But it seems to me that it intersects with another very popular topic. Remember Vysotsky? Why did the natives eat Cook?
Usually, the captain and talented cartographer James Cook is known to be the explorer of the southern seas, who was killed and eaten by the natives. 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 then happened there anyway? Now we are going to read about it...
call of the sea
Captain James Cook was born October 27, 1728 in a small Yorkshire village. From childhood, he dreamed of becoming a navigator. At the age of seventeen, Cook became a worker in a grocery store. But after some time, he asked to be an apprentice to the shipowners, the Walker brothers, who were engaged in the transportation of coal.
For nearly a decade he sailed on coal coasters. Between flights, Cook pored over piles of books on mathematics, navigation, astronomy. Not a drop of alcohol and no women. As a result, John Walker appreciated Cook's endurance and diligence and offered him the position of assistant captain. Three years later, the brothers decided to make James captain. But they could not keep a capable young man near them. In 1755, at the age of 27, James became a first grade sailor in the navy.
This was followed by several years of hard labor, a long war with France, and, finally, the stripes of a foreman - at 32 years old.
First expeditions
Cook began his 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. Then Cook went to the shores of New Zealand, where he met the Maori tribes with war canoes. After were the coasts of Tasmania and the east coast of Australia. The ship "Endeavour" almost crashed on the coral reefs, but the members of Cook's crew coped with the danger.
While sailing off the coast of Batavia (modern Jakarta), many members of the crew died of a fever. Cook managed to prevent the spread of the disease by keeping the board perfectly clean. 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 land.
Trip around the world
A year after the first trip, it was decided to start a second trip under the command of Cook. The captain and his team were to make a round-the-world trip in the latitudes of Antarctica on two ships similar to the Endeavor.
During this trip, Cook first tested the marine clock (chronometer), which was created by John Harrison and turned out 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 that, Cook went to New Zealand, where he traded with the Maori tribes. Then he went back to Tahiti, exploring the Melanesian and Polynesian islands before heading to England via South Africa. During this journey, many of the Cook's team died from disease, and some were killed during a meeting with the Maori tribes.
After this journey, James Cook received a promotion and became the captain of the ship with the rank of captain, bestowed by King George III of England.
fatal expedition
On the last trip, Cook's ships left the English port of Plymouth in 1776. The task of the expedition was to find the Northwest route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in North America.
Cook circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean and visited New Zealand and Tahiti. His path lay in the North - the British Parliament promised the crew of the ship that would make the discovery £20,000 - a fortune in those days. At dawn on January 18, 1778, Cook saw the 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 anchored in Waimea Bay. The reigning chief decided to send his representatives on board. Those, having boarded the ship, were horrified: they mistook the English cocked hats of officers for triangular heads. To one of the high chiefs who boarded, Cook gave a dagger. The impression was so strong that the leader announced a new name for his daughter - Dagger.
Subsequently, Cook walked unarmed among the Hawaiians, who hailed him as the highest leader. They prostrated themselves on the ground at his approach and offered him food, mats and burl (material from the bark of trees) as a gift.
Death of Cook. Painting by the Anglo-German artist Johann Zoffany (1795)
Hawaiians excitedly discussed the vast wealth of foreigners. Some were not averse to taking the iron objects they saw on deck, but the tall shaman warned them not to. He himself was in uncertainty whether to attribute foreigners to gods or to mere mortals. In the end, he decided to arrange a simple test: to offer women to strangers. If the British agree, then they are clearly not gods, but mere mortals. The British, of course, failed the exam, but many Hawaiians still had doubts.
Two weeks later, having rested and replenished with food, the ships went 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 provided Cook with supplies of food and all kinds of gifts. Every day, hundreds of Hawaiians boarded both ships. Sometimes there were so many of them that it was impossible to work. From time to time, natives stole metal objects. These petty, albeit annoying, thefts were ignored.
As the ships made repairs and replenished food supplies, 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 the departure of the British. However, on the very first night, the ships got into a storm and the forward 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. The boat sent ashore returned with the news that King Kalaniopuu had imposed a taboo on the entire bay. Such taboos were commonplace in Hawaii. Usually, after the land and its resources were fairly used, the leaders forbade entry there for a while 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 in a friendly way, but the mood of the Hawaiians had already somehow changed. The initial warmth of the relationship gradually melted away. In one case, it almost came to a head when the chiefs ordered the Hawaiians not to help the team that went ashore to fetch water. The six sailors guarding the work on the shore were ordered to load their guns with bullets instead of shot. Cooke and his trusted officer James King landed to settle a water dispute between the crew and the islanders. They had hardly settled the dispute when they heard the sound of musket fire in the direction of the Discovery ship. A canoe rushed from the ship towards the shore. The Hawaiians sitting in it furiously rowed with oars. 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 boatswain of the Discovery had decided to go ashore and seize the thieves' canoe. As it turned out, the canoe belonged to a friend of the British, the leader of Palea. When Palea demanded his canoe back, a skirmish ensued, during which the leader was hit on the head with an oar. The Hawaiians rushed to the British, and they were forced to take refuge among the stones on the shore. Luckily, Palea restored order, and the rivals presumably parted ways as friends.
At dawn the next day, the British discovered that the boat, tied to a buoy a dozen yards from the ship, had disappeared. Cooke was beside himself with rage as she was the best on board. He ordered to block the bay so that not a single canoe could get out of it. Cooke, 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 watching human sacrifices 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 was heard 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 went alone to the boat. But a Hawaiian ran into the excited crowd and shouted that the British had killed the high leader when he tried to leave the bay in his canoe.
This was a declaration of war. The women and children have disappeared. The men put on protective wicker mats, spears, daggers, stones and clubs appeared in their hands. Cook went knee-deep into the water and turned to call the boats and order them to cease fire. 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 convince the Hawaiians to return the bodies of the fallen. At night, sentries heard the careful 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 bundle wrapped in tapa (tanned cloth made from tree bark). They solemnly unwrapped the tapa, and by the flickering light of the lantern the English saw with horror the bloody meat that had apparently been cut from Cook's body.
The British were horrified by such treatment of the body of their captain, some began to suspect cannibals in the Hawaiians. And yet, the remains of Cook were treated as the bodies of the highest leaders were treated. By tradition, the Hawaiians separated the flesh from the bones of highly revered people. Then the bones were 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 at home for some time. Since Cook enjoyed very high respect, parts of his body were divided among high leaders. His head went to the king, and the scalp was taken by one of the leaders. Terrible treatment was, in fact, the highest honor on the part of the Hawaiians.
Over the next few days, the British retaliated viciously. One result of the bloodshed was that the terrified Hawaiians decided to return the additional remains of Cook 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, were lowered into the water of the bay. The crew flew the British flag at half mast and fired a ten-gun salute. Many of the sailors and foot soldiers on the decks of both ships wept openly. The Hawaiians did not watch the ceremony from the shore, as the leader placed a taboo on the bay. The next morning, the British set sail and left the islands for good.
James Cook's achievements in the exploration of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand and Australia radically changed the idea of the geography of the world and proved that he was the best navigator who ever lived in England.
Who is guilty?
But what really happened that morning at Kealakekua Bay? How was the fight in which Cook died?
Here is what First Officer James Burney writes: “Through binoculars we saw Captain Cook get hit with a club and fall off a 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 Captain Cook’s people, and strong cries of the Indians were heard. Through the spyglass, I clearly saw that our people were running towards the boats, but I could not see exactly who was running in the confused crowd.
The ships of the 18th century were not very spacious: the Clerk was hardly far from Burney, but he did not see individual people. What's the matter? Members of the Cook expedition left behind a huge number of texts: historians count 45 manuscripts of diaries, ship logs and notes, as well as 7 books printed back in the 18th century.
But that's not all: the logbook 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 texts were written by members of the wardroom: the fascinating memoirs of the German Hans Zimmermann speak about the life of sailors, and historians learned a lot of new things from the complete plagiarism of the book of a half-educated 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 pure coincidence, 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 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 make money: the texts of the crew members are replete with insinuations, irritated allusions to hiding the truth, and, in general, do not look like old friends' memories of a wonderful trip.
The tension in the team had been accumulating for a long time: it was inevitable during the long voyage on cramped ships, the abundance of orders, the reasonableness of which was obvious only to the captain and his inner circle, and the expectation of inevitable hardships during the coming search for the Northwest Passage in subpolar waters. However, the conflicts poured into an open form one and only time - with the participation of two heroes of the future drama in Kealakekua Bay: a duel took place in Tahiti between Lieutenant of the Marines Phillips and the third assistant of the Resolution, John Williamson. All that is known about the duel is that three bullets passed over the heads of its participants without harming them.
The character of both Irishmen was not sugar. Phillips, heroically injured by Hawaiian weapons (he was wounded while retreating to the boats), ended his life as a London bum, playing cards on trifles and beating his wife. Williamson, on the other hand, was disliked by many officers. “This is a scoundrel who was hated and feared by subordinates, hated by equals and despised by superiors,” one of the midshipmen wrote in his diary.
But the hatred of the team hit 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 boats off the coast. What Cook wanted to express with this unknown gesture will forever remain a mystery. The lieutenant stated that he understood him as "Save yourself, swim away!" and gave the appropriate command.
Unfortunately for him, the rest of the officers were sure 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 was opposed by a dozen officers and marines from both ships. 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 are - most likely the chiefs on the pinnas and skiff, who were also under the shore under Williamson's command) withdrew their testimony and accusations against the third officer. Did they do it sincerely, not wanting to ruin an officer who got into a difficult and ambiguous situation? Or were they pressured by the authorities? We are unlikely to find out - the sources are very scarce. In 1779, while on his deathbed, Captain Clark destroyed all papers related to the investigation.
There is only the fact that the leaders of the expedition (King and Clark) decided not to blame Williamson for the death of Cook. However, rumors immediately circulated on the ships that Williamson had stolen documents from Clark's locker after the captain's death, or even earlier issued brandy to all Marines and sailors to keep them quiet about the lieutenant's cowardice upon their return to England.
The truth of these rumors cannot be confirmed: but it is important that they went for the reason that Williamson not only avoided the tribunal, but also succeeded in every possible way. Already in 1779 he was promoted to the second, and then to the first assistant to the captain. 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 by sea), evaded an attack on enemy ships and went to court for dereliction of duty. He died a year later.
In his diary, Clark describes what happened to Cook on the shore according to Philips: the whole story boils down to the misadventures of a wounded marine, and not a word is said about the behavior of other team members. James King also showed favor to Williamson: in the official history of the voyage, Cook's gesture was described as a act 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 Lieutenant of the Marine Corps Rickman, who shot the Hawaiian on the other side of the bay (which infuriated the natives).
It would seem that everything is clear: the authorities are covering up the obvious culprit of 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. It is curious that the team was divided into haters and defenders of Williamson approximately equally - and the composition of each group deserves close attention.
"Landing at Tanna". Painting by William Hodges. One of the characteristic episodes of British contact with 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: for the most part they were ambitious young people who did not at all crave to spend their best years on the sidelines in cramped cabins. In the 18th century, promotion was 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 members of the crew sailed longingly from Plymouth in 1776: literally before their eyes, 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 who were far from power, wealth and noble blood could serve and rise to commanding heights. In order not to go far for examples, one can recall Cook himself, the son of a Scottish farm laborer, who began his maritime biography as a cabin boy on a coal-burning brig.
However, one should not think that the system automatically selected the most worthy: the price for relative democracy “at the entrance” was the leading role of patronage. All officers built networks of support, sought loyal patrons in the command and in the Admiralty, earning their reputation. That is why the death of Cook and Clark meant that all contacts and agreements reached with the captains during the voyage went to dust.
Having reached Canton, the officers learned that the war with the rebellious colonies was in full swing, and all the ships were already completed. But before the disastrous (the Northwest Passage was not found, Cook died) geographical expedition, no one really cares. “The crew felt how much they would lose in rank and wealth, also deprived of the consolation that they were being led home by an old commander whose known merits could help the deeds of the last voyage be heard and appreciated even in those troubled times,” writes King in his journal (December 1779). In the 1780s, the war with Napoleon was still far away, and only a few were promoted. Many junior officers followed the example of midshipman James Trevenen and went to serve in the Russian fleet (which, we recall, fought against the Swedes and Turks in the 1780s).
In this regard, it is curious that midshipmen and master's assistants, who were at the very beginning of their careers in the Navy, spoke out loudest of all against Williamson. They missed their luck (the war with the American colonies), and even a single vacancy was quite a valuable prize. The rank of Williamson (third assistant) did not yet give him much opportunity to avenge his accusers, and his trial would create an excellent opportunity to remove a competitor. Combined with a personal dislike of Williamson, this more than explains why he was reviled and called the main villain who killed Cook. Meanwhile, many senior members of the team (Bernie, although he was a close friend of Phillips, draftsman William Ellis, Resolution's first assistant 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 serving as early as 1760, "missed" the start 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 make friends 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 uncomfortable questions: on the morning of February 14, many of them were on the island or in boats and could act more proactively, having heard the shots, and retreat to the ships without trying to recapture the bodies of the dead as well looks suspicious. The future captain of the Bounty, William Bly (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 (on Cook's personal order) 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 given to the tribunal. 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 foe Philips refused to testify against him at the Admiralty - under the far-fetched pretext that he had a bad personal relationship with the accused), the captains preferred to take the Solomonic decision. .
None of the surviving members of the team was supposed to become a scapegoat, guilty of the tragic death of the great captain: circumstances were to blame, vile natives and (as read between the lines of memoirs) the arrogance and recklessness of Cook himself, who hoped almost single-handedly to take the local hostage leader. “There is good reason to believe that the natives would not have gone so far if, unfortunately, Captain Cook had not fired at them: a few minutes before this they began to clear the way for the soldiers so that the latter could reach that place on the shore , against which the boats stood (I already mentioned this), thus giving Captain Cook the opportunity to get away from them, ”the Clerk’s diaries say.
Now it becomes clearer why Clerk and Bernie saw such different scenes through their telescopes. This was determined by the place in the complex system of "checks and balances", the status hierarchy and the struggle for a place under the sun, which was going on board the ships of the scientific expedition. What prevented the Clerk from seeing (or telling about) the captain's death was not so much the "confused crowd" as the officer's desire to stay above the fray and ignore the evidence of guilt of individual members of the team (many of whom were his protégés, and others the protégés of his London superiors).
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 just objective events that happened or didn't happen. We know about the past only from the stories of the participants in these events, stories that are often fragmentary, confused and contradict each other. 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, if not able to authoritatively state how "it really was," can find probable causes, common interests, and other solid layers of reality behind the apparent chaos of "testimony."
This is what we tried to do - to unravel a little the network of motives, to discern the elements of the system that forced the team members to act, see and remember in this way and not otherwise.
Personal relationships, career interests. But there is another layer: the national-ethnic level. Cook's ships were 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 relationship 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 either: the last thing I wanted to do was finally reveal who was responsible for the death of Captain Cook: be it the “coward” Williamson, the “uninitiative” sailors and marines on the shore, the “evil” natives, or the “arrogant” navigator himself.
It is naive to consider Cook's team a detachment of heroes of science, "white people" in identical uniforms. This is a complex system of personal and official relations, with its own crises and conflict situations, passions and prudent actions. And by chance this structure in dynamics explodes with an event. The death of Cook confused all the maps of the expedition members, but made them burst into 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 also be a useful lesson in the 21st century: often only similar emergency events (accident, death, explosion, escape, leak) can reveal the internal structure and modus operandi of secret (or at least not advertising their principles) organizations. , whether it be the crew of a submarine or the diplomatic corps.
sources
A. Maksimov
James Cook is one of the most famous English navigators, who was born in 1728 into a poor farming family. This brave traveler was able to cross the globe three times and discover several islands and archipelagos.
Discoveries of James Cook
The expedition of 1768 turned out to be a huge success for James Cook, because during it he discovered Australia. He made a thorough exploration of its east coast. He also discovered the Great Barrier Reef, which is famous all over the world today.
Already at the beginning of 1772, James Cook assembled a new expedition. During it, he decided to set sail in the Pacific Ocean. His main goal was to find the southern mainland. The result of this large-scale expedition was a swim in the Amundsen Sea, a three-time crossing of the Antarctic Circle and the discovery of the South Sandwich Islands, which were described in detail by the navigator and subsequently marked on the map.
Cook's third expedition took place in 1776-1779. During this time, he managed to discover and map the Hawaiian Islands, and also obtained indisputable evidence that there is a strait between Asia and America. However, it was this expedition that cost the navigator his life. During it, the natives attacked Cook and took him prisoner, where he was killed. Later they gave the crew members his body, which was given to the sea.
Find out more about how James Cook discovered Australia and why he gave it that name in our other articles.
The famous sailor from England, explorer and discoverer - James Cook was a captain in the Royal Navy and the Royal Society. This amazing man mapped many places. Cook devoted a huge amount of time to cartography. Therefore, almost all charts compiled by a scrupulous sailor are accurate and accurate. For many years, maps served sailors, until about the 19th century.
Childhood and youth
James was born on October 27, 1728 in the village of Marton. Based on historical information, the father was a poor Scottish farmhand. When James was 8 years old, the family of the future sailor moved to Great Ayton, where he entered the local school. Today the school has become a museum in honor of James Cook.
After 5 years of study, the boy started working on a farm, where his father received the position of manager. When James turned 18, he was hired as a cabin boy on the Hercules. This was the beginning of the maritime career of the young and ambitious Cook.
Trips
James worked on ships owned by John and Henry Walker. In his free time, the young man independently studied geography, navigation, mathematics and astronomy by reading books. Traveler Cook left for 2 years, which he spent in the Baltic and in the east of England. At the request of the Walker brothers, he decided to return to the post of assistant captain on the Friendship. After 3 years, James was offered to take command of the ship, he refused.
Instead, Cook enrolls as a sailor in the Royal Navy and after 8 days is assigned to the ship "Eagle". This fact of the biography is bewildering: it is not clear why the young man preferred the hard work of a sailor to the captain's post. But after a month, Cook takes over as boatswain.
Soon, in 1756, the Seven Years' War begins, the ship "Eagle" participates in the blockade of the coast of France. As a result of the battle with the ship "Duke of Aquitaine", the "Eagle" wins, but is forced to leave for repairs in England. In 1757, James passed the captain's exam, and on his 29th birthday he was assigned to the ship Solebeus.
When Quebec was taken, James was transferred to the post of captain on the ship Northumberland, which was considered a professional promotion. By order of the Admiral, Cooke continued mapping the St. Lawrence River until 1762. Maps published in 1765.
Three expeditions
James led three voyages, they are an invaluable contribution to the idea of the world.
The first expedition lasted three years, the official goal of which was to study the passage of Venus through the Sun. But secret orders ordered Cook, after completing the observations, to go in search of the southern mainland.
Expeditions of James Cook: first (red), second (green) and third (blue) Since at that time the world states were fighting for new colonies, historians suggest that astronomical observations are a screen designed to cover up the search for new colonies. The expedition had another goal - to establish the shores of the east coast of Australia.
As a result of the expedition, the goal was achieved, but the information received was not useful due to inaccurate indicators. The second task, the discovery of the mainland, was not completed. The southern mainland was discovered by Russian sailors in 1820. It has been proven that New Zealand is two separate islands that are separated by a strait (note - Cook Strait). It turned out to bring a part of the eastern coast of Austria, which had not been explored before.
The second voyage, the specific goal set for James, is unknown. The task of the expedition is to explore the southern seas. It can be said with certainty that the advance to the south was accompanied by the desire of James to find the southern mainland. Most likely, Cook acted not only on the basis of personal initiatives.
The goal of the third expedition was to open the North-Western waterway, but it was not achieved. But Hawaii and Christmas Island were discovered.
Personal life
James Cook returned to England in 1762. After that, on December 21 of the same year, the sailor marries Elizabeth Butts. They had six children, James and Elizabeth lived in East London. The first child, who was named James, lived to be 31 years old. The life of the rest is relatively short: two children lived to be 17 years old, one child lived to be 4, and two more did not live even a year.
The successive deaths startled Mrs Cook. After the death of her husband, Elizabeth lived another 56 years, dying at the age of 93. The wife admired James, measured everything by his honor and moral convictions. When Elizabeth wanted to show disapproval, she said that "Mr. Cook would never do that." Before her death, Mrs. Cook tried to destroy personal papers and correspondence with her beloved husband, believing that the contents were too sacred for prying eyes. She was buried in the family vault in Cambridge.
Death
During his third and final expedition, on January 16, 1779, James landed in the Hawaiian Islands. The inhabitants of the island concentrated around the ships. The navigator estimated them at several thousand, the Hawaiians mistook Cook for their God. At first, good relations were established between the crew and residents, but the number of thefts committed by the Hawaiians increased. The ensuing skirmishes grew hotter.
Feeling the intensity of the situation, on February 4, the crew left the bay, but due to the storm, the ships suffered serious damage. On February 10, the ships were forced to return, but the attitude of the Hawaiians was already openly hostile. On February 13, ticks were stolen from the deck. The return attempt was unsuccessful and ended in a collision.
On the morning of the next day, the boat was stolen, Cook wanted to return the property, trying to take the leader hostage. When James, surrounded by his people, led the leader on board, he refused to go right on the shore. At this point, a rumor spread among the Hawaiians that the British were killing local residents, provoking hostile action. Captain James Cook and four sailors died at the hands of the Hawaiians during these events on February 14, 1779.
Memory
As a tribute to the great sailor James Cook:
- Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand, was discovered by James in 1769. Prior to the discovery of the sailor, Abel Tasman considered it a bay.
- An archipelago in the Pacific Ocean is named after the sailor.
One of the Cook Islands - The spacecraft module was named after Cook's first ship. During the flight, the fourth landing of people on the moon was carried out.
- A monument to James Cook was unveiled in 1932, on August 10th, in Victoria Square in Christchurch. The idea to immortalize the great navigator belongs to the local bookmaker and philanthropist - Matthew Barnett. He organized a competitive project, and then independently paid for the work of a talented sculptor William Theseevey and presented a monument to the city.
Monument to James Cook in Christchurch, New Zealand - A crater on the Moon named after a sailor in 1935.
- dedicated a small comic essay to the captain.
Now Cook's legacy is his diaries, which are of particular interest to researchers today. James's biography has a lot of colorful episodes, and the captain himself is rightfully considered an outstanding discoverer.
James Cook - first circumnavigation of the world (1768-1771)
In the second half of the eighteenth century, there were still undiscovered lands on the planet, for which there was a fierce struggle between the leading maritime powers - Portugal, Spain, France, Holland and England. The British, from the time of Elizabeth of England and, began to confidently push out competitors in the field of capturing overseas territories. The British Admiralty equipped naval expeditions in search of new lands, one of which was offered to be led by James Cook.
Expedition goals
The interest was quite specific - to find the alleged South Continent or other lands in the southern latitudes of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, put them on maps and stake out for the British crown. To disguise the true goals, a wonderful pretext was invented - scientific observations of the passage of Venus through the disk of the Sun.
James Cook's first circumnavigation of the world
I must say that this was not only a disguise, but also one of the real goals of the expedition. The fact is that the passage of Venus through the disk of the Sun is one of the few accurately predictable astronomical phenomena at that time, 
which happens once every 243 years. At this moment, Venus stands on the same axis between the earth and the sun and can be seen even with the naked eye - a small speck on the body of our star. Just such a phenomenon should have occurred in 1769.
This event was of great interest throughout the scientific world, and the leading European powers equipped expeditions to different parts of the world. The fact is that in this way it was possible to calculate the distance to the sun, and the farther from each other the observation points were, the more accurate the result was.
It is known that in 1769, on the initiative of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expeditions were organized to different parts of Siberia. Empress Catherine II herself showed interest and observed this phenomenon through a telescope!
Cook and his comrades were supposed to arrive in Tahiti, an island in the Pacific Ocean, take astronomical measurements and then go further south. It was necessary to explore New Zealand, the east coast of Australia, at that time completely unknown to Europeans. And all this had to be mapped.
There was no better candidate who would have coped with the whole range of tasks than the naval officer James Cook, who had brilliantly proven himself in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Cook received at his disposal a sailboat called " endeavor»
( endeavor - effort). It was a three-masted barque, not new, but stable and fast, reaching speeds of up to 7 knots (~ 15 km per hour).
The expedition included an astronomer, botanists, artists, four dozen crew members, and a dozen more marines. It is interesting that the instructions of the Admiralty to the team had a firm statement - to establish friendly contacts with the natives in the new lands. No violence. It was prescribed by all means to win them over with the help of gifts and profitable barter. It was a new word in colonial politics. Until now, all the colonialists behaved exactly the opposite - they simply robbed and destroyed the local population!
Launch of Cook's first round-the-world expedition to the Pacific Ocean
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New Zealand. Cook opens Cook Strait
After that, the expedition headed for New Zealand (opened December 13, 1642 ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> 
Abel Tasman, a famous Dutch navigator). But it was not possible to make friends with the Maori - the natives of New Zealand - they were initially hostile (as they were a hundred years ago to the Dutch), so they had to use force.
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Cook's ship sailed south along the west coast of New Zealand. We found a convenient bay for parking and repairing the ship, called it Queen Charlotte Bay.
Queen Charlotte- (1744-1818) - wife of King George III of Great Britain (1738-1820) and grandmother of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). By the way, the recipe belongs to Queen Charlotte charlottes- a sweet dessert made from apples baked in dough.
According to legend, having climbed one of the high hills, Cook discovered the strait between the two islands of New Zealand. This strait is still called Cook Strait. Bypassing the South Island along the perimeter, Cook made sure that this was not part of the Southern mainland, but only one of the islands of the archipelago. From the South Island, Cook's ship heads north to the coast of Australia.
Cook explores the east coast of Australia
Cook went north and in April 1770 approached the east coast of Australia. And on June 11, the ship ran aground. The hole in the bottom was serious, they began to look for a convenient bay for repairs. Found, patched up the hole. At the same time, they found out that they were trapped - in this place along the entire coast of the mainland there is a Great Barrier Reef. They bypassed the reef, but had to move away from the shore and observe it from afar. Moving along the east coast for more than 400 kilometers, the expedition discovered the strait between New Guinea and Australia. It used to be that New Guinea and Australia were one continent.
In early January 1771, the Endeavor entered Batavia (Jakarta). In Indonesia, the team was hit first by malaria, then by dysentery - people were dying like flies. Cook decided to return home. When Endeavor came to Cape Town (southwestern tip of Africa) - from the whole team only 12 people remained in the ranks - the rest were mowed down by epidemics. In Cape Town, the team was understaffed and on June 12, 1771, Cook's first round-the-world expedition ended in his native Plymouth.
James Cook (1728-1779) - English navigator, was born into a farmer's family in the village of Marton, Yorkshire, England. As the ninth child, from the age of 13 he earned a living: at first he helped a haberdashery merchant, and at the age of 18 he began his career as a cabin boy on coal trucks off the coast of Great Britain. At the age of 26, having risen to the rank of assistant navigator, Cook was accepted into the king's navy. Until 1764, as a pilot, he sailed on warships in Canadian waters. Having established himself as an excellent cartographer, from 1764 to 1768. studied the coast of Newfoundland and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Cook began his first round-the-world expedition in 1768 as a lieutenant. The captain of the former coal carrier, the ship Endeavor, Cook was to explore new lands in the South Pacific with a view to their subsequent capture. Bypassing Cape Horn, the navigator reached the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific Ocean, as well as several other islands. He put them on the map, giving the name of the Society Islands. From 1769 to 1770 Cook determined that New Zealand is an island consisting of two parts (the strait between which is now called the Cook Strait), discovered and studied the east coast of Australia, calling it South Wales and the islands of the Great Barrier Reef.
From the island of Java, he went to Africa and, having bypassed it, completed the journey. In 1052 days of the first expedition, Cook mapped 8000 km of coastline. 96 people took part in this voyage, 40 of whom died from diseases and accidents, and not a single one from scurvy. A kangaroo was shot and killed by sailors in northeastern Australia. His skin was taken to England, and a picture of the animal was included in the expedition report. For this successful expedition, the navigator was promoted to the rank of captain.
The next voyage around the world (1772-1775) Cook began in the opposite direction (to the east). His goal is to find the southern mainland and explore in depth New Zealand and other islands in the South Pacific. On this journey, he was the first in history to cross the Antarctic Circle, reaching 71º10 "S. Impenetrable ice left all attempts to find the southern land in vain. Having discovered several more islands in the South Pacific Ocean, and having studied their fauna and flora, Cook returned back.
In 1776, on his third and last voyage on the ships Resolution and Discovery, the traveler hoped to find a northwesterly route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But this attempt, due to the impenetrable ice fields, also remained unsuccessful. In 1777, Cook discovered 3 atolls among the Cook Islands, in 1778 - 5 islands in Hawaii.
The fatal place for the navigator was Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii. Here there was a clash with the natives, in which 17 Hawaiians and 4 sailors were killed, including the captain himself.
During all three trips, Cook visited Tahiti, which later became an observation base for the passage of Venus through the disk of the Sun. All expeditions of the navigator were equipped with astronomical instruments for navigation and mapping.
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James Cook is a great English sailor and traveler. He discovered many new lands in the Pacific Ocean and around Australia.
Cook began his career as a sailor as a simple cabin boy, and ended up as a great navigator. First, as a simple sailor on a trading schooner.
He came from a very poor family, from the village of Marton, who would have thought that this boy would later become a national hero in England. His early life was not very easy. However, he was persistent in achieving his goal. It hardened his character. A couple of years later, Cook became the captain's assistant on the Friendship ship. However, he craves fame and recognition. He enters the navy of his majesty. He received a fairly mediocre education. He himself, without help from someone, is mastering astronomy and algebra. A young naval officer, Cook performed well in the service.
In 1768, Britain sent an expedition to the island of Tahiti. England already then set a course for building a colonial empire and wanted to prevent the seizure of land by other states. It was necessary to secure bases for the navy. We needed not only territories but also resources. The expedition was led by the distinguished officer James Cook.
Another expedition brought Cook wide fame, the newspapers began to call him "the new Columbus". Along with fame, the number of ill-wishers also grows. Cook was considered an upstart. High society, extremely patriarchal and arrogant, could not accept him as an equal (he was from a poor, not noble family). Cook had his own opinion about England's foreign policy, which was not always "in step" with the official position of the Foreign Office - he was not forgiven for this. On one of the expeditions, he was also appointed chief. This journey proved fatal to James Cook.
In 1779, on one of the islands, rebellious natives kill Cook and eat him. Thus ended the great Englishman. But his name is inscribed in world history.
