Thanks for your input on that EBarnacle. I would have expected it to have been in use at that time, but wasn't sure. However, they didn't use it in 'The Ship', which was supposed to be following Cook's route along the Great Barrier Reef and across the Timor Sea, using his charts and methods of navigation.

In seemed to me that having got so much rightin the reconstruction, the ship, the crews diet, using the charts of the time etc. They seemed to completely miss the boat (excuse the pun) in other respects.

As for the original subject of this thread. I'd guess that the phrase would have been in common usage long before anybody got to write it down.

Brian