The Cook Bicentenary Expedition 1969 was an expedition undertaken between August 1969 and October 1969 to research the archaeology, geology and biodiversity of

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Coo ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

and the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

Origins and planning of the expedition

In 1965 New Zealand scientists proposed a scientific expedition in the Pacific as part of the bicentennial commemoration of James Cook's landing in New Zealand in 1769. In 1966 the council of the

Royal Society of New Zealand Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal ...

proposed the voyage for 1969, using the vessel HMNZS ''Endeavour'', and invited members of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

to participate in the expedition around the southwest Pacific. In April 1969 Elliot Watson Dawson was named expedition leader and J. V. Eade was named deputy leader. Because HMNZS ''Endeavour'' could only accommodate 14 passengers and could only allow a limited time ashore to meet the short cruise time it was determined that land parties would have to transported by air at some times with civil air transport available in

and the use of

RNZAF The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF; ) is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed initially in 1923 as a branch of the New Zealand Army, being known as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, becoming an in ...

Hercules aircraft transport obtained for

and

Aitutaki Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araura and Utataki, is the second most-populated island in the Cook Islands, after Rarotonga. It is an "almost atoll", with fifteen islets in a lagoon adjacent to the main island. Total land area is , and the ...

. This led to the development of three expedition groups. The first group was the Tongan group with seven people working on four projects, the second was the Cook Island group which involved eight people working on five projects, and finally the ''Endeavour'' group, with four people working on five projects on board the ship.

Participants

Expedition Committee * Edwin Ian Robertson, DSIR * James William Brodie, New Zealand Oceanographic Institute * Richard Kenneth Dell,

Dominion Museum The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand a ...

HMNZS Endeavour crew * Commander D. G. Bamfield, Captain Archaeologists *

Janet Davidson Janet Marjorie Davidson (born 1941) is a New Zealand archaeologist who has carried out extensive field work in the Pacific Islands throughout Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. Career Davidson carried out field work in the Society Islands a ...

, Auckland Institute and Museum *

Roger Duff Roger Shepherd Duff (11 July 1912 – 30 October 1978) was a New Zealand ethnologist and museum director. Biography Duff was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, on 11 July 1912. He was the son of Oliver Duff, the founding editor of the New Z ...

, Canterbury Museum * Michael M. Trotter, Canterbury Museum Botanist * William R. Philipson, Botany Department,

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

Entomologist * Keith Arthur John Wise, Auckland Institute and Museum Geologists * P. G. Harris, Department of Earth Sciences,

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

participant * P. E. Baker, Department of Earth Sciences,

participant * A. Reay, Geology Department,

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

Geophysicists * J. T Lumb, Geophysics Division, DSIR,

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

* L. Carrington, Geophysics Division, DSIR,

Marine Biologists and Geographers * Gwynne Vevers,

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...

participant * David Stoddart, Department of Geography, Cambridge University,

participant * Peter E. Gibbs, Marine Laboratory, Plymouth,

participant * Elliot Watson Dawson, Expedition leader, Oceanographic Institute, DSIR,

* W. de L. Main, Oceanographic Institute, DSIR,

* J. V. Eade, Deputy leader of the expedition, Oceanographic Institute, DSIR,

* G. B. Orbell, Soil Bureau, DSIR,

Atmospheric scientists * G. F. Preddey, Physics and Engineering Laboratory, DSIR,

* A. Utanga, Department of Internal Affairs,

* S. G. Kingan, Department of Internal Affairs,

Media representatives * Bruce Morrison, produced,

New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) was a publicly owned company of the New Zealand Government founded in 1962. The Broadcasting Act 1976 then reformed NZBC as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ). The corporation was ...

, as part of a team of four. * Harry D. B. Dansey,

Auckland Star The ''Auckland Star'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, from 24 March 1870 to 16 August 1991. Survived by its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Star'', part of its name endures in ''The Sunday Star-Times'', created i ...

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correspondent

Research focus areas

When establishing the aims of the voyage, the Expedition Committee invited participants to propose projects with a limited scope, that could be achieved in the time frame of the expedition. In 1968 the expedition scientific programme was finialised to the following project areas. Archaeology The archaeological work of the expedition consisted of a preliminary survey of the Vava'u Group in

, and a survey of

Atiu Ātiu, also known as ʻEnuamanu (meaning ''land of the birds''), is an island of the Cook Islands archipelago, lying in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. Part of the Nga-pu-Toru, it is northeast of Rarotonga. The population of the island has ...

. Botany A study of the flora of

to see the distribution of genera in the Pacific. Entomology Trapping air-born insects at sea to track insect dispersal and examining insects and small invertebrates in leaf litter, mosses, and soil in southern parts of the

to determine distribution patterns of endemic, introduced, and indigenous species. Geology A study of the geology of

Tofua Tofua is a volcanic island in Tonga. Located in the Haʻapai island group, it is a steep-sided composite cone with a summit caldera. It is part of the highly active Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone and its associated volcanic arc, which extends ...

, in

, in relation to the theory of plate tectonics. Geophysics A magnetic survey of the ocean bottom near

, and

Mangaia Mangaia (traditionally known as A'ua'u Enua, which means ''terraced'') is the most southerly of the Cook Islands and the second largest, after Rarotonga. It is a roughly circular island, with an area of , from Rarotonga. Originally heavily popul ...

using tracks beneath the Endeavour. Marine Biology A survey of habitats of marine animals, and a study of shallow-water marine areas like

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. ...

and

. Oceanography The oceanography research focus covered four topics. A continuous study of the topography of the ocean floor beneath the ship using echo-sounding,

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

sampling,

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

around

and the

for samples of fauna distribution, and water samples for analysis if

carbon-14 Carbon-14, C-14, C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic matter is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

by the Nuclear Sciences Institute, DSIR. Soil science Surveys of soil in Vava'u,

, Kao. Upper Atmosphere Physics Studies into the physics of the equatorial

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

. This included looking at total ionosphere electron content. They also studied the nighttime VHF television transmissions from

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Expedition

The expedition began in August 1969. The Tongan group flew from

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

to Nuku'alofa via

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

arriving by 2 September 1969. The Cook Island group were flown by RNZAF Hercules to

, or travelled on the M.S. Arawa. On 27 August this group continued on the Hercules to

with the

party. On 28 August 1969 HMNZS ''Endeavour'' left

with Duff, Trotter, Eade, Preddey, Carrington, and Bennett on board, arriving in

on 5 September. The ship then left for Rarotonga on 8 September for the main seaborne studies. These studies were completed successfully with minor delays due to a repair required on the echo-sounding system from 13-15 September with a

RNZN The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; ) is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of eight ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act 1913, and the subsequent acquisition of the cruiser , whi ...

dockyard technician coming from Auckland to Nuku'alofa. Rough seas on 24 September also meant there was less time for rock sampling and insect collecting in

. Scientists started disembarking from 23 September onwards, with the ''Endeavour'' leaving Nuku'alofa for Gisborne on 3 October, arriving on 9 October, 1969.

References

{{Authority control Expeditions from New Zealand Cook Islands Rarotonga Tonga 1969 in science 1969 in New Zealand