James Cook is one of the greatest explorers of the 18th century. A man who led three expeditions around the world, discovered many new lands and islands, an experienced navigator, explorer and cartographer - that’s who James Cook is. Read briefly about his travels in this article.
Childhood and youth
The future navigator was born on October 27, 1728 in the village of Marton (England). His father was a poor farmer. Over time, the family moved to the village of Great Ayton, where James Cook was educated at a local school. Since the family was poor, James's parents were forced to apprentice him to a shopkeeper who lived in the small seaside town of Staithes.
As an 18-year-old boy, James Cook, whose biography tells of him as a hardworking and purposeful man, left his job with a shopkeeper and became a cabin boy on a coal ship. Thus began his career as a sailor. The ship on which he went to sea for the first few years mainly sailed between London and England. He also managed to visit Ireland, Norway and the Baltic, and almost all of his free time devoted himself to self-education, being interested in such sciences as mathematics, navigation, astronomy and geography. James Cook, who was offered a high position on one of the ships of the trading company, chose to enlist as an ordinary sailor in Navy Great Britain. He subsequently took part in the Seven Years' War, and at its end established himself as an experienced cartographer and topographer.
First trip around the world
In 1766, the British Admiralty decided to send a scientific expedition to the Pacific Ocean, the purpose of which was various observations of cosmic bodies, as well as some calculations. In addition, it was necessary to study the coast of New Zealand, discovered by Tasman back in 1642. James Cook was appointed head of the voyage. His biography, however, contains more than one journey in which he played a leading role.
James Cook sailed from Plymouth in August 1768. The expedition ship crossed the Atlantic, rounded South America and went out into the Pacific Ocean. The astronomical task was completed on the island of Tahiti on June 3, 1769, after which Cook sent the ships in a southwesterly direction and four months later reached New Zealand, the coast of which he thoroughly explored before continuing the journey. Then he sailed towards Australia and, having discovered which at that time was not known to Europeans, circled it from the north and on October 11, 1970, sailed to Batavia. In Indonesia, the expedition was hit by an epidemic of malaria and dysentery, which killed a third of the team. From there Cook headed west, crossed the Indian Ocean, circled Africa and returned to his homeland on July 12, 1771.
Second trip around the world
In the autumn of the same year, the British Admiralty again started another voyage. This time his goal is to explore the still unexplored parts of the Southern Hemisphere and search for the supposed Southern Continent. This task was entrusted to James Cook.
Two ships of the expedition sailed from Plymouth on July 13, 1772 and on October 30 landed in Kapstadt (now Cape Town), located in southern Africa. After staying there for just under a month, Cook continued to sail south. In mid-December, travelers came across solid ice that blocked the ships' path, but Cook was not going to give up. He crossed the Antarctic Circle on January 17, 1773, but was soon forced to turn the ships north. Over the next few months, he visited several islands in Oceania and the Pacific, after which he made another attempt to make his way south. On January 30, 1774, the expedition managed to reach the southernmost point of its voyage. Then Cook again headed north and visited several islands. James Cook, whose biography is full of discoveries, came across new islands this time too. Having completed his research in this region, he sailed east and landed in Tierra del Fuego in December. The expedition returned to England on July 13, 1775.
Upon completion of this voyage, which made Cook very famous throughout Europe, he received a new promotion, and also became a member of the Royal Geographical Society, which also awarded him a gold medal.
Third trip around the world
The purpose of the next voyage was to search for a northwestern route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. James Cook's journey began in Plymouth, from where on July 12, 1776, an expedition of two ships set out under his leadership. The sailors arrived in Kapstadt, and from there they went to the southeast and by the end of 1777 they visited Tasmania, New Zealand and other places. Mid December next year the expedition visited the Hawaiian Islands, after which it continued to follow north, where Cook sent ships along the coast of Canada and Alaska, crossed and soon finally got stuck in solid ice, was forced to turn back south.
James was born on October 27, 1728 in the town of Marton. English county Yorkshire. Cook began attending school when his family moved to Great Ayton. After completing five years of schooling, he worked on his father's farm. And at the age of 18, James becomes a cabin boy.
James Cook's first expedition was a journey from London to Newcastle. Cook spent all his free time engaged in self-education: he studied maps, astronomy, geography and mathematics. In 1755 he joined the Royal Navy, preferring the hard work of a sailor to the position of captain on a private ship. He took part in the Seven Years' War, and then retired from hostilities, but continued to make maps. Behind successful work was appointed captain of the ship Newfoundland.
If we look at Cook's brief biography, then in 1762 he returned to England. There he married Elizabeth Butts.
But Cook's greatest achievements are considered to be his three voyages, during which the maps were significantly refined. The first expedition around the world took place from 1768 to 1771. Cook, as an experienced sailor, was appointed captain of the only ship on the expedition, the Endeavor. In April 1769, the team arrived in Tahiti, where they established peaceful relations with the natives. There Cook conducted astronomical observations. Then the team headed to New Zealand, and then to the coast of Australia. The ship was damaged by reefs, but the captain continued to move all the way to the strait with New Guinea. After repairing the ship in Indonesia, Cook went to Cape Town and then to London.
Second trip around the world D. Cook took place from 1772 to 1775. This time two ships were allocated - Resolution and Adventure. The expedition began on July 13, 1772. In January 1773, the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in the world. During one of the storms, the two ships lost visibility of each other, and met only in Charlotte Bay. The team then visited Tahiti, the Friendship Islands. Near New Zealand, the ships separated again, so the Adventure returned to London, and Cook moved on. He crossed the Antarctic Circle, visited Easter Island, the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, the Friendship Islands, discovered New Caledonia, South Georgia and returned to London.
Cook's third voyage then took place from 1776 to 1779. The expedition began on two ships, Resolution and Discovery, in the summer of 1776. The team discovered the Kerguelen Island. Then the expedition arrived in Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Friendship Islands. After this, Christmas Island, the Hawaiian Islands, was discovered in the biography of James Cook. The ships traveled around the western part of North America and reached Alaska. After crossing the Arctic Circle, we ended up in the Chukchi Sea. Turning around, the team arrived at the Aleutian Islands, and then to the Hawaiian Islands. There, the attitude of the Hawaiians towards the sailors became openly hostile, and on February 14, 1779, despite the fact that Cook tried his best to maintain peaceful relations, he was killed in one of the skirmishes.
Navigator James Cook- one of the most famous explorers of the World Ocean of the 18th century. He completed 3 circumnavigational sea voyages, during which he mapped little-known and rarely visited parts of Newfoundland and the east coast of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the west coast of North America, the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
James Cook's maps were so accurate that all sailors used them to the middleXIX century. All this is thanks to his painstaking and accurate cartography.
short biography
James Cook is born October 27, 1728 in the English village of Marton. His father was a simple farm laborer and breadwinner of a large family.
In 1736 the family moved to the village Great Ayton, where Cook begins to attend the local school. After five years of study, he begins to work on a farm under the supervision of his father, who by that time had received the position of manager. At the age of eighteen he was hired as a cabin boy on a merchant coal brig. "Hercules". Thus begins the sea life of James Cook.
He began sailing on coastal ships transporting coal along the coasts of England and Ireland. He liked sea life, became a good sailor, then a skipper and soon enlisted on a 60-gun warship "Egle".
Diligent self-taught
James attracted the attention of the officers, he was disciplined, quick-witted and knew shipbuilding well, and he was appointed boatswain. Subsequently, on research ships he was assigned to perform various hydrographic work- measure the depths of different rivers and coasts and draw up maps of the coasts and fairways.
Cook had no naval or military training. He learned everything on the fly and very quickly gained the authority of an experienced sailor, a skilled cartographer, and a captain.
First scientific expedition
When the British government in 1768 decided to send a scientific expedition to the Pacific Ocean, the choice fell on the famous hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple. But he made such demands that the Admiralty refused his services.
Among the proposed candidates was the experienced sailor James Cook. He headed the three-masted sailing ship "Endeavour" to search for new lands. At that time he was 40 years old. Cook's first voyage lasted from 1768 to 1771.
A difficult journey lay ahead across the Pacific Ocean towards the southern latitudes. His crew consisted of 80 people, and the ship was loaded with food for the 18-month journey. He took with him 20 artillery guns as weapons. Astronomers, botanists, and doctors went with him.
Secret mission
Scientists were going to observe the passage of the planet Venus against the background of the solar disk. But Cook had one more thing secret mission - he had to find the Southern Continent(Terra Australis), which was supposedly located on the other side of the Earth.
The fact is that the English Admiralty had at its disposal Spanish maps of the 17th century, on which islands located in the Southern Hemisphere were plotted. These lands should have been annexed to the British crown. Captain James Cook and his crew were strictly instructed to treat the Aborigines with respect and not to carry out any military actions against them.
The departure took place August 26, 1768 from Plymouth. The course was set for the Tahiti archipelago, from which the ship Endeavor began to move further south, where Cook soon discovered New Zealand. There he stayed for 6 months and became convinced that this island was divided into two parts. Then he managed to approach the east coast of Australia. This was the end of his first expedition; he had to return to his homeland.
Cook's second expedition
The second expedition took place in 1772 and ended in 1775 . Now two ships were placed at the disposal of James Cook "Resolution" And "Adventure". We sailed, as last time, from Plymouth and headed towards Cape Town. After Cape Town the ships turned south.
January 17, 1773 the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time, but the ships lost each other. Cook headed towards New Zealand, where they met, as agreed. Taking with them several islanders who agreed to help chart the route, the ships sailed further south and again lost sight of each other.
On his second expedition, James discovered the islands New Caledonia, Norfolk, South Sandwich Islands, but because of the ice he was unable to find the Southern Continent. And he came to the conclusion that he did not exist.
Third trip around the world
James Cook's third expedition around the world took place in 1776 and lasted almost 3 years - until 1779. Again he had two ships at his disposal: "Resolution" And "Discovery". This time Cook was looking for new lands in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, thinking of finding a passage around North America.
In 1778 he discovered the Hawaiian Islands, reached the Bering Strait and, encountering ice, returned to Hawaii. In the evening February 14, 1779 Captain James Cook, 50, was killed by Hawaiians in an open skirmish over theft from his ship.
“When the Hawaiians saw Cook fall, they let out a cry of victory. His body was immediately dragged ashore, and the crowd surrounding him, greedily snatching daggers from each other, began to inflict many wounds on him, since everyone wanted to take part in his destruction.”
From the diary of Lieutenant King
The version that the aborigines in Australia ate Cook remained an artistic truth thanks to the good song of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. But the artistic truth diverged from the historical one.
On February 14, 1779, the aborigines killed the famous English navigator James Cook with a stone blow to the head. Cook's team, abandoning their commander, shamefully fled from the battlefield. Probably every resident knows that the aborigines ate Cook. former USSR. But, in fact, they didn't eat it. Having overcome their fear on the ship, the crew demanded that the aborigines hand over Cook's body. A few days later, they gave his remains to the British. The remains of Captain James Cook were solemnly buried in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, where they rest to this day. And this happened not in Australia, but on one of the Hawaiian Islands.
Meanwhile, the version that the aborigines in Australia ate Cook remained an artistic truth thanks to the good song of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. But artistic truth diverged from historical truth. This is not the first time this has happened in Russian literature. For example, the real Salieri did not poison the real Mozart, despite the brilliant play by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
And now in more detail...
short biography hero
In terms of his role in the history of the Great Geographical Discoveries, James Cook occupies a place comparable to that of Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. He not only discovered many new lands and elucidated the structure and location of Australia and many islands of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but also made a breakthrough in the study of the southern seas, giving their first systematic and reliable cartographic description.
James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in the village of Marton, Yorkshire, into the family of a poor Scottish farm laborer. For some reason, most poor families in many countries of the world had many children. So James Cook was the second child of eight children in the family. Nothing foreshadowed that little boy a famous navigator will grow up. But James Cook turned out to be a “tough nut to crack.” One can safely say about him: “self-mademan (a man who made himself).”
James's father, who worked without straightening his back all week, devoted Sunday to family and God. In 1736, the family moved to the village of Great Ayton near the city of Newcastle. Here Cook was sent to a local school (now converted into a museum). The father wanted to train his son to be a merchant. To this end, when James was thirteen years old, his father gave him to the service of a haberdashery merchant, but he did not like this prospect. The only thing that attracted him was the proximity of the sea and the port of Newcastle. He could watch for hours as the black, gloomy ships endlessly accepted a load of coal into their bowels. This was a gratifying sight for him, because in his imagination he had already seen ships cutting through the waves of the sea. Of course, in the then England there were different conditions than in the then Russia, and the young James Cook did not have to, like Mikhail Lomonosov, walk from Newcastle to London in pursuit of knowledge. He simply ran away from home and got a job as a cabin boy on the brig Freelove, transporting coal on the Newcastle-London route. At the same time, Cook began to educate himself in an unusual way and spent almost all of his small salary on buying books. “Why do you need this?” - the sailors asked Cook, dreaming only of food and drink. And when they found out that the money was intended for books, they laughed at him. Then the sailors even began to get angry: after all, such asceticism and diligence were a reproach for them. To defend his freedom, young James often had to use his fists. Cook devoted his free time from work to studying geography, navigation, mathematics, astronomy, as well as descriptions of sea expeditions. Thus began the sea life of our hero. He was then eighteen years old.
James Cook obviously took into account that in England at that time they knew how to value educated people. And he turned out to be right. Three years later, he was offered to take command of the ship Friendship, but Cook refused. Instead, on June 17, 1755, Cook enlisted as a sailor in the Royal Navy and 8 days later received an appointment to the 60-gun ship Eagle. And again he was right. Within a month after admission, he becomes a boatswain on a warship.
Soon, hostilities broke out between England and France as part of the Seven Years' War. The ship Eagle, on which Cook served, was ordered to take part in the blockade of the French coast. In May 1757, off the French island of Ouessant, Eagle entered into battle with the French ship Duke of Aquitaine. During the pursuit and battle, the Duke of Aquitaine was captured, and the Eagle was damaged and was forced to leave for repairs in England. Cook received his first baptism of fire.
Upon reaching two years of experience, James Cook successfully passed the SailingMaster exam, and was assigned to the ship Solebey, and then to the ship Pembroke, on which he took part in the blockade of the Bay of Biscay. Then in February 1758 he was sent to the east coast of Canada This is where the knowledge gleaned from textbooks came in handy in pre-war life.
While participating in the war in Canada, James Cook was not content with military action alone. One day he presented to his superiors a map he had drawn up of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. But even among officers, good cartographers were not found so often. Cook was transferred to a special ship designed for mapping the coast of Labrador. After some time, holding amazingly detailed map Islands of Newfoundland, captain of the first rank, who headed the cartographic service of the English Admiralty, asked who compiled it.
Cook was given the most important task - to clear the fairway of a section of the St. Lawrence River so that British ships could pass along it to Quebec. This task included not only drawing the fairway on the map, but also marking navigable sections of the river with buoys. On the one hand, due to the extreme complexity of the fairway, the volume of work was very large, on the other hand, they had to work at night, under fire from French artillery, fighting off night counterattacks, restoring buoys that the French managed to destroy. The successfully completed work enriched Cook with cartographic experience, and was also one of the main reasons why the Admiralty ultimately chose him as its historical choice. Cook did not take part directly in the hostilities. After the capture of Quebec, he was transferred as a master to the flagship Northumberland, which can be regarded as a professional encouragement. Under Admiral Colville's orders, Cook continued mapping the St. Lawrence River until 1762. Cook's charts were recommended for publication by Admiral Colville and were published in the North American Navigation of 1765, and Cook received an officer's rank of lieutenant. From now on, the entire English vertical of power, including ministers and kings, had to call the son of a poor farm laborer sir. The iron will of Lieutenant Cook won another victory. He returned to England in November 1762.
Shortly after returning from Canada, on December 21, 1762, Cook married Elizabeth Butts. They had six children, all of whom died in childhood and adolescence.
Merits to the Motherland
James Cook led three expeditions to explore the World Ocean, all around the world. Cook did not complete the third expedition around the world. He died. During these three expeditions he made a number of geographical discoveries. More than 20 geographical features are named after him, including three bays, two groups of islands and two straits.
James Cook trained a whole galaxy of famous English navigators. Under his command in different time served: future president of the Royal Society (analogous to the Academy of Sciences) Joseph Banks; future governor of New South Wales and tireless fighter against corruption William Bligh, better known in history as Captain “Bounty” Bligh; future explorer of the Pacific coast of North America George Vancouver; botanist , ornithologist, zoologist Johann Reingold Forster and his son Georg Forster, a future Polish-German and social and political figure. Among his crew were seafarers who later distinguished themselves in the service of the Russian Empire. Thus, a sailor from his ship, Joseph Billings, led in 1785-1792, already as a captain, a Russian expedition to the Arctic and Pacific oceans, and another sailor James Trevenen, then in Russian service, distinguished himself during the war with Sweden (he died in Vyborg naval battle in July 1790).
James Cook made a kind of revolution in navigation, learning to successfully fight such a dangerous and widespread disease at that time as scurvy. Mortality from it during his voyages was practically reduced to zero.
From the middle of the 18th century new strength A struggle broke out between the great powers of the then world for the annexation of new lands to their territory. All the great powers were then grouped in Europe. Portugal and Spain by that time had essentially withdrawn from this geopolitical game, content with what they had conquered earlier. England and France remained. They competed with each other for new lands in the Pacific Ocean. Accordingly, James Cook had both an official goal and secret orders from the English Admiralty in all 3 of his trips around the world.
First circumnavigation of the world (1768 – 1771) . The official purpose of the expedition was to study the passage of Venus through the disk of the Sun. However, the secret orders received by Cook instructed him to immediately after completion astronomical observations go to the southern latitudes in search of the so-called Southern Continent (also known as TerraIncognita). Also, the purpose of the expedition was to establish the coasts of Australia, especially its eastern coast.
Cook had the three-masted ship Endever at his disposal. For astronomical observations of Venus, Cook made a stop on the island of Tahiti. Then, after the discovery of four islands from the Society group, he walked along the “empty” ocean for more than 2.5 thousand km and on October 8, 1769 reached an unknown land with high, snow-covered mountains. This was New Zealand. Cook made sure it was two large islands, separated by a strait that later received his name. In the summer, Cook first approached the east coast of Australia, which he declared a British possession (New South Wales). He discovered the Great Barrier Reef. From Cook's journals, Europeans first learned the words "kangaroo" and "taboo".
Second circumnavigation (1772 – 1775) . Cook's second circumnavigation is more often called the Antarctic. The specific goals that the Admiralty set for the second expedition remained unknown. It is only known that this time Cook was intensively searching for the notorious Southern Continent in order to get ahead of the French. French expeditions were sent in the late sixties of the 18th century to search for the southern continent. They are associated with the names of Bougainville, Surville, Marionadu Fresnes, Kerguelen. The French, like the British, also searched for the Southern continent because of geopolitical interests rather than scientific ones.
When Christopher Columbus set out on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, he was confident that he would discover a group of islands 2,400 nautical miles west of Spain, near Japan. Columbus dreamed of building cities there and establishing trade with Europe in gold, pearls and spices. He called these islands the Indies, and imagined himself to be the great ruler of these lands. Columbus's plans coincided with the interests of the Spanish kings. Wars with the Moors devastated the royal treasury, and the rich lands of the Indies were seduced by promises of quick profit.
This time Cook had two ships at his disposal - the three-masted sloop Rezolyushin and the three-masted sloop Adventure. In January 1773, Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle (40° east longitude) for the first time in the history of navigation and went beyond 66° south latitude. In the summer of this year, he unsuccessfully tried to search for the Southern continent twice more, reaching 71° 10" south latitude. Despite the conviction that there was land near the pole, he abandoned subsequent attempts, considering it impossible due to the accumulation of ice to further sail to the south. In the Pacific in the ocean on the way back, he discovered the islands of New Caledonia, Norfolk and a number of atolls, South Georgia and the “Sandwich Land” (South Sandwich Islands). While sailing in Antarctic waters, Cook buried the legend of the giant Southern continent. In Russia, they did not believe Cook. And rightly so did. The southern continent was discovered not by the British, not by the French, but by Russian naval commanders F. Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev in 1820.
Death of a Hero
After the second expedition around the world, James Cook received another military rank of post-captain, was accepted as a member of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded its gold medal. He gets a good position in the naval hospital with an annual salary of 230 pounds, which was an honorary sinecure. But Cook considered that he had not yet had enough of the swim and refused the sinecure. At this time, the third round-the-world expedition arrived. Cook decided to lead it. The decision turned out to be fatal.
Third circumnavigation of the world (1776 – 1779) . At this time, the English Admiralty watched with alarm how the Russian Empire was successfully developing the North-West Pacific Ocean. After Vitus Bering opened the strait between Asia and America in 1728, Russia successfully developed the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the islands of the Kuril ridge. And the British did not have a single base in this area of the world. The bosses in the English Admiralty reasoned something like this: “Who are we? A great power or some kind of seeding... We need to show these Russians who is the boss of the sea.” For this purpose, an expedition was organized.
James Cook received an order from the Admiralty to find another, Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, i.e. check whether it is possible to get into the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Ocean, staying close to the Canadian coast and Alaska.
This time Captain James Cook also commanded two ships. The flagship was the same "Rezolyushin", which proved itself to be the best in its second trip around the world. The second ship was called Discovery, it was commanded by Charles Clark. The expedition set sail from the English shores in mid-July 1776, and in December headed towards Australia through the Cape of Good Hope. In early December 1777, the expedition began its mission. The ships sailed north. Immediately after crossing the equator, Cook discovered the world's largest atoll island. Since this happened on December 24, the land was named Christmas Island. Three weeks later, Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands. After this, the small squadron sailed northeast to the lands of North America. Then the cold waters began. The expedition passed through the Bering Strait and ended up in the Chukchi Sea. The expedition encountered drifting ice and cold winds. Fragile ships with unreliable hulls could not move in such an environment. More or less strong ice floes could simply crush ships like nutshells. Cook gave the command to turn back. He decided to spend the winter on the Hawaiian Islands he discovered. A small squadron arrived to them at the end of November 1778. The ships dropped anchor near uncharted shores. The main task was to repair ships. They were pretty battered in the northern waters. The issue of provisions was also acute. The British decided to buy it from the local population. Those. contact with the Aborigines was inevitable.
Usually Kuku is given credit for his tolerant and friendly attitude towards the indigenous inhabitants of the territories he visited, i.e. political correctness. In other words, Cook wanted to be a good colonialist. But this was what ruined him. At first, the natives took him for a god. Then they thought: “Why is he so polite? He doesn’t hit, doesn’t punish, but only pats him on the head. Yes, he is no god.” Having thought this, the previously polite natives began to snap, be rude and steal. After all, the aborigines are children of nature. And in nature, the struggle for existence reigns, not political correctness. But the crew members warned their captain: “Why, sir, are you being nice to the savages? We have to deal with them our way, the maritime way.” Cook was offended by such advice and ordered the crew to translate the naval dictionary into civilian English language like: “radish (radish, English) – badman (bad person, English)”, etc.
This time too, the aborigines initially mistook Cook for a god, fell on their faces before him, shouted to him: “O-runa te Tu-ti!” “O-rune” translated from Aboriginal means the deity of light and peace, and “Tu-ti” means Cook. Then the natives realized that he was no god, and began to be rude. First they stole the pliers from the ship repair shop, then the boat from the Resolution ship. An enraged Cook, at the head of an armed detachment, decided to deal with the thieves. An aggressive crowd gathered on the shore. When the detachment landed on the shore, stones were thrown at them. One stone hit Cook, he fired and killed the aborigine. The crowd went wild. Another stone hit Cook in the head, he fell, and the aborigines finished him off and four other sailors with knives. Their companions cowardly left the shore and sailed away.
Captain Charles Clark, who became the head of the expedition, ordered military operation, during which the troops landing under the cover of cannons captured and burned to the ground coastal settlements and threw the Hawaiians back into the mountains. After which Clark entered into negotiations with the Aboriginal leader about the release of the remains of Captain Cook. The natives understood this language perfectly and released the remains. The Hawaiians delivered to the Resolution a basket containing ten pounds of meat and a human head without the lower jaw, all that remained of James Cook. On February 22, 1779, the remains were buried at sea.
I am often asked whether there really are many cannibals in PNG. Personally, I have not seen cannibals. Everyone I encountered in PNG was very friendly and often even nice people. But they say that in remote areas, where neither tourists nor local authorities usually reach, cannibalism still flourishes. Although it was prohibited by law fifty years ago.
But Cook was not eaten. The fact is that there were no cannibals in Hawaii. They lived on the island of Fiji, they lived in Tasmania, they lived on the islands of Polynesia, they lived in New Zealand, but they didn’t live on Hawaii. But the natives there still had some cannibalistic habits. So, for example, during During the ceremony, only the left eye of the victim was usually offered to the presiding chief. The rest was cut into pieces and burned as a ritual sacrifice to the gods. Most likely, Cook’s body also underwent some kind of ritual execution.
Next, the new captain of the expedition, Clark, went north to look for a way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. On the way, he decided to make a stop in Kamchatka. On April 29, the ships entered Peter and Paul Harbor. The head of Kamchatka Magnus Boehm, having warmly received the British, immediately left for St. Petersburg to report. This time the expedition tried to break through the Chukchi Sea, and again failed. After this, the expedition again went to Kamchatka. On the way, Charles Clark died of tuberculosis and was buried somewhere in Kamchatka. In Petropavlovsk, the expedition was met by Bem's deputy, Captain Shmalev.
Then by Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and a rumor began to circulate that the aborigines had eaten Cook. In 1917, tsarism was overthrown, but the rumors remained. Over time, this rumor most likely reached the ears of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. That's how the song came about. And glory to G-d. After all, the song is good.
Epilogue
In May 1823, the Hawaiian King Kamehameha II arrived in Great Britain for treatment. This is how it always is. Subjects are treated by local doctors, and bosses in London. The Hawaiian King is no exception. King George IV of England gave Kamehameha II a luxurious reception. Touched by Kamehameha II, he gave the British an aboriginal arrow and said that the white bone in the middle of its shaft was bone white man named James Cook. Four months later, Kamehameha II died.
In 1886, the arrow moved from London to Australia, where it was kept until recently, when the president of the Captain Cook Society, Cliff Tronton, decided to check the authenticity of the bone. DNA analysis did not confirm that the bone fragment belonged to Cook’s body, although the reliability of the analysis itself remains in doubt today, because none of Cook’s six children had their own offspring, and therefore scientists had to turn to the descendants of his sister Margaret.
But it seems to me that it intersects with another very popular topic. Remember Vysotsky? Why did the aborigines eat Cook?
People usually know about the captain and talented cartographer James Cook that he was an explorer of the southern seas who was killed and eaten by the aborigines. Contrary to popular belief, he was not eaten, or at least it was not a key moment in the tragedy that unfolded from January 16 to February 14, 1779 in Hawaii.
What happened there then? Now we will read about this...
Call of the Sea
Captain James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in a small Yorkshire village. Since childhood, he dreamed of becoming a navigator. At seventeen, Cook became a worker in a grocery store. But after some time, he asked to be an apprentice to shipowners, the Walker brothers, who were engaged in the transportation of coal.
For almost ten years he sailed on coasters carrying coal. In between flights, Cook pored over piles of books on mathematics, navigation, and astronomy. Not a drop of alcohol and no women. As a result, John Walker appreciated Cook's endurance and hard work and offered him the position of assistant captain. After another three years, the brothers decided to make James captain. But they could not keep the capable young man near them. In 1755, at the age of 27, James became a first-class sailor in the navy.
This was followed by several years of hard labor, a long war with France and, finally, the stripes of a sergeant major - at 32 years old.
First expeditions
Cook began the journey from Plymouth in August 1768. There were 94 people on board the Endeavor, which included crew members and scientists. Already in April of the following year they reached Tahiti, where the locals happily welcomed the sailors. Cook then went to the shores of New Zealand, where he met Maori tribes with war canoes. Afterwards there were the shores of Tasmania and the east coast of Australia. The ship "Endeavour" almost crashed on coral reefs, but Cook's crew members coped with the danger.
While sailing off the coast of Batavia (modern Jakarta), many crew members died of fever. Cook managed to prevent the spread of the disease by maintaining perfect cleanliness on board. In 1771, after a three-year journey, Cook returned to England. Of the crew, only 56 crew members were able to set foot on their native soil.
Trip around the world
A year after the first voyage, the decision was made to begin a second voyage under Cook's command. The captain and his crew had to travel around the world in the latitudes of Antarctica on two ships similar to the Endeavor.
During this voyage, Cook first tried a marine clock (chronometer), which was created by John Harrison and proved to be very accurate.
"The Death of Captain Cook" (John Webber, 1784)
During the year (from January 1773), Cook's ships entered the Arctic Circle several times, but due to severe cold they were forced to return back. After this, Cook went to New Zealand, where he traded with the Maori tribes. He then returned to Tahiti and explored the Melanesian and Polynesian islands before sailing to England via South Africa. During this journey, many of Cook's crew died from disease, and some were killed during encounters with Maori tribes.
After this voyage, James Cook was promoted and became captain of the ship with the rank of captain, granted by King George III of England.
Fatal Expedition
Cook's ships left the English port of Plymouth on their last voyage in 1776. The mission of the expedition was to find the Northwest Passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in North America.
Cook sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean and visited New Zealand and Tahiti. His path lay to the North - the British Parliament promised the crew of the ship that would make the discovery 20,000 pounds sterling - a fortune at that time. At dawn on January 18, 1778, Cook saw land: it was the island of Oahu (one of the eight islands of the Hawaiian archipelago). A strong headwind prevented the ships from approaching the island and carried them northwest to the island of Kauai.
The ships dropped anchor in Waimea Bay. The ruling leader decided to send his representatives on board. When they boarded the ship, they were horrified: they mistook the officers’ English cocked hats for triangular heads. Cook gave a dagger to one of the high leaders who boarded the ship. The impression was so strong that the leader announced a new name for his daughter - Dagger.
Subsequently, Cook walked unarmed among the Hawaiians, who greeted him as the highest leader. They fell prostrate on the ground at his approach and offered him gifts of food, mats and burl (material made from the bark of trees).
Death of Cook. Canvas by the Anglo-German artist Johann Zoffany (1795)
Hawaiians excitedly discussed the enormous wealth of foreigners. Some were eager to grab the iron objects they saw on the deck, but the tall shaman warned them not to do so. He himself was unsure whether to classify foreigners as gods or mere mortals. In the end, he decided to conduct a simple test: offer women to the strangers. If the British agree, then they are clearly not gods, but mere mortals. The British, naturally, failed the exam, but many Hawaiians still had their doubts.
Two weeks later, having rested and replenished their food supply, the ships left for the north. But already at the end of November 1778, Cook returned to Hawaii. After some time, Kalaniopuu, the ruler of the island of Hawaii, appeared on board. He generously supplied Cook with food supplies and all kinds of gifts. Every day, hundreds of Hawaiians climbed aboard both ships. Sometimes there were so many of them that it was impossible to work. From time to time the natives stole metal objects. These minor, although annoying, thefts were not paid attention to.
As the ships were repaired and food supplies replenished, some Hawaiians became increasingly convinced that the British were mere mortals. They politely hinted to the sailors that it was time and honor to know, and that they would be able to visit the islands during the next harvest, when there would be plenty of food again.
On February 4, 1779, four weeks after the ships entered Kealakekua Bay, Cook ordered the anchor to be raised. The Hawaiians watched with satisfaction as the British left. However, on the very first night the ships were caught in a storm and the front mast of the Resolution cracked. It was necessary to return. Cook knew only one convenient bay nearby - Kealakekua.
When the ships entered the familiar bay, its shores were deserted. A boat sent ashore returned with the news that King Kalaniopuu had imposed a taboo on the entire bay. Such taboos were common in Hawaii. Typically, after the land and its resources had been used up, the chiefs would forbid entry for a period of time to allow the sea and land resources to recover.
The British felt growing anxiety, but they needed to repair the mast. The next day the king visited the bay and greeted the British friendly, but the mood of the Hawaiians had already somehow changed. The initial warmth of the relationship gradually melted away. In one case, things almost came to a scuffle when the chiefs ordered the Hawaiians not to help a crew that had gone ashore for water. The six sailors guarding the work on shore were ordered to load their guns with bullets instead of shot. Cook and his trusted officer James King went ashore to settle a dispute over water between the crew and the islanders. They barely had time to resolve the controversial issue when they heard the sound of musket fire in the direction of the Discovery ship. A canoe was rushing from the ship towards the shore. The Hawaiians sitting in it rowed their oars furiously. Obviously they stole something. Cook, King and one sailor made an unsuccessful attempt to catch the thieves. When they returned to shore, they learned that the Discovery's boatswain had decided to go ashore and seize the thieves' canoe. As it turned out, the canoe belonged to a friend of the British, Chief Palea. When Palea demanded his canoe back, an altercation ensued, during which the chief was hit on the head with an oar. The Hawaiians rushed at the British, and they were forced to take refuge among the rocks on the shore. Fortunately, Palea restored order and the rivals presumably parted as friends.
At dawn next day The British discovered that the boat, tied to a buoy a dozen yards from the ship, had disappeared. Cook was furious because she was the best on board. He ordered the bay to be blocked so that no canoe could leave it. Cook, Lieutenant Phillips and nine Marines went ashore. Cook's task was to meet with King Kalaniopuu. He was going to use a plan that had never failed him under similar circumstances in other parts of the ocean: he would invite Kalaniopuu on board and keep him there until his subjects returned the boat.
Cook observes human sacrifice in Tahiti (1773)
Cook considered himself a friend of the Hawaiians, who, like the Hawaiians, had nothing to fear.
Kalaniopuu accepted the invitation, but the king's wives begged him not to go. In the end, they managed to seat the king on the ground at the very edge of the water. At this time, the echo of shots echoed over the bay. The Hawaiians were visibly alarmed. Cook already realized that it would not be possible to bring the king to the ship. He got up and walked alone to the boat. But a Hawaiian ran into the excited crowd and shouted that the British had killed the tall chief when he tried to leave the bay in his canoe.
This was a declaration of war. Women and children disappeared. The men put on protective wicker mats, and spears, daggers, stones and clubs appeared in their hands. Cook waded into knee-deep water and turned to call the boats and order a ceasefire. At that moment, a crushing blow from a wooden club fell on his head. As he fell, another warrior stabbed him in the back with a dagger. An hour after he went ashore, Cook was dead.
Lieutenant King tried to persuade the Hawaiians to return the bodies of the fallen. At night, the sentries heard the cautious sound of oars near the side of the Resolution and fired into the darkness. They narrowly missed two Hawaiians who asked permission to board. In their hands they carried a small package wrapped in tapa (tanned cloth made from tree bark). They solemnly unwrapped the tapa, and in the wavering light of the lantern the British saw with horror the bloody flesh that had apparently been cut from Cook's body.
The British were horrified by this treatment of the body of their captain; some began to suspect the Hawaiians were cannibals. And yet, Cook’s remains were treated as the bodies of the highest leaders were treated. Traditionally, Hawaiians separated the flesh from the bones of highly revered people. The bones were then tied together and buried secretly so that no one could abuse them. If the deceased was an object of great affection and respect, then the bones could be kept for some time at home. Since Cook was highly respected, parts of his body were divided among the high leaders. His head went to the king, and one of the leaders took his scalp. The terrible treatment was, in fact, the highest honor on the part of the Hawaiians.
Over the next few days the British took brutal revenge. One result of the bloodshed was that the frightened Hawaiians decided to return more of Cook's remains to the British. One of the chiefs, dressed in a ceremonial cloak of red feathers, returned the captain's hands, skull, forearms and leg bones.
On the evening of February 21, 1779, the remains of Captain James Cook were sewn up in canvas and, after a funeral prayer read by Captain Clerke, lowered into the water of the bay. The crew lowered the Union Jack and fired a ten-gun salute. Many of the sailors and infantrymen on the decks of both ships wept openly. The Hawaiians did not observe the ceremony from the shore, as the chief had placed a taboo on the bay. The next morning the British raised their sails and left the islands forever.
James Cook's achievements in the exploration of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand and Australia radically changed ideas about the geography of the world and proved that he was the best navigator that ever lived in England.
Who is guilty?
But what really happened that morning at Kealakekua Bay? How was the battle in which Cook died?
Here is what First Officer James Burney writes: “Through binoculars we saw Captain Cook hit with a club and fall from the cliff into the water.” Bernie was most likely standing on the deck of the Discovery. And here is what the captain of the ship Clark said about the death of Cook: “It was exactly 8 o’clock when we were alarmed by a gun salvo, given by people Captain Cook, and loud Indian cries were heard. Through the telescope, I clearly saw that our people were running towards the boats, but who exactly was running, I could not see in the confused crowd.”
Eighteenth-century ships were not particularly spacious: the Clerk was unlikely to be far from Burney, but he did not see individual people. What's the matter? The participants of Cook's expedition left behind a huge amount of texts: historians count 45 manuscripts of diaries, ship's logs and notes, as well as 7 books printed in the 18th century.
But that’s not all: the ship’s log of James King (the author of the official history of the third expedition) was accidentally found in government archives in the 1970s. And not all the texts were written by members of the wardroom: the fascinating memoirs of the German Hans Zimmermann speak about the life of the sailors, and historians learned a lot of new things from a completely plagiarized book by a dropout student, John Ledyard, corporal of the Marines.
So, 45 memoirs tell about the events of the morning of February 14, and the differences between them are not purely accidental, the result of gaps in the memory of sailors trying to recreate the terrible events. What the British “saw with their own eyes” is dictated by the complex relationships on the ship: envy, patronage and loyalty, personal ambitions, rumors and slander.
The memoirs themselves were written not only out of a desire to bask in the glory of Captain Cook or to make money: the texts of the crew members are replete with insinuations, irritated hints at hiding the truth, and, in general, do not resemble the memories of old friends about a wonderful journey.
Tension in the crew had been building for a long time: it was inevitable during a long voyage on cramped ships, an abundance of orders, the wisdom of which was obvious only to the captain and his inner circle, and the expectation of inevitable hardships during the upcoming search for the Northwest Passage in polar waters. However, the conflicts spilled over into open form only once - with the participation of two heroes of the future drama in Kealakekua Bay: a duel took place in Tahiti between Marine Lieutenant Phillips and Resolution's third mate John Williamson. All that is known about the duel is that three bullets passed over the heads of its participants without causing them harm.
The character of both Irishmen was not sweet. Phillips, who suffered heroically from the Hawaiian guns (he was wounded while retreating to the boats), ended his life as a London bum, playing cards in small quantities and beating his wife. Williamson was disliked by many officers. “This is a scoundrel who was hated and feared by his subordinates, hated by his equals and despised by his superiors,” one of the midshipmen wrote in his diary.
But the crew’s hatred fell on Williamson only after Cook’s death: all eyewitnesses agree that at the very beginning of the collision the captain gave some kind of signal to Williamson’s people who were in the boats off the shore. What Cook intended to express with this unknown gesture will forever remain a mystery. The lieutenant stated that he understood it as “Save yourself, swim away!” and gave the appropriate command.
Unfortunately for him, the other officers were convinced that Cook was desperately calling for help. The sailors could provide fire support, drag the captain into the boat, or at least recapture the corpse from the Hawaiians... Williamson had a dozen officers and marines from both ships against him. Phillips, according to Ledyard's recollection, was even ready to shoot the lieutenant on the spot.
Clark (the new captain) was immediately required to investigate. However, the main witnesses (we do not know who they were - most likely the bosses on the pinnace and skiff, who were also offshore under Williamson's command) withdrew their testimony and accusations against the third mate. Did they do this sincerely, not wanting to ruin an officer who found himself in a difficult and ambiguous situation? Or were their superiors putting pressure on them? We are unlikely to know this - the sources are very scarce. In 1779, while on his deathbed, Captain Clark destroyed all papers related to the investigation.
The only fact is that the leaders of the expedition (King and Clark) decided not to blame Williamson for the death of Cook. However, rumors immediately spread on the ships that Williamson had stolen documents from Clark's locker after the captain's death, or even earlier had given brandy to all the marines and sailors so that they would remain silent about the lieutenant's cowardice upon returning to England.
The truth of these rumors cannot be confirmed: but it is important that they circulated for the reason that Williamson not only avoided the tribunal, but also succeeded in every possible way. Already in 1779 he was promoted to second, and then to first mate. His successful career in the navy was interrupted only by an incident in 1797: as captain of the Agincourt, at the Battle of Camperdown, he once again misinterpreted a signal (this time a naval one), avoided attacking enemy ships and was court-martialed for dereliction of duty. A year later he died.
In his diary, Clark describes what happened to Cook on the shore according to Phillips: the whole story boils down to the misadventures of the wounded marine, and not a word is said about the behavior of other members of the team. James King also showed favor towards Williamson: in the official history of the voyage, Cook's gesture was described as a matter of philanthropy: the captain tried to keep his people from brutally shooting the unfortunate Hawaiians. Moreover, King places the blame for the tragic collision on Marine Lieutenant Rickman, who shot a Hawaiian on the other side of the bay (which enraged the natives).
It would seem that everything is clear: the authorities are covering up the obvious culprit in Cook’s death - for some reason of their own. And then, using his connections, he makes a stunning career. However, the situation is not so clear-cut. Interestingly, the team is roughly evenly split between Williamson haters and defenders - and the composition of each group deserves close attention.
"Landing at Tanna". Painting by William Hodges. One of the characteristic episodes of contact between the British and the inhabitants of Oceania.
British Navy: hopes and disappointments
The officers of the Resolution and Discovery were not at all pleased with the great scientific significance of the expedition: most of them were ambitious young people who were not at all eager to spend their best years on the sidelines in cramped cabins. In the 18th century, promotions were mainly given by wars: at the beginning of each conflict, the “demand” for officers increased - assistants were promoted to captains, midshipmen to assistants. It is not surprising that the crew members sadly sailed from Plymouth in 1776: literally before their eyes, the conflict with the American colonists flared up, and they had to “rot” for four years in the dubious search for the Northwest Passage.
The British Navy, by the standards of the 18th century, was a relatively democratic institution: people far from power, wealth and noble blood could serve and rise to commanding heights there. To look far for examples, one can recall Cook himself, the son of a Scottish farm laborer, who began his naval career as a cabin boy on a coal-mining brig.
However, one should not think that the system automatically selected the most worthy: the price for relative democracy “at the entrance” was the dominant role of patronage. All officers built support networks, looked for loyal patrons in the command and in the Admiralty, earning a reputation for themselves. That is why the death of Cook and Clark meant that all contacts and agreements reached with the captains during the voyage went to waste.
Having reached Canton, the officers learned that the war with the rebel colonies was in full swing, and all the ships were already equipped. But before the failure (the Northwest Passage was not found, Cook died) geographical expedition no one cares much. “The crew felt how much they would lose in rank and wealth, and also deprived of the consolation that they were being led home by an old commander, whose known merits could help the affairs of the last voyage be heard and appreciated even in those troubled times,” King writes in in his journal (December 1779). In the 1780s, the Napoleonic War was still far away, and only a few received promotions. Many junior officers followed the example of midshipman James Trevenen and joined the Russian fleet (which, recall, fought against the Swedes and Turks in the 1780s).
In this regard, it is curious that the loudest voices against Williamson were midshipmen and mates who were at the very beginning of their careers in the navy. They missed their luck (the war with the American colonies), and even one single vacancy was a fairly valuable prize. Williamson's rank (third mate) did not yet give him much opportunity to take revenge on his accusers, and a trial against him would have created great opportunity remove a competitor. Combined with personal antipathy towards Williamson, this more than explains why he was vilified and called the main scoundrel for Cook's death. Meanwhile, many senior members of the team (Bernie, although he was a close friend of Phillips, draftsman William Ellis, Resolution first mate John Gore, Discovery master Thomas Edgar) did not find anything reprehensible in Williamson’s actions.
For approximately the same reasons (career future), in the end, part of the blame was shifted to Rickman: he was much older than most of the members of the wardroom, began his service already in 1760, “missed” the beginning of the Seven Years’ War and did not receive a promotion for 16 years. That is, he did not have strong patrons in the fleet, and his age did not allow him to form friendships with a company of young officers. As a result, Rickman turned out to be almost the only member of the team who did not receive any more titles at all.
In addition, by attacking Williamson, many officers, of course, tried to avoid awkward questions: on the morning of February 14, many of them were on the island or in boats and could have acted more proactively if they heard shots, and retreating to the ships without trying to recapture the bodies of the dead also looks suspicious. The future captain of the Bounty, William Bligh (master on the Resolution), directly accused Phillips' Marines of fleeing the battlefield. The fact that 11 of the 17 Marines on the Resolution were subjected to corporal punishment during the voyage (under Cook's personal orders) also makes one wonder how willing they were to sacrifice their lives for the captain.
But, one way or another, the authorities put an end to the proceedings: King and Clark made it clear that no one should be put on trial. Most likely, even if the trial of Williamson did not take place thanks to the influential patrons of the ambitious Irishman (even his long-time enemy Phillips refused to testify against him at the Admiralty - under the flimsy pretext that he allegedly had bad personal relations with the accused), the captains preferred to make a Solomon decision .
None of the surviving members of the crew should have become a scapegoat, guilty of the tragic death of the great captain: circumstances, vile natives and (as read between the lines of the memoirs) the arrogance and recklessness of Cook himself, who hoped almost single-handedly to take a local hostage, were to blame leader. “There is good reason to suppose that the natives would not have gone so far if, unfortunately, Captain Cook had not fired upon them: a few minutes before, they began to clear the way for the soldiers to get to that place on the shore , against which the boats stood (I have already mentioned this), thus giving Captain Cook the opportunity to get away from them,” says the Clerk’s diaries.
Now it becomes clearer why the Clerk and Bernie saw such different scenes through their telescopes. This was determined by the place in the complex system of “checks and balances”, status hierarchy and the struggle for a place in the sun, which took place on board the ships of the scientific expedition. What prevented the Clerk from seeing the captain’s death (or talking about it) was not so much the “confused crowd” as the officer’s desire to remain above the fray and ignore evidence of the guilt of individual members of the crew (many of whom were his protégés, others protégés of his London superiors).
From left to right: Daniel Solander, Joseph Banks, James Cook, John Hawksford and Lord Sandwich. Painting. Author - John Hamilton Mortimer, 1771
What is the meaning of what happened?
History is not simply objective events that happened or did not happen. We know about the past only from the stories of the participants in these events, stories that are often fragmentary, confusing and contradictory. However, one should not draw a conclusion from this about the fundamental incompatibility of individual points of view, which supposedly represent autonomous and incompatible pictures of the world. Scientists, even if they are unable to authoritatively state how “it really happened,” can find probable causes, common interests, and other solid layers of reality behind the apparent chaos of “witness testimony.”
This is what we tried to do - to unravel the network of motives a little, to discern the elements of the system that forced the team members to act, see and remember exactly this way and not otherwise.
Personal relationships, career interests. But there is another layer: the national-ethnic level. Cook's ships represented a cross-section of imperial society: representatives of peoples and, most importantly, regions, to varying degrees remote from the metropolis (London), sailed there, in which all the main issues were resolved and the process of “civilizing” the British took place. Cornish and Scots, natives of the American colonies and the West Indies, Northern England and Ireland, Germans and Welsh... Their relationships during and after the voyage, the influence of prejudices and stereotypes on what is happening, scientists have yet to understand.
But history is not a criminal investigation: the last thing I wanted was to finally identify who was responsible for the death of Captain Cook: be it the “coward” Williamson, the “inactive” sailors and marines on shore, the “evil” natives, or the “arrogant” navigator himself.
It is naive to consider Cook’s team a squad of heroes of science, “white men” in identical uniforms. This is a complex system of personal and professional relationships, with its own crises and conflict situations, passions and calculated actions. And by chance this structure explodes in dynamics with an event. Cook's death confused all the cards for the expedition members, but forced them to burst out with passionate, emotional notes and memoirs and, thus, shed light on relationships and patterns that, with a more favorable outcome of the voyage, would have remained in the darkness of obscurity.
But the death of Captain Cook can be a useful lesson in the 21st century: often only similar emergency events (accident, death, explosion, escape, leak) can manifest internal organization and the modus operandi of secret (or at least secretive) organizations, be it the crew of a submarine or the diplomatic corps.
sources
A. Maksimov