CAPTAIN COOK: a legacy under fire
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of James Cook first setting sail on the Endeavour an exhibition tells the story of the explorer’s world-changing voyages through original log books, journals and artwork
ELIZABETH COOK was so bereft at her husband’s death at the hands of Hawaiian islanders on February 14, 1779, after his attempt to retrieve a stolen boat from Kealakekua Bay that she made a pyre of all his personal papers and letters and burned the lot.
The distress of 36-year-old Elizabeth at the loss of Captain James Cook, who was 50 when he died and left behind six children, was captured in a letter she wrote in 1782 to the editor of her late husband’s journals. In response to his request for personal information about him Elizabeth replied: “I am not able to write a single word upon so distressing a subject.”
That same letter is now on show at the British Library where an exhibition commemorating 250 years since Cook first set sail on HMS Endeavour in 1768 has just opened. It also includes pages from the ship’s log and Captain Cook’s extensive journals, which formed the official account of his 12-year long explorations.
The three voyages of Captain Cook have maintained a hold over the public imagination for 250 years. When offered something to read while awaiting her execution in October 1793, 14 years after his death in Hawaii, Marie Antoinette requested The Travels Of Captain Cook.
Cook died as he neared the end of the third of his legendary voyages to discover new lands. From 1768 to 1771 he sailed the Endeavour across the Pacific Ocean, discovering New Zealand and claiming Australia. From 1772 to 1775 he circumnavigated the globe at an extreme south latitude while commanding HMS Resolution.
HIS final voyage from 1776 to 1779 saw him attempt to find the fabled Northwest Passage around the American continent, also on the Resolution. But while interest in his explorations remains his legacy has come under fire recently with some people now viewing Captain Cook as divisive.
“There has been a shift in perception of the voyages of the dominant European explorer of the Enlightenment,” says William Frame, co-curator of the exhibition. “While the Victorians saw him as a British national hero in our more recent period of decolonisation that image of him has been challenged.”
In January a statue of Cook was vandalised in Melbourne ahead of Australia Day on January 26. The words “No pride” and an Aboriginal flag were painted under the explorer’s feet after pink paint was poured over the 104-year-old artwork. The public holiday marks the arrival of the British in 1788 but is known as “invasion day” by Aborigines.
The conflict between exploration and exploitation was made clear by a package Cook was given at the start of his first voyage. The exploration had originally been planned by the Royal Society as part of its observation of the 1769 transit of Venus, the hope being that observations taken from different vantage points could be used to help calculate the Earth’s distance from the sun.
“However, the Admiralty gave him a second set of instructions which required him to search for new lands including the ‘Great Southern Continent’,” explains Frame. The sealed notes made it clear that the idea was to advance Britain as a maritime power.
In place of the nonexistent southern continent Cook found New Zealand and spent six months charting the coastline.
Although Mrs Cook’s emotional decision to burn her late husband’s correspondence means little is known about his private thoughts an entry in one of his many journals offers an insight into his formidable temperament.
“While sailing up the coast of Canada on his third voyage and relying on a very inaccurate Russian map Cook became increasingly frustrated with it,” says Frame.
Discussing the Russian chart, drawn up by a Mr Staehlin, Cook writes: “What could induce him to publish so erroneous a map… with the least regard to truth and yet he is pleased to call it a very accurate little map? A map that the most illiterate of his illiterate seafaring men would have been ashamed to put his name to.”
Cook’s own diligence stood in huge contrast. “The reason that he was chosen to lead the expedition was due to his great skill in cartography,” says Frame of the sailor who started his career on coal ships in the North Sea at the age of 18 and taught himself mathematics at night.
The exhibition showcases botanical specimens preserved by the natural scientists on board his ships as well as drawings made by artists, and tribal artefacts.
It also includes an annotated map previously owned by author Charles Burney who had invited Cook for supper in February 1772, the year after he returned from his three-year expedition to the South Pacific.
When Burney showed him a map in a book by a French explorer Cook sketched a line showing his route “in so clear and scientific a manner that I would not take £50 for the book” wrote Burney, who fixed Cook’s pencil marks with milk to preserve them for posterity.
James Cook: The Voyages opens today and runs until August 28. For details visit bl.uk