1st September 1769

Society Islands to New Zealand

Very strong Gales and heavy Squalls with rain; at 6 p.m. brought too under the Main Sail. At 6 a.m. set the Foresail, a Great Sea from the Westward. The same sort of Birds about the Ship as Yesterday, but not in such great Numbers. Wind, Westerly; Course, South 29 degrees East; distance 50 miles; latitude 40 degrees 12 minutes South, longitude 146 degrees 29 minutes West.

Joseph Banks Journal

Blows very fresh with a heavy sea; the ship was very troublesome all last night and is not less so today. Many birds are about but not so many as yesterday, there are however all the sorts.

Sydney Parkinson’s Journal

On the 1st of September, we had hard piercing gales and squalls from the W. and N.W. with violent showers of hail and rain. The sea ran mountain-high; and tossed the ship upon the waves: she rolled so much, that we could get no rest, or scarcely lie in bed, and almost every moveable on board was thrown down, and rolled about from place to place. In brief, a person, who has not been in a storm at sea, cannot form an adequate idea of the situation we were in. The wind still increasing, we laid the ship to under the foresail. The heavens, however, being clear, at four in the morning, we saw the comet again between Aldebaran and Orion. Latitude, by account, 40° and odd; and Thermometer 44.