Endeavour Returns to England

July 13, 1771

After three years, a scurvy-free crew (Cook had forced them to eat sauerkraut), a dead botanist's assistant, and 30,000 plant specimens, Endeavour reached the Downs. Banks became a celebrity; Cook was quietly promoted. London's drawing rooms buzzed with news of a new world of upside-down animals. Banks would go on to preside over the Royal Society for forty-one years, shaping British science and exploration.