Captain James Cook: A Biography

Fascinating account of Capt Cook and his 3 voyages, story flows smoothly with excellent insight into the nautical world of late 18th century. Cook's admirable qualities are evident, as well as his decline during his final voyage. Amazing crowded conditions aboard these ships for crewmen, who left home & wives for 3-4 years with no guarantee of return. Biggest surprise is these tiny ships somehow carried enough alcoholic beverages for entire crew for 3-4 year voyages, many of whom stayed drunk. The famous Capt Bligh of Bounty notoriety is described as a junior officer. Sojourns in Tahiti & Hawaii detail friction with natives & sexual license between crewmen & native girls.

.True adventure stories are always the best kind.The legendary James Cook (October 27th, 1728-February 14, 1779) was one of the greatest explorers and surveyors of all time. His maps and charts redefined the known world. His adventures should be more widely known.Captain Cook was the first to realize that the far-flung Pacific Islanders shared a common language base and the multiple descriptions of the indigeneous people that Captain Cook and his men encountered are an amazing anthropological resource.As master of the English ship 'Pembroke,' the young Cook took part in the French and Indian War. He was involved in the capture of the Fortress of Louisbourg from the French, the siege of Quebec City, and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.As the French and Indian War wound down, Cook remained in Newfoundland where he made the first large-scale and accurate maps of the island's coasts. His excellent work, achieved under often adverse conditions, brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society.In 1766 the British Government commissioned Cook as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages. Cook and his men sailed thousands of miles across uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped the coastlines from Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii to the American Pacific and Alaska with an accuracy and scale not previously achieved. He was the first to realize that the far-flung Pacific Islanders shared a common language base.The first voyage was charged with observing the 1769 Transit of Venus. Cook gathered accurate longitude measurements during this trip using his own navigational skills, the help of astronomer Charles Green, and the use of the newly published Nautical Almanac Tables, via the lunar distance method.Among those on board during this voyage were botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander who are featured in Andrea Wulf's book, "Brother Gardeners."I was amused to see the shift in perspectives regarding Banks's importance to this voyage. Wulf, and certainly Banks himself, seemed to view Cook as merely the captain of a ship, (and of course, Banks and Solander really are as important to their scientific discipline as Cook is to maritime history).In "Captain James Cook: A Biography," Hough portrays Banks as both a marvelous botanist and also an egotistical pain in the neck. When Banks, through no fault of his own, is unable to go on Captain Cook's Second Voyage, the reader will experience a sigh of relief.The Third Voyage is a bizarre tale. When he left England in July, 1776, Cook had recently completed the editing of his journals and had been awarded the Copley Prize by the Council of the Royal Society.* Although he had enthusiastically volunteered to lead the third Pacific expedition, he seemed unusually irascible and somewhat careless, provoking continuing debate about the causes.Cook and his men arrived in Hawaii at a strangely auspicious time. Cook was mistaken for the long-awaited God Orono. He was feted and given many gifts by the Natives. After he set sail, he realized the ship must turn back for repairs. The formerly cheerful Hawaiians attacked, killing several of Cook's men. The last we see of Captain Cook is his carefully-wrapped roasted thigh and his very recognizable hand presented to his ship mates by a reverent Hawaiian.The book is well footed-noted and the story is told using excerpts from many of the sailors' original journals and letters. When republished, readers need to have a bibliography and a colored map of the world as centerfold.Cool book. Yes, read it.*The Copley Prize was established in 1731. Others who have received this award range from Joseph Priestly to Steven Hawking. Captain Cook received the award for his discoveries related to nautical diet and hygiene.Kim BurdickStanton, Delaware

This is a through account of Cook (and Banks for that matter) - but it is as dry as a bone. There's little attempt to make the story exciting or engaging.

Excellent Telling of Cook's life and particular his 3 great voyages, twice to the South Pacific with runs to Antarctica, all the more incredulous in these multi year voyages with his wooden ship that was essentially alone on both voyages. Fascinating how well he took care of his men with diets specific go to countering scurvy and his genuine consideration for the natives. His third voyage, according to Hough was with a different Cook, one who from the start appeared tired, distracted and impatient. His fastidious inspection of the ship was gone and his sea plans Moore erratic along with a change of temperament towards the crew and particularly natives that contributed to his demise in regards to the latter. There is a fascinating parallel between Cook and Meriwether Lewis, that after Cook's second voyage and Lewis' return; both men were not quite the same, as if the strain and potential illness (Lewis suffered from malaria) compromised both men's abilities. I look forward to David Nicandri's forthcoming book on Cook particularly after reading his Lewis and Clark book 'River of Promise'.

I read this book because I am a sailor and love Polynesian history, but if you are not so inclined you might find this biography a bit tedious at times as it often drifts into too much trivial detail and misses the bigger issues around Capt. Cooks legacy. For example, you never get a sense if or how his encounters with this very different than British culture impacted him or did/did not cause him to evolve as a man.

Don't have much to add to the other four star reviews of this excellent book--it's very readable, and has a lot of interesting detailed information about James Cook. A couple quibbles: the map in the front shows all three voyages. But it's almost impossible to discern, it's so small and they are not well differentiated, often criss-crossing. Larger maps, one of each voyage would have been a great addition. As for the other maps they are equally amateurish, with hand drawn arrows and dashes. Ironic considering the author's admiration for good draftsmanship. The illustrations are not well reproduced, all in BW and don't add much to the book. The author loves the word "prosaic", and is correct in describing Cook's ability to give interesting and original names to geographic features. It would have been elevating for Hough to have occasionally added some larger historic bits to his narrative, say about British history. So, it's a fine book, but seems somewhat unimaginative in its goals, and execution.

This was a real page turner. The book covers Cook's childhood in Staithes; his sailing apprenticeship in Whitby; joining the Royal Navy and rising through the ranks; his marriage and home life; his great skill in sailing, navigation, and mapping islands and coastlines; his exploration of eastern Canada and role in battles with the French there; and of course, his three great voyages of discovery in the Pacific and Antarctic, discovering and mapping previously unknown (to Europeans, that is) islands and coastlines (Eastern Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, etc.), and searching for the 'northwest passage' and the fabled southern continent of 'Terra Australis'. The book is thoroughly researched and well written. The inclusion of extracts from ships' logs and journals really brings this amazing story to life. Particularly interesting, to me, were the accounts Cook's first contacts with Polynesian island dwellers, the New Zealand Maoris, and aboriginal tribes in Eastern Australia. A detailed account is given of Cook's tragic death in Hawaii. I'd heartily recommend this book.

I'd already read James Cook's journal from his first world voyage and thought this book might be another interesting read as it covers his second and third voyages, however, it exceeded my expectations! Richard Hough's book covers his early personal life and the story of how he got into sailing and his many voyages to Newfoundland with the navy. I've now started reading again about his first world voyage and found it includes inputs from other eminent personages on this venture and it is making for an even richer read (and I'm only 18% through). Recommended!

James Cook was born in a one-room cottage at Marton, down the road from where I lived outside Middlesbrough. Between then and a premature death on the rocks at Kealakekua Bay (say that after a couple of pints!) Richard Hough charts the career of a master mariner, chart maker and able commander of men for years at a time in an age when more men died of scurvy than from fighting. Cook didn't have a cure for death from flying shot, but he knew about the curative powers of citrus. It's why the Yanks called our sailors 'Limeys', that and sauerkraut kept them going when men on other Royal Navy ships went down to on-board diseases. Not bad for a low-born Yorkshire lad!

I was prompted to read the book prior to a planned visit to Whitby and the Cook Memorial Museum. The book has absorbed my life for several weeks. It is a masterly presentation of Cooks amazing life and the nautical experiences of these intrepid explorers. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good adventure yarn interlaced with a fascinating account of life at sea and the personal relationships of the real life characters involved. It is a good example of facts producing an experience much richer than any writer of fiction could create however imaginative.

This was not a heavy read, it was a fabulous, interesting read. I learnt a lot about both the subject and the times. Like any good book I was very sorry to reach the end, it was like saying goodbye to a friend, no doubt one I will be picking up again and again.