There is a theory that Cook had a map of the East Coast as, when his ship hit the reef and needed urgent repairs, he didn't look for a safe anchorage to the South, where he had already sailed, but went North into presumably unknown waters and just happened to sail into a safe place to careen the ship.

Seems like a bit of a wild gamble for a very experienced seaman.

Is Mise,
There was simply no way the ENDEAVOUR could have sailed 'back'. The trade winds don't permit that. That Cook either knew or had a chart of Torres Strait is almost certain but he never did claim to have discovered the gap, he confirmed it !
I found some Pig iron ballast blocks that were jettisoned from the ENDEAVOUR & they were on display at a mate's museum for years & eventually EHP took them because they were historical & locked them away in a shed & I was later informed that there was no treatment & they simply crumbled away to nothing !
He went into the Endeavour River because the Pinnaces scouted ahead to look for a sheltered place & found there.
There was also a very old anchor at Cape York & because it was below high tide it was preserved by being frequently inundated by sea water. When some Army blokes took it back to their barracks it lasted about 4 months before it too crumbled to nothing.

individual,

Thanks for that, it seems quite logical.

I'm pleased to report that I saw a lot of new coral growth today from shallow to 15 metres.
Water temperature at half a metre was 33degrees & at 3 metres 30 degrees C.
Nice & pleasant at depth but uncomfortable at the surface.

Galen

As a wouldbe card carrying member of the RSPCA and not wanting to be agist, we need to be kind to Alan B.

On account of his childlike wonderment about technology which mixes hope (in his dotage) with science fiction.

Yes Alan's verbose comments (straining for the 350 word max) may seem like a comment thread infestation to many,

well most...

But we should humour the old bugger - as his next comment may be his last. A relief to many...well most.

On Alan's " ‘space age’ lie detection equipment" intonations. I agree with you. Such equipment doesn't exist.

Australia is not known to use lie detectors, old or new, due to the subjectivity of human operators and too many false positives.

Also in open sources (like "Berlin Station") "good" spooks/moles (eg. from training by SVR, FSB and GRU, etc) are taught to beat the machines by heartrate-reducing-breathing, visualisation techniques, even tightening their anuses (see "The Americans") and anticipating the "tough" questions.

So the RSPCA
Says "be kind to Alan today"

Pete,
Thanks I do try but old Alan just keeps on keeping on!

I will call him out until he gets it right, here’s hoping ;-)
Galen