Most Australians know about Captain Cook’s voyages but probably not from the perspective of those who actually took part in the round the world voyages. The book is divided into three parts: the voyage of the Endeavour 1768-71; the voyage of the Resolution and the Adventure 1772-75; and the voyage of the Resolution and the Discovery 1776-1780.
The avowed purpose of the first voyage was to observe the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti but an underlying mission on the first and second voyages was to determine the existence of a Great Southern Land which had been speculated about by geographers and mariners for many years. Cook circumnavigated both islands of New Zealand and mapped the east coast of Australia, almost coming to grief on the Great Barrier Reef, near what is now Cooktown.
When Cook took command of the Endeavour on 27 July 1768, more than a third of the globe was unmapped, some even unvisited. Given the primitive equipment, in terms of his ship, navigational and surveying tools available, and the vast range of places he visited and charted, the success of the voyages is truly astonishing. Including all three voyages, Cook travelled around South America; to the islands of the Pacific; ventured into the icebergs of Antarctica; up the American coast from California to Alaska; around the Arctic Circle; Siberia; the East Indies; and of course Australasia. By 1779, only 11 years later, when he died in what is now Hawaii, the charts he had made were so accurate some were still being used in the 1990s.
Nicholas Thomas has used selections from the logs, journals and writings of Cook (A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Around the World 1777), Georg Forster (naturalist on Resolution, published Voyages Round the World 1777) and James King (2nd Lieutenant on Resolution, following Cook’s death involved in writing and the publication of an account of the voyage). He also includes material from John Hawkesworth who was commissioned by the Admiralty to edit Captain Cook‘s papers about his first voyage. However, that 1773 publication was widely criticised for inaccuracies and licentious descriptions of ‘native’ customs.
The result is a wonderful book full of fascinating detail, reproductions of botanical drawings, sketches, watercolours, allegorical paintings done to celebrate the completion of the voyages, and up to date photographs of the people, places and wildlife which those intrepid explorers encountered – often for the first time. The book seamlessly combines history, geography, natural science, anthropology and ethnography with a touch of some ripping yarns.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
Rating out of 10: 9
Distributed by: Murdoch Books
Release Date: October 2016
RRP: $49.99
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