Lieutenant James Cook commanded HMS Endeavour on a joint Royal Navy and Royal Society voyage to observe the 1769 transit of Venus at Tahiti. Under further Admiralty orders, the expedition then circumnavigated and charted New Zealand, followed the eastern coast of Australia, and returned to England through Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope.
Sources and further reading
Tracing Endeavour, Australian National Maritime Museum. Ship history, Admiralty orders, transit-of-Venus mission, Australian east-coast passage, reef strike, repairs, and Indigenous context.
Captain James Cook: Research Guide and Timeline, Royal Museums Greenwich. Institutional overview distinguishing the first voyage from Cook’s later voyages and summarizing its Tahiti, New Zealand, and eastern Australian work.