“Remember, the greater the opportunity, the fewer are those who see it.” ~ Captain James Cook
An acquisition from my 2020 Christmas shopping of numismatic items on the ‘Nautical but Nice list’ to get for myself. The E-Dealer blinked and knocked off a chunk off the E-Store retail price but not to the 
This coin commemorates the April 1778 arrival of Captain James Cook’s HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery in Nootka Sound, later to be renamed Resolution Cove. While charting the Coastal region Cook’s primary goal was to search for the elusive North West passage.
Establishing trade relations with local Nuu-chah-nulth people, as a dugout canoe is represented on the foreground of the coin, another important role as those with peaceful relations tend to have stronger territorial claims.
The Nautical Silver coin
An impressive Captain Cook’s portrait is predominantly featured on the right side facing to the left while holding a telescope in his left hand and his Admiralty orders with is right hand. Cook was a disciplined Officer that ran a tight ship but also was obsessed with precision and mathematics that made him valuable in his charting and surveying skills. Like Explorer David Thompson he produced amazingly detailed and precise charts that were used for decades if not centuries after publication.
On the left side is his command The HMS Resolution, a former Merchant Collier repurposed by the British Navy into a research and exploration role. His previous command, The Endeavor was impressed back into military service as a military Transport before Cook’s Second Voyage. It changed use a few times in private hands but at the close of the American war of Independence the Endeavor was scuttled along with other British ships off Newport Rhode Island in 1778 to avoid capture.
Behind Cook on his right is the HMS Discovery moored not too far from the Endeavor’s starboard quarter also in the process of de-rigging for needed repairs. The expedition stayed for the month of April to resupply and traded goods with the Locals. While there was a good demand for valuable Sea Otter pelts back home the expedition discovered the Nuu-chah-nulth’s fondness for metal goods and that demand may have been planted by the Spanish that came a mere four years earlier by Captain Juan Pérez’s Discovery of the Queen Charlotte Islands 1774. Cook reported the fruits of his trade and thus created a thriving and competitive trade with Europe such that conflict erupted between the British and the Spanish.
Ship Vital Statistics
Do you likes Stats? I know some guys like Stats as in Baseball, Car performance, Computer system specs, Crypto portfolios, etc., so why not sailing ships.
The HMS Resolution
- Built by: Thomas Fishburn, Whitby
- Launched: 1770
- Acquired: 1771 November named Marquis of Granby
Renamed: HMS Drake in November 1771
Renamed again: HMS Resolution in December 1771 - Class: Merchant Collier converted to a Sloop
- Tons Burden: 462 Bm
- Length: 110 ft.
- Beam: 30 ft.
- Draught: 13 ft.
- Sail Plan: Full Sail
- Compliment: 112
- Armament: 12 6-pounder guns, 12 half-pounder swivel guns
The HMS Discovery
- Built by: Langbourne, Whitby
- Launched: 1774 as a Collier Diligence
- Acquired: 1776 January
- Commissioned: 1776 February
- Class: 8 Gun Discovery Consort ship
- Tons Burden: 299 BM
- Length 91.6 ft.
- Beam: 27.6 ft.
- Draught: 11 ft.
- Sail Plan: Brigantine, converted to Full Sail later
- Compliment: 70 as a Naval Transport
- Armament: 8 Guns
Historical Trivia!
According to the Crew Manifest register of the HMS Discovery, the Master of the Ship is None other than William Bligh, famous for his command of the HMS Bounty and focus of the famous Mutiny precipitated under his command. An Island in Resolution Cove is named Bligh Island.
A young Midshipman George Vancouver of the HMS Resolution eventually becomes Captain and returned in the 1789 10 Gun Sloop version of the HMS Discovery in 1792 to explore and survey the Pacific Northwest coast.
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“Et lux in tenebris to serve laboro, sum sicarius” “I work in the shadows to serve the Light, I am an Assassin”
