Fine Art Trade Guild.

To purchase this print, View Prints





Photo of the Endeavour replica on the Thames in 1997
HM Bark Endeavour on the Thames, 1997.

Black Dog Studios & The UK Tour of
HM Bark 'Endeavour' Replica 1997

The wonderful Australian HM Bark Endeavour Replica was finally completed in 1994. On 16th October 1996 she sailed from Freemantle on the start of her world voyage to London. She visited Mauritius and Reunion Islands, Durban, Cape Town and arrived in London on 25th March 1997. HRH Queen Elizabeth and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited the ship.

In celebration of the UK tour, Black Dog Studios published 'Triumph of the Navigators - 13th July 1771' and a commemorative brochure marking the major UK ports of call of the Endeavour Replica.

The following quote is an extract from a personal letter sent to Robin, April 1997, from the late Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Lewin of Greenwich KG, GCB, LVO, DSC.

Dear Robin,

"One of my excuses for not writing before was that I wanted to be able to tell you that I have visited the ship twice, once when HRH Prince Philip saw her, and last week, I had dinner in the great cabin, a really remarkable experience. No matter how familiar with Cook's voyages I am, nothing prepared me for the small size of the ship. To think that some ninety men lived in her for some three years..."


Yours sincerely, Terence Lewin


Photo of Bruce Stannard in HM Bark Endeavour
Bruce Stannard in the Great Cabin,
HM Bark Endeavour 		Bruce Stannard, the Australian journalist, editor and author with a passion for maritime history wrote on Nov 1st 1995:
"You've pulled off that rare feat in marine art, in being able to render the ships properly in a sea way. It is one thing to get the technical aspect right, the rigging and sails etc, but quite another to give the ship the right 'feel' as they make their way across the surface of the sea. You pulled it off very well indeed I thought"

Bruce Stannard was an influential figure with the HM Bark Endeavour Replica project.

Photo of Robin Brooks presenting a limited edition print to Captain Chris Blake

 © Robin Brooks 2007

HM Bark Endeavour - Plymouth 1997.

Captain Chris Blake, accepting a limited edition print of 'Triumph of the Navigators' from Robin Brooks at the Barbican, Plymouth 1997.




Next - Captain Cook, The Second Voyage 1772 - 1775
...the story, the voyage, the paintings

Painting of Cook leaving Plymouth, Rame Head, J.R. Forster.


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