HMS Discovery

Resolution and Discovery by Samuel Adkin
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Discovery
Builder:	Langbourne, Whitby
Launched:	1774 (as the collier Diligence)
Acquired:	January 1776
Commissioned:	February 1776
Fate:	Broken up at Chatham Dockyard in October 1797
General characteristics
Class and type:	8-gun discovery ship
Tons burthen:	299 tons
Length:	91 ft 6 in (27.89 m)
Beam:	27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Draught:	11 ft 5 in (3.48 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Brig, later alter to a full rigged ship
Complement:	70 as transport
Armament:	8 guns:

HMS Discovery was the consort ship of James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1776 - 1780. Like Cook's other ships, Discovery was a Whitby-built collier of 298 tons, originally named Diligence when she was built in 1774. Originally a brig, Cook had her changed to a full rigged ship. She was commanded by Charles Clerke, who had previously served on Cook's first two expeditions, and had a complement of 70. When Cook was killed in a skirmish with natives of Hawaii, Clerke transferred to expedition's flagship HMS Resolution and John Gore assumed command of Discovery. She returned to Britain under the command of Lieutenant James King, arriving back on 4 October 1780

After returning to the Nore in 1780, Discovery was fitted out as a transport at Woolwich Dockyard, serving as such between December 1780 and May 1781. She then became a dockyard craft at Woolwich, and was broken up at Chatham Dockyard in October 1797.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475. 
• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714-1792 (Seaforth Publishing, 2007).
• Beaglehole, J.C.: The Life of Captain James Cook. ISBN 0-8047-0848-7.

External links

• Ships of the World entry

Digitised copies of the original logs of HMS Discovery, British Atmospheric Data Centre/The National Archives as part of the CORRAL project