Sunday, 19 November 2017

Sunday Snap – The Explorer


We were in Sussex at the site of the Battle of Hastings for last week's Sunday Snap. I asked which English king was killed in 1066 and the answer is

Harold Godwinson or Harold II

Shooting arrows into the air with the right answer were Soma, Anne and Kara.

This week we are making a return to Whitby. Across the harbour from the Abbey stands this statue. There are two plaques on the base of it – one from the people of Canada and the other from the people of Australia. When he was a teenager his family moved to the village of Staithes near to Whitby. He took a job in a shop but he didn't seem cut out for it. After a year and half he was taken to Whitby and became an apprentice in the merchant navy. He did his apprenticeship before joining the Royal Navy.

He rose through the ranks quickly and showed a talent for surveying and cartography. In the 1760s he travelled around the coast of Newfoundland, now a Canadian island, and was able to accurately map them. His greatest achievement came when he boarded the HMS Endeavour in 1768. On this journey he was able to map the entire coastline of New Zealand. A group of small islands off New Zealand were named after him. Afterwards he journeyed onto Australia. Once they got there in April 1770 they became the first Europeans to have known to have reached the eastern coastline. The site which he landed at he called Botany Bay after the unique varieties of plants which were found there. The wording on one of the plaques below the statue states it was presented 'To commemorate the bi-centenary of the discovery of the east coast of Australia' which obviously didn't go down well with the indigenous population of Australia.

He made his last exploratory voyage to Hawaii in 1779. With his crew he got in an altercation with some of the native Hawaiians. It resulted in him being struck on the head and then stabbed to death. Despite the violent nature of his death the Hawaiians tried him in the same way as one of their chiefs or elders by going through the funereal rites of disembowelling and then baked in order to remove the flesh to obtain the bones. The bones would then be used as religious icons. After some persuasion some of the bones were sent to the British in order to give him a burial at sea. This week's question is

Who is the 18th century explorer?

We were joined last week by Anne and a flashback to trolley riding days. There's was another throwback from Susan who was thinking about starting school. For Remembrance Sunday Kara was paying tribute to the fallen in Normandy and going back to the top ten of September 1993. Up early was Sue with a dawn shot of the pier. Finally, in New Zealand Betty has been capturing everything from rocky cliffs to children's hand prints.

If you want to join in with this week's Sunday Snap then add your link to the linky below. Any theme is allowed. It doesn't have to be published today as you have until 23.55 on Friday 24th November 2017 to join in. Grab my badge below for your blog post. Just make sure it is your photo and you hold the copyright for it.

Sunday Snap


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4 comments:

  1. I’ve not idea, but think it’s James Cook xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Captain James Cook, right?! I know him from the voyage of the Endeavour.

    -Soma

    ReplyDelete
  3. OH Dear, it's one of those I really should know this moments, but I don't!
    So much history in Whitby!
    Thanks for hosting x

    ReplyDelete

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