The Maritime Museum
Last Friday on the 6th of May, Year 4 travelled to the Maritime Museum to begin our topic on Australian explorers. We learnt so much I especially liked learning about where the expression “ don't let the cat out of the bag” comes from.
When we arrived we were split into 4 groups. All the groups went with a guide. My group went with a man named “Al”. First we went on the Endeavour. This is the famous ship that Captain Cook used to discover Australia. However the one we went on was only a replica. They claim to have found the real Endeavour,now re-named the “ Lord Sandwich “ in Rhodes Islands,America.
My favourite thing about the Endeavour is the punishment they had. If a sailor or cabin boy was bad they were given what is known as the “cat of nine tails .” This feared punishment was a whip that at the end had nine thin, long strings coming out of the end. These strings had knots at the end. The knots tore up the skin as they lashed the victim! Sometimes the ropes even got stuck in the back! If the victim fainted or fell unconscious they waited until they woke up and kept on going. They then rubbed salt in the wounds! This was painful but it did help the wounds to heal.
The toilets were a hole up the front of the ship that dropped down into the ocean. When they had finished doing their business they used a fraying rope as toilet paper! The captains and officers used a bucket. Cabin boys often used a small green bucket.
The Dutch came to Australia quite by accident they bumped into it on their search for silver,gold and spices. The reason the Dutch were looking for spices was because all the food there had gone stale and tasteless. The Dutch wanted spices to add flavour. William Janz named Australia New Holland and went on his merry way. Then he mapped out the entire western coast, just for the sake of mapping!
Of course before the Dutch, or anyone for that matter, the main (and only) inhabitants of Australia were the indigenous people. They were very clever at surviving back then. They made canoes out of bark then made sort of a tile out of clay. Then they lit a fire on top of the tile to cook the fish they caught and keep them warm.
Another country that came ( but didn't even think of settling ) were the Indonesian, Macassans. They came for 1 reason and 1 reason only, sea slugs! They caught and sold them to the Chinese. The Chinese saw them as rare delicacies! They also taught the Indigenous how to make sails.
Captain Cook was never actually promoted to the rank of captain. He was just called “ Captain” Cook because he was at the highest rank on the Endeavour. Captain Cook came to Australia for 2 purposes. 1 was to find the “ Great South Land). He also had scientists on board so purpose 2 was to watch the great “ Transit of Venus” across the sun. This would help science,navigation,mapping and astronomy greatly. While Captain Cook was there he also mapped out the entire east coast of Australia.
Did you know that the cook of the Endeavour had only one arm? If the fire got out of control the whole ship would have burnt down! There were only boys on the Endeavour, Girls were believed to be bad luck on boats! Basically all of our history on the indigenous people comes for their art! The cook of the Endeavour would feed the officers pickled,boiled,salted cabbage when the sailors and cabin boys saw this they wanted some. That's how the cook kept anyone from getting scurvy!
My favourite part was the cat of nine tails. I think the whole thing had been an excellent adventure and a really fun way to start off the topic for this term. I can't wait to learn more on this topic and I hope I have convinced anyone who reads this to go to the Maritime Museum!
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