Cook: The Extraordinary Sea Voyages of Captain James Cook

by Nicholas Thomas

Book Overview

Commonly regarded as the greatest sea explorer of all time, James Cook made his three world-changing voyages during the 1770s, at a time when ships were routinely lost around the English coast. He... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802714129
• ISBN13: 9780802714121
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Walker Books
• Length: 468 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating account of Cook's voyages into the Pacific

This book covered Cook's 3 voyages into the Pacific. Cook's drive to explore new lands and interact with the people that he met along the way was fascinating. This book did not try to judge the actions of Cook and his crew, but rather chronicled the good and the bad, describing the various attitudes of several of the crew members as taken from their diaries and accounts of the voyages.

The People on the Beach

Before reading this book, most of what I knew about Captain Cook was from high school (not much) and from a vacation or two in Hawaii complete with visits to historic sites. I saw it at the library and checked it out because I am enrolled in a "Pacific Islanders in the U.S." course at my local junior college, and because I'm planning another vacation in Hawaii and want to feel more grounded in the history of the place while I'm there. I thought the book was great. It really cut through a lot of the mythology that surrounds what most of us are taught about Cook, to the real person, with failings as well as strengths. What I loved was I felt I got both perspectives, Cook's as well as the point of view of the People he encountered on the islands. One thing I got from the book is that Cook missed a lot. His journal records his perspective, but as well-meaning as it might be, that perspective was narrow and often limited by his own background. The island kingdoms he encountered, in Tonga, Hawaii and others were politically complex, and socially and culturally rich. Power plays were being made, not only by Cook, but by the People on the beach. I thought the presentation was balanced, and fascinating, and I am grateful for having read a book that allows me to think about this moment in history, and the islands themselves, in a broader way.

An extraordinary tale of a great explorer

This is a highly absorbing account of the three voyages of Captain Cook. The author has done a very commendable job of describing all the people, places, and cultures that Cook and his crew encountered. His descriptions of the populations indigenous to the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Austrailia, the Pacific Northwest, etc., and of the geography of these places are well researched and fascinating. The interplay of cultures between the British explorers and those they encountered is emphasized with great effect. The personalities and motivations of the key figures, including Cook, are brought to life as well. The account of the voyages reads like an adventure story, while simultaneously being based on very solid research. Included are a number of excellent maps and a large number of excellent illustrations, primarily of paintings and sketches done by artists who accompanied Cook. Very highly recommended.

Highly recommended!

As a member of the Captain Cook Society (www.captaincooksociety.com) I was asked to review Nicolas Thomas's new book on Captain Cook and his voyages. I found it very interesting indeed.Thomas is Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and it is the interaction of people with which he is concerned in this book, the interaction between Cook and his crew (including the artists) and the indigenous people they encountered on the voyages. As Thomas explains in his introduction Cook's ". . . life is my lens, for a new look at these formative encounters" with other cultures. Thomas is not so much repeating the well known story of Cook and his exploration; rather he is examining the voyages from an anthropologist's viewpoint, being more concerned with the interaction of new cultures and people, than with the technological, geographical and navigational aspects. Too often, when you read a biography of a long dead person, it is all too easy to keep in your mind the knowledge of what happens next. Most biographies start with the birth and end with the death. Thomas's book is slightly different in that immediately the reader is catapulted into the year 1767 and the preparations of the first voyage. As the name of the book implies, it is the voyages which tell the story; Cook's childhood and early career serve only as material which the reader is filled in on briefly, to explain how Cook got to be in charge of the Endeavour. Thomas tries to write without the benefit of hindsight, which to a large degree I believe he succeeds in. I approached this book with anticipation but wondering why, and how, another book could be written on Cook, when there have been so many published beforehand. However, I feel Thomas adds something to the debate surrounding Cook's life as he reviews some of the aspects and events which I thought were set in stone and give them fresh consideration. After Cook's death, he was for a long time regarded as someone who had done no wrong. In recent years this opinion has been reversed, with the third voyage viewed as a trip during which Cook's mental decline is demonstrated. Thomas considers these differing views and gives it what I consider to be an interesting summarisation. For example, "Cook's third voyage has often been seen as one marked by the growing, indeed the enveloping fatigue of the great navigator. It is supposed that Cook suffered lapses in his abilities, curiosity and decisiveness; more antagonistic commentators claim that he became detached, irrational, and violent. It is not hard to understand why the tale has been told in these terms: we like it when a great character's life exhibits a rise and fall, and may perhaps be seduced by the notion that a colonizer might collapse, like Conrad's Kurtz, into some black hole of his own evil. But Cook's voyages do not exhibit any such trend. Some of the worst violence occurred in New Zealand as early as 1769, when the man was supposedly saner. And the thi

Very insightful, a full fledged account

This wonderful book covers the three voyages of Captain Cook and his exploration of the Pacific Ocean. Cook's first voyage explored the islands of the pacific. His second voyage tried to find `the southern continent' Antarctica. The third voyage explored the North pacific and ended with the death of Captain Cook at the hands of the natives of a pacific Island. Cook was responsible for mapping much of the pacific ocean and its many islands. His voyage was the first to sketch the giant stone sculptures of Easter Island(Rapa Nui). He circled New Zealand, mapped parts of Australia, explored the Bering straight, kidnapped Polynesian Chiefs on islands like Tahiti and tried, in vain, to discover Antarctica(all he found was a sheet of ice but not land). Cook was a giant in his own time. He dealt with many powerful native tribes and his men catalogued the lives of these native peoples long before they were spoiled by colonization and western ways. This book is full more then fifty sketches of the tribes he encountered and the items he saw.This is simply a wonderful accurate and thoroughly researched account of Captain Cook and his voyages and contributions. Anyone interested in Polynesia, exploration or the sea will find this account fascinating.