The People in Endeavour During Cook's First Voyage

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Previous Comments:
John
I think Solander's birthdate needs correcting.
John MacDonald
Different birth dates are given in different places Matthew COX Personal Details: Born at Gillingham, Dorset in 1744. Information about the men mustered for the HMB Endeavour voyage, 1768-1771. Matthew Cox joined on 17 June 1768 at Deptford as AB. He was born in Gillingham, Dorset in 1743.
John MacDonald
COOK'S Journal. Appointed Saml Evans one of the Boatswains ^mates and Coxswain of the Pinnace to be Boatswain in the room of Mr Gathrey deceased and order'd a Survey to be taken of the Stores —(The Website crew list says Richard Hutchins was made boatswain)
Cliff Thornton
John, congratulations on your diligence on spotting these irregularities. The date of Solander's birth will be corrected to 1733 from 1773. The different birthdates for Matthew Cox is a perennial problem when trying to record biographical details of seamen. In most cases their D.o.B. is not known precisely, and is calculated from knowing the age that they declared when they enlisted. Beaglehole records Cox as being 22 years old when he enlisted on Endeavour in June 1768. That would give his D.o.B. as 1746. So it all depends upon which records were being used when their biographical details were being compiled. The system could be further complicated if they were born early in a year, as until September 1752, the calendar year ran from April to March (as in the financial years of some current companies). As for Samuel Evans, this appears to be another of Beaglehole's mistakes. Gathrey was one of the several dozen crew who died of dysentry on the way from Batavia to Cape Town. He died on 4 February 1771. There is no argument about that. Then Beaglehole (in Appendix V) records both Samuel Evans and Richard Hutchins being appointed to be Boatswain on 5 February 1771! But in Cook's Journal on 5 February 1771, he specifies Samuel Evans being appointed in Gathrey's position, and there is no mention of Hutchins. Looks like we will need to go back to the Endeavour's muster records to see what happened to Hutchins.