Because of my interest in Australia literature and history, I was aware of James Cook, that great explorer and cartographer, the first European to map and record visits to Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Between 1768 and 1779 he made three voyages of exploration and this book details his third voyage. He was commissioned to look for a northwest passage across North America, beginning from the west coast; Lewis and Clark’s expedition in 1804-06, finally established that no water route across the continent exists.
While I could write about so many aspects of Cook’s last voyage, I must limit myself to a few highlights I want to remember. He is thought to be the inspiration for Captain James Kirk of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise. Who knew?
He was more solicitous of the health and safety of his crew than most ship captains of the era, and one notable achievement was to lose no men to scurvy on the second and third voyages. While he did not know which of the foods he made available to the crew were responsible, by making fresh fruits and vegetables and his interesting concoctions like carrot marmalade available, he overcame that malady which often killed as many as half the seamen on long voyages. He also cared about the health of the indigenous people they encountered wherever they stopped. He tried to protect them from the venereal diseases the crew had, an impossible task.
On this voyage he stopped again at Tahiti, where he was much respected. Near the end of his time there, he was suffering from what he thought was rheumatism (probably sciatica) and was in debilitating pain from his hip to his foot. The Tahitians sent a canoe to the ship with twelve women armed with an assortment of oils and ointments. He wrote that their efforts involved fifteen minutes of pain, but after a few treatments over the course of a day or two, the pain was gone.
After leaving the Polynesian Islands he bumped into the Hawaiian Islands on his way to Alaska. Though the Spanish sailed near them on multiple voyages, Cook was the first European to land on them. The crew discovered the language they had learned in Polynesia was understood by the Hawaiians in Kauai. The Hawaiians had no knowledge the history of those who first settled the islands.
He moved on to explore Alaska, looking for that elusive passage, and in the process mapped the Cape Prince of Wales, thus establishing the westernmost point of Alaska. Because he marked its coordinates with precision, the width of North America could be established. I want to remember that one of the able “and insufferable,” seamen, as the author describes him, was William Bligh, for whom Cook named an island. Later Bligh was known for the mutiny against him on his ship, the Bounty.
During this voyage, Cook occasionally displayed erratic behavior that endangered the ship and displayed a cruelty toward natives that hadn’t been in evidence in previous voyages. Bad choices and misfortune caused his death when the ship was back in the Hawaiian Islands after leaving Alaska. They had landed on the Big Island and were welcomed and he was believed to be a god. He and the crew left when they began to feel unwelcome because the season for that god was over. Soon after they put to sea, they encountered a storm which damaged a mast and they were forced to return to Kealakekua Bay. A boat was stolen by the Hawaiians, Cook handled it badly, and in a pitched battle, Cook, four of his seamen, and twenty Hawaiian warriors were killed. The fury of the islanders was in evidence at the killing of Cook and the frenzied attack on his body after his death.
I recommend looking at a map of the voyage as you read, like this one. I found this book to be endlessly engrossing.
Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea, Doubleday, 2024, 408 pages (I listened to the audiobook). Available in the public library.