Captain James Cook​—Intrepid Explorer of the Pacific

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN AUSTRALIA

OTHER than in England, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the Pacific islands, the name Captain James Cook might not even strike a chord of recognition in most people. In the countries listed above, though, almost every schoolboy knows of Captain Cook​—in much the same way as American children learn of Christopher Columbus.

Without doubt, however, it is in Australia​—the South Pacific’s island continent—​and in New Zealand that the seafaring explorer is best known, for the name Captain Cook can be seen everywhere. Additionally, the original version of the song “Advance Australia Fair,” which in 1974 became the country’s national anthem, literally sings the intrepid captain’s praises.

Cook’s Voyages Begin

The instructions Cook received for his first voyage, 1768-71, were for “the making Discoverys of Countries hitherto unknown, and the Attaining a Knowledge of distant Parts which though formerly discover’d have yet been but imperfectly explored.” His orders further stated that “there is reason to imagine that a Continent or Land of great extent, may be found to the Southward” and that he was “to proceed to the southward in order to make discovery of the Continent.” The first task, though, was to observe the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun in hopes of determining exactly the distance between Earth and Sun. This was to be carried out on Tahiti.

The length of the first voyage was 43 days short of three years. Cook had carried out his orders, and more. It was during this first voyage that he made his famed landing in Botany Bay, just a few miles south of beautiful Sydney Harbor, which was not discovered until later. He had also completed a circumnavigation of both islands of New Zealand and was the first European to map the east coast of Australia. Of course, he did not discover the imagined great southern continent.

Legacy of the Voyages

Professor Bernard Smith in his book Captain James Cook and His Times suggests that “Cook was not a discoverer of new lands in any fundamental sense of the word.” This may be true, since most of the areas sighted by Cook were already inhabited. Nevertheless, Grenfell Price states: “His outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge were the completion of the outline map of the Pacific by the discovery of the long eastern shoreline of Australia,

His discovery of Botany Bay, Australia