Great Lives by Karen Farrington

 Excerpts from the book: 

 Captain James Cook ( 1728-1779)

Cook had the skills of a cartographer at his fingertips and did more than anyone previously to chart the coast of New Foundland, New Zealand, eastern Australia, numerous Pacific Islands and both the Artic and Antarctic frontier. He also possessed abundant courage, which enabled him to set off onto the unknown. 

He was a symbol of the Enlightment, treating indigenous tribes that he encountered with respect and understanding in the context of the era. 

Ultimately it was an uncharacteristically heavy handed approach with the Hawaiians that cost him his life.

Unsuited to farm and shop work, young James decided his true calling was at sea. After joining the merchant navy, he ferried coal from Newcastle to London and sometimes to the Baltic in a stout Whitby collier. 

The aspirational Cook spent his spare time studying hydrology, cartography and astronomy. 

Not content with a secure future as a Captain in the mercantile fleet, he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1755 as an able seaman and spent a dozen years working his way through the ranks. 

In 1767, he was chosen to lead an expedition to the Pacific that would chart the course of the planet Venus across the sun. Its subtext was to find the southern continent that many thought lay undiscovered in the southern oceans. 

From England he sailed around Cape Horn to Tahiti, where he forged an enduring relationships with islanders. Then it was on to New Zealand, which he charted, the unknown Botany Bay in Australia and home via Indonesia. 

Cook’s journals and the work of accompanying scientist Joseph Banks created a major stir on their return. 

Cook today has several personalities. There is the Cook who is one of the great, supreme navigators and that part of his reputation remains. But there is uneasiness among many, particularly among Pacific peoples, about the legacy of Cook. Mist white Australians and New Zealanders would still see Cook as a kind of founding father, almost an iconic figure. But the Maori aborigines and Hawaiians see a very different Cook; a despoiler, a destructive force. By Glyn Williams ( Professor of History).