Cook's Voyages
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The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas.
Excerpts from chapters 2 - 8 of this major new book written by Dame Anne Salmond of the University of Auckland.The Pacific voyages of James Cook sailed across perilous tropical seas, survived hurricanes, discovered unknown lands and peoples and made their Captain an icon of imperial history. Yet the story of these epic journeys is far more than one of conquest and control as Cook and his crew are changed as much by what happens as the islanders they meet. Filled with astonishing descriptions drawing on surviving accounts of New Zealand, Tahiti and more, this book reimagines two worlds that explosively collided in the 18th Century and explains the lasting impact of that collision. Permission to post these excerpts on this website thanks to Dame Anne Salmond and publisher Penguin Books.
 Chapter 2.
A brief account of Cook's home society, Georgian England, as a background to shipboard dysnamics during his three Pacific voyages.
Chapter 3.
James Cook's background and previous career: the Royal Navy; how the voyage came together; The Secret Instructions. Joseph Banks' life story before joining the expedition. The Endeavour leaves England.
Chapter 4.
The Dolphin's visit to Tahiti in 1767. The Society Islands in the decades before the Europeans' arrival. The Arioi, and their sexual practices; the war god 'Oro. Tupaia, the high priest navigator, and his background. Bougainville's visit; and war in Tahiti. The Endeavour sails from Portsmouth.
Chapter 5.
The voyage, and the Endeavour's arrival at Tahiti in 1769. Tupaia links up with Joseph Banks and his party; learns to paint in watercolours. The Transit of Venus observations; events during the Endeavour's stay in Matavai Bay.
Chapter 6.
Cook and Banks take a tour around the island of Tahiti; Tupaia guides them through the Society Islands. A visit to Taputaputea, the most sacred marae in the archipelago; and to Hamanino, Tupaia's birthplace.
Chapter 7.
The voyage to New Zealand; Tupaia's chart of the Pacific, and his geographical knowledge. The Endeavour's coastal tour of the North Island of New Zealand; Tupaia's role in encounters with Maori. Cook's view of Maori as "uniform free of treachery". Maori cannibalism and European and Tahitian reactions.
Chapter 8.
Cook's first visit to Queen Charlotte Sound. A coastal tour of the South Island of New Zealand; the 'Unknown Southern Continent' theory is shaken. Cook's conclusions about colonising New Zealand.
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PICTORIAL PARADE: AFTER TWO CENTURIES.
A trip back in time, this B&W National Film Unit archive film was made 3rd Oct 1969, and looks at the bicentennial celebrations of Captain Cook's arrival in Gisborne. The film shows the international Naval Fleet in Poverty Bay, parades, celebrations at the Cook landing Memorial (before the Port reclamation separated it from the historic landing beaches), the Maori welcome at Anaura Bay, a totem pole given to the people of New Zealand by Canada, and the unveiling of the Cook statue on Kaiti Hill. Video supplied by the NZTV Archives.
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1768 - The Voyage of the Endeavour.
These pages are rich in exciting multimedia and make a great introduction - explore the background to the voyage, take a VR tour inside the ship, meet the people aboard, see the art of Sydney Parkinson.
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Life at Sea in the Royal Navy of the 18th Century.
This article on BBCi's website presents the enduring notion of Captain Cook's navy as one of blood, sweat and tears. Historian Andrew Lambert went on a modern-day voyage to Australia on a replica of Cook's ship Endeavour. He argues that the Royal Navy of the 18th century offered a surprisingly decent life for professional sailors.
This six part article covers:
A life of suffering?
Discipline and punishment
Professional sailors
Patronage
Women and children
Find out more
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Captain Cook and the Scourge of Scurvy.
Scurvy was the scourge of the Royal Navy for decades and Captain Cook is widely credited with conquering it but how much of his reputation is deserved, and how much is due to luck?
This 6 part article by Jonathan Lamb on the BBCi website tells the story:
The emergence of scurvy
Prevention
Scurvy takes its toll
Cook's men suffer
Cook's record
Find out more
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South Seas
South Seas is a new online information resource developed with the National Library of Australia and focused on James Cook's momentous first voyage of discovery of 1768-1771.Historical documents are presented so that you can easily compare and contrast how the many remarkable occurrences on the voyage were interpreted by Cook, Banks and Parkinson. These are accompanied by explanatory commentaries, short articles and reflective essays in the South Companion, an encyclopaedic reference guide to the history of European voyaging and cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific during the years between 1760 and 1800. Here you will find information about people, places and many other aspects of the history of the Pacific in the second half of the eighteenth century.
The Journals of James Cook's First Pacific Voyage, 1768-1771
This on-line edition of the journals of Cook's first Pacific voyage has been arranged to allow comparison of the journal Cook kept aboard H.M.S. Endeavour with those written by his fellow voyagers, Joseph Banks and Sydney Parkinson, as well as the official record of the voyage written by John Hawkesworth and published in London in 1773.
Voyaging Maps
This series of maps depict the track of H.M.S. Endeavour. Each map contains links to daily entries in Cook's journal of the voyage. Using the maps you can easily locate particular entries in the journal, as well further information about many aspects of the voyage.
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Endeavour Journal
The purchase of the Journal of James Cook is one of the most significant acquisitions made by the National Library of Australia. The journal covers the three-year voyage of the sailing ship Endeavour (1768 to 1771), captained by James Cook, when it circumnavigated the globe in the name of scientific advancement. This page offers a summary with images from Cook's voyage from the National Library of Australia.
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