In the context of Statue of James Cook, Hyde Park, discuss the Construction of the History.
On 27 March 1869, Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, laid the foundation stone during a well-attended gala at Hyde Park. Following the ceremony, however, the pedestal remained empty for nine years due to difficulties in raising additional funds; the Cook Statue Committee then asked the premier of New South Wales for assistance. Once Parliament voted to fund completion of the monument, Thomas Woolner, a fellow of the Royal Academy in London who had once lived in Australia, was commissioned for the sculpture.In a letter to Woolner dated 26 September 1874, Colonial Secretary Sir Henry Parkes requested the prolific sculptor send a design for the statue along with size and material specifications and a probable timeframe for its creation. Parkes directed that since the ‘position in Hyde Park is a very exposed one…the statue must be of bronze’. It was built by Cox & Sons at Thomas Ditton Foundry in Surrey. In 1878, the statue was briefly displayed opposite London's Athenaeum Club prior to being shipped to Sydney. It was described in The Art Journal as  “unquestionably a work designed with force and spirit that raise it to the character of the sensational”.The granite base of the statue was transported from a quarry in Moruya, New South Wales, initially by being rolled along a wooden-railed bush tram line, covering six miles and taking three days. It was then transported to Sydney by the 80-ton schooner Settler's Friend. On the second night out, a few miles off Jervis Bay, the schooner collided with a 400-ton barque headed in the same direction. An axe was used to separate the ships and the jury-rigged Settler's Friend entered Port Jackson three days later.
The Art Journal Hyde Park Thomas Woolner Colonial Secretary jury-rigged Athenaeum Club barque Statue New South Wales Henry Parkes schooner Surrey Moruya, New South Wales Sydney Royal Academy in London Queen Victoria Prince Alfred Jervis Bay Port Jackson Sir Henry Parkes Moruya