The British ship Endeavour, under the command of James Cook, anchored in Mercury Bay from 4 to 15 November 1769. On 9 November Cook and the ship’s astronomer Charles Green took observations of the transit of the planet Mercury across the sun (hence the name of the bay), at the western end of what is now Cooks Beach. This memorial above Cooks Beach was erected in 1969 to commemorate the bicentennial of the visit to Mercury Bay.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Private collection
by Jock Phillips
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