[press release]
Royal Mail Celebrates 250th Anniversary Of Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage With Special Stamps

• A set of 10 stamps will be issued to mark Captain Cook setting sail in one of the greatest voyages of discovery of all time aboard HM Bark Endeavour
• The stamps include a selection of the original drawings and paintings of the indigenous peoples, landscapes and flora and fauna, some of which had never been seen before by Europeans
• The stamps and souvenir products can be pre-ordered now from www.royalmail.com/captaincook and are available from 7,000 Post Offices nationwide from 16 August 2018

Royal Mail is issuing a set of stamps to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook setting sail in one of the greatest voyages of discovery of all time aboard HM Bark Endeavour – with nearly 100 men including astronomers, artists and scientists.

The ten-stamp set, four of which are presented in a miniature sheet, will include a selection of the original drawings and paintings of the indigenous peoples, landscapes of the Pacific and flora and fauna, some of which had never been seen before by Europeans, and which amazed the scientific establishment at the time.

Also featured are Cook himself, natural history artist, Sydney Parkinson and naturalist, Joseph Banks as well as an illustration of a Tahitian Mourner by Tupaia, a Polynesian priest who joined the voyage as a navigator and translator.

During the expedition, Cook and his men initiated the first European contact with Eastern Australia, mapped New Zealand and observed the transit of Venus across the Sun.

The Endeavour returned to the UK on 13 July 1771 after circumnavigating the globe, mapping over 5000 miles of coastline, and on board were 3000 specimens for scientific examination and hundreds of drawings which fascinated the public and amazed the scientific establishment.

Cook’s pursuit of new knowledge and information helped to correct the positions of many Pacific islands which had been incorrectly placed by earlier travellers. Ultimately, Cook’s voyage produced Pacific maps based on accurate information rather than conjecture.

Philip Parker, Royal Mail, said: “Our striking new stamps mark the 250th anniversary of one the most important voyages of discovery of all time. On board the Endeavour were scientists and artists who recorded their findings and the ship brought back thousands of specimens and illustrations which amazed society”.

The stamps and souvenir products can be pre-ordered now from www.royalmail.com/captaincook and are available from 7,000 Post Offices nationwide from 16 August.

The set of 6:

• Sir Joseph Banks Bt by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Phaethon rubricauda (red-tailed tropicbird) by Sydney Parkinson and Passiflora aurantia (red passion flower) outline drawing by Sydney Parkinson finished by Fred Polydore Nodder
• Chief Mourner of Tahiti and a scene with a canoe by the artist of the Chief Mourner (Tupaia)
• Captain James Cook by Nathaniel Dance, Triumph of the Navigators by Robin Brooks
• Drawings of the observations of the transit of Venus, 1769, by
• Charles Green and Lieutenant James Cook alongside a photograph of a sextant
• Clianthus puniceus (scarlet clianthus) by Sydney Parkinson and a portrait of a Maori Chief with full facial moko
• Volatinia jacarina (blue-black grassquit) by Sydney Parkinson and Sydney Parkinson, self-portrait

The minisheet:

• A chart exhibiting the discoveries made by Captain James Cook by Lieutenant Roberts
• Boathouse and canoes on Raiatea, Society Islands
• An arched rock with a Maori clifftop fort in New Zealand
• Repairing The Endeavour on the Endeavour River, Australia