“not above 80 or 100 yards from the breakers.  The same sea that washed the side of the ship rose in a breaker prodigiously high the very next time it did rise, so that between us and destruction was only a dismal valley, the breadth of one wave, and even now no ground could be felt with 120 fathoms.”

A perilous position.

The carpenter had by this time fastened a temporary streak on the pinnace, and it was sent off to assist in towing.  Cook had almost given up hope, but he says: 

“In this truly terrible situation, not one man ceased to do his utmost, and that with as much calmness as if no danger had been near.”

Admiral Wharton draws special attention to the fact that in the very height of the danger, Green, Charles Clerke, and Forwood, the gunner, were engaged in taking a Lunar for the longitude.  Green notes: 

“These observations were very good, the limbs of the sun and moon very distinct, and a good horizon.  We were about 100 yards from the reef, where we expected the ship to strike every minute, it being calm, no soundings, and the swell heaving us right on.”

When things seemed perfectly hopeless, a small breath of air, “so small that at any other time in a calm we should not have observed it,” came, and every advantage being taken, the distance from the reef was slightly increased, but then again it fell calm.  A small opening of the reef was seen and an attempt was made to push through, but the ebb tide was found to be “gushing out like a mill stream.”  Advantage was taken of this, and they succeeded in getting about a quarter of a mile away, but the current was so narrow they soon lost it.  A second opening was seen, and, the tide having changed, they were carried rapidly through Providential Channel and safely anchored in nineteen fathoms of water.  Cook says: 

“It is but a few days ago that I rejoiced at having got without the Reef, but that joy was nothing when compared to what I now felt at being safe at an anchor within it.”

Having arrived at a place of safety, Cook resolved to remain till he had his boats in thorough repair and had made a complete study of his difficulties.  From the masthead it appeared as if the shoals and reefs offered less obstruction than he had previously towards the north, and he hoped, by keeping as close to the shore as possible, to be able to solve the problem of the passage between New Guinea and New Holland.  At this place, boats that had been out fishing brought back a sort of cockle, some requiring two men to lift them, and containing “as much as twenty pounds of good wholesome meat.”

Take possession.

Proceeding slowly through a network of reefs, shoals, and islands, the boats always sounding ahead, he had the satisfaction of passing the straits between Cape York and New Guinea, leaving Torres’s track considerably to the north.  On getting clear of the straits, they landed for the last time in Australian waters, and hoisting the English flag: