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James Cook, born in 1728, rose from the lowest ranks of the merchant marine, then through the Royal Navy, to become one of the most celebrated men of his time, the last and the greatest of the romantic navigator/explorers. His voyages to the eastern and western seaboards of North America, the North and South Pacific, the Arctic and the Antarctic, brought a new understanding of the world's geography and of the peoples, flora, and fauna of the lands he discovered. Richard Hough's meticulously researched narrative captures all the excitement of this age of discovery and establishes Cook as a link between the vague scientific speculations of the early eighteenth century and the industrial revolution to come. He pioneered the use of new navigational technology, measuring and recording endlessly, producing maps of unprecedented accuracy. He revolutionized the seaman's diet, all but eliminating scurvy. Always seeking the truth of geography Cook was also an exploder of myths, among them that of the great southern continent imagined by earlier geographers and scientists.… (altro)
As a layman without a strong background in history, and no background in 18th century nautical terminology, I found this a fascinating and readable book. Had to skip to a dictionary or atlas from time to time to keep straight what was going on, but Hough's writing style is accessible without ever being simplistic.
Cook was an interesting man, ahead of his time in many ways. The bulk of the book details his three voyages in which he served as captain and commander. The first voyage, main purpose to complete an astronomical observation that the Royal Society wanted done on a certain day in a certain spot on earth. The second voyage was primarily to discover the rumored great southern continent. The third voyage, to discover the also rumored Northwest Passage.
For the first 2 voyages, Cook was constantly on top of his game and never lost sight of the mission. He was humane, both with his crew and with natives on the various islands that were discovered or visited. He was loved and respected by his officers and crew.
Something happenend to Cook which affected him mentally, and on his third voyage he frequently seemed to lose sight of the mission, have erratic and inexplicable explosions of temper, which were sometimes taken out on his crew, and more frequently on the natives that he had been so respectful of on earlier trips.
His questionable actions cost him his life on his third voyage, where after first being welcomed on the Hawaiian Islands as a god, he was in the end brutally murdered by these same natives. ( )
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For Jack Garland
Incipit
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James Cook, the second son of James Senior and Grace Cook, was born on 27 October 1728 at Marton, north Yorkshire. His father was a labourer on the land. The son was to become the most famous navigator in the world, ...
Citazioni
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(p70 - December 1768, after leaving Rio de Janeiro with their collection of flora and fauna) ... Banks noted with satisfaction ... one of the most significant and beautiful of them was a vividly coloured climber unknown anywhere else but Brazil, and named by Dr. Solander Calyxis ternaria. It was not introduced to Europe until the 1820s, when it was named Bougainvillea after the French explorer rather than Dr. Solander, or Parkinson who drew it as they sailed south down the Brazil coast towards Patagonia.
(p105 - 3 June 1769 - Tahiti) ... they fixed on the time of 9 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds a.m. for the first external contact, with total immersion nineteen minutes later. Throughout that long hot morning, with the temperature rising to 119°F, the little black dot (Venus) could be clearly discerned moving across the face of the sun until it touched the far side at 3 hours, 14 minutes and 8 seconds p.m.
(p135 - approx 28 March 1770) There were two ways home: by way of the Horn, ... or he could sail west. ... taking the Endeavour south of ... Van Diemen's Land, later renamed Tasmania. This was not yet known to be an island south of the great land mass, the continent which the Dutch had named New Holland. New Holland was not the continent's first name. There is a vast confusion surrounding the origins of the name Australia, but in Spanish interpretations it long ante-dated the Dutch New Holland. Quiros, the Portuguese navigator, 'In the memorial which he addressed to the King of Spain in 1607, says that he named the land Australia "in happy memory of Your Majesty, whose dynastic name is Austria ... In a later Memorial of 1610 Quiros wrote that the King had ordered him to discover land "en la parte Australia Incognita".'
(p137) Early the next morning, 19 April, Zachary Hicks climbed up high in the foremast rigging, keen as always to be the first to sight land. At 6.00 a.m. he had his reward, his moment of triumph, letting out that cry which has sent tremors of joy amongst those who have heard the words since the beginning of seafaring: 'Land ahoy!' The land, according to Cook, extended from north-east to west at a distance of five or six leagues, and the southernmost point he named Point Hicks.
Ultime parole
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For most of Mrs Cook's widowhood she had the company of Isaac Smith, her nephew and a retired admiral, who, all those years ago, had been the first European to land in New South Wales. She kept her faculties to the end, aged ninety-three and with her pension, her sons' inheritance, and her share of the profits of her husband's publications, she was a moderately wealthy woman, able to live in comfort and entertain her friends: she had a dinner party every Thursday at three o'clock.
James Cook, born in 1728, rose from the lowest ranks of the merchant marine, then through the Royal Navy, to become one of the most celebrated men of his time, the last and the greatest of the romantic navigator/explorers. His voyages to the eastern and western seaboards of North America, the North and South Pacific, the Arctic and the Antarctic, brought a new understanding of the world's geography and of the peoples, flora, and fauna of the lands he discovered. Richard Hough's meticulously researched narrative captures all the excitement of this age of discovery and establishes Cook as a link between the vague scientific speculations of the early eighteenth century and the industrial revolution to come. He pioneered the use of new navigational technology, measuring and recording endlessly, producing maps of unprecedented accuracy. He revolutionized the seaman's diet, all but eliminating scurvy. Always seeking the truth of geography Cook was also an exploder of myths, among them that of the great southern continent imagined by earlier geographers and scientists.
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Cook was an interesting man, ahead of his time in many ways. The bulk of the book details his three voyages in which he served as captain and commander. The first voyage, main purpose to complete an astronomical observation that the Royal Society wanted done on a certain day in a certain spot on earth. The second voyage was primarily to discover the rumored great southern continent. The third voyage, to discover the also rumored Northwest Passage.
For the first 2 voyages, Cook was constantly on top of his game and never lost sight of the mission. He was humane, both with his crew and with natives on the various islands that were discovered or visited. He was loved and respected by his officers and crew.
Something happenend to Cook which affected him mentally, and on his third voyage he frequently seemed to lose sight of the mission, have erratic and inexplicable explosions of temper, which were sometimes taken out on his crew, and more frequently on the natives that he had been so respectful of on earlier trips.
His questionable actions cost him his life on his third voyage, where after first being welcomed on the Hawaiian Islands as a god, he was in the end brutally murdered by these same natives. (