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.
James Cook the Man
James Cook was a country boy, born in Yorkshire, England, in October 1728. Although his early life is obscure, apparently he obtained some education in the still-standing Ayton village school. Later he was apprenticed to a grocer in the fishing port of Staithes. From there, with the sea air in his nostrils, he changed his career to the coal trade and learned to handle ships, working close to the windswept shores of the North Sea.
The coal vessels were not the only preparation Cook had for his later voyages. While ashore, he continued his studies of mathematics and eventually enlisted in the British Navy in 1755. Although seeing some active naval service, he became better known for his maps and charts of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Labrador.
The World Scene of 1769
Great Britain gained ascendancy in 1763 as the foremost colonial and commercial world power. After 200 years of sporadic warfare, she had defeated Spain, Holland, and France. The last of these rivals, France, had met up with staggering defeats. This was a dramatic period. Scientific achievement was rapidly conquering superstition and creating a widespread thirst for knowledge. Navigational methods had also vastly improved. The British Navy and scientific circles were urgently seeking the services of a seaman-scientist to lead an expedition to the Pacific. James Cook was the one chosen for this challenging role.
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.
A Second Successful Voyage
On his second expedition, 1772-75, Cook was commissioned to take the two vessels Resolution and Adventure on a voyage that proved to be another successful circumnavigation, this time of the Antarctic, including some sweeps across the emptiness of the South Pacific. But months of freezing temperatures and biting winds helped convince him that there was no elusive southern continent. His exhausted crew was happy to break contact with the icy seas and return to Tahiti.
Cook’s second voyage was an unqualified success and went down in the annals of history. Stated Alan Moorehead in his book The Fatal Impact: “At the end of July 1775 they anchored at Plymouth. They had been away three years and eighteen days. They had sailed more than 20,000 leagues [60,000 nautical miles]—three times the circumference of the earth—and Cook had lost no more than four men . . . This voyage had established him as one of the greatest navigators of all times.”
Third Voyage Brings Disaster
Expedition number three was to reconnoiter the Pacific coast of Canada and make a search for the supposed Northwest Passage linking the Pacific and Atlantic via the Arctic Ocean. It proved to be Captain Cook’s final voyage. He set out from England on July 12, 1776, on the refitted Resolution, taking also the ship Discovery. On January 18, 1778, he came upon what are now known as the Hawaiian Islands, where he and his men were received hospitably. They reprovisioned in those beautiful islands, then spent the northern summer of that year in a vain attempt to find a passage to the Atlantic. They then returned to winter in Hawaii.
Historians are undecided as to what caused a seeming change in behavior on Cook’s part at this point. There are question marks as to his treatment of the Hawaiians on his return. Some suggest that he now began cruelly to exploit them. Others question whether he violated their cycles of worship. Whatever the real truth of the matter, it was here that he met his death on February 14, 1779.
How did he die? On their return to Kealakekua Bay on January 17, the explorers had been greeted by 10,000 Hawaiians. The islanders were celebrating the festival of makahiki to their god Lono, the god of the land. It seems that Cook was feted as the god Lono, and he and his men were extended extraordinary kindness and hospitality once again. Three weeks later, on February 4, they weighed anchor and set sail. But just four days out, they struck a severe hurricane, and the Resolution lost a mast. Cook returned to Hawaii.
To Cook’s surprise, this time the reception was hostile. Some believe that the Hawaiians may have now thought things out more rationally and concluded they were being exploited by Cook and his men. Others suggest that Cook’s return was inconsistent with his being a “god.” Whatever the reason, Cook’s perplexed men unfortunately reacted violently. This led to the theft of a boat from the Discovery. Cook attempted to retrieve the vessel by trying to take the chief, Kalaniopu’u, as hostage. Confrontation followed, and Cook was stabbed and then beaten to death on the beach.
The journal of a Resolution crew member, midshipman George Gilbert, describes in graphic detail the last few minutes of Cook’s life. (Notice the unusual Old English spelling.) “Capt Cook had not sooner got to the water side and waved to the boats to give over fireing, when one of the Cheifs more daring than the rest steeped behind and stabed him betwixt the shoulders with an Iron Dagger. Another at that Instant gave him a blow with a club on the head by which he fell into the water; they immediately leaped in after and keeped Him under for a few minuits, then hauled him out upon the rocks and beat his head against them several times; so that there is no doubt but that he quickly expired.”
A Changed Personality Emerges
Apparently Cook’s pattern of behavior began to change on the third voyage, and he no longer displayed the same composure and control that he had on his two former journeys to the South Seas. On the third voyage, he had used the lash on 37 percent of his men, nearly twice as many as on the first voyage. This time his treatment of the Polynesian islanders was also less humanitarian. For example, he had calculatingly ordered the burning of homes and the destruction of canoes on the Tahitian island of Eimeo because of the theft of one pregnant goat. He had even resorted to cutting off the ears of islanders who were caught pilfering. Was he sick or tired or simply cruel?
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, the delineation of New Zealand, the examination of long sections of the coast of North America; the discovery of entirely new islands, such as Hawaii and New Caledonia; and the rediscovery and accurate placing of other island groups. Cook stands as the navigator who virtually discovered . . . the Antarctic continent, while in the Arctic he confirmed Bering’s discovery of his Strait.” Cook’s charts and maps were useful long after his masthead had disappeared over the Pacific horizon.
Sadly though, also left bobbing in Cook’s wake were the pollutants of venereal disease, violence with firearms, the decimation of Antarctic wildlife, and the exploitation of Pacific Islanders. Concerning Cook’s Antarctic discoveries, Alan Moorehead wrote: “Once again it was Cook’s fate to bring disaster in his wake. He had stumbled upon what was probably the largest congregation of wild life that existed in the world, and he was the first man to let the world know of its existence. . . . Cook’s intrusion into Tahiti and Australia had been bad enough for the native peoples: for the Antarctic animals it was a holocaust.”
Following Cook’s comprehensive report and charts, the hunters and whaling fleets moved in for the kill. Moorehead continues: “The killing went on and on until there was virtually nothing left to kill, nothing at any rate that could be easily and profitably killed.”
[Pictures on page 15]
Cook’s violent death in Hawaii
His discovery of Botany Bay, Australia
[Credit Line]
Paintings: By courtesy of Australian International Public Affairs
[Picture Credit Line on page 12]
Painting by John Weber/Dictionary of American Portraits/Dover. Background: The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration/J. G. Heck