Captain Cook’s Journal During His First Voyage Round the World: 1768-1771
By James Cook
Edited by William James Lloyd Wharton
The title gives the overview. The title doesn’t tell you how different everything was in 1768 when James Cook left Plymouth to circumnavigate the globe.
Huge parts of the map were unknown even to the sailing nations. Cook discovered various South Pacific Islands and was the first European to navigate and chart New Zealand and Eastern Australia.
National rivalries were fierce. Sea routes were guarded as state secrets. And interfering with another nation’s colonial possessions had heavy consequences.
Information traveled very slowly. Because there were so few sea explorers, journals and charts from decades earlier were the only sources of information about far-off lands.
Vitamins and nutrients were unknown. A trip far from land would mean sailors could expect a short and miserable end if they contracted scurvy. Cook would become one of the most influential captains to argue for a better diet at sea, and years later, his hygienic and dietary experiments would influence many others.
Despite Cook’s rigor in minimizing scurvy amongst his crew, his sailors dropped like flies after catching Dysentery and Malaria in Batavia. It was a time without modern medicine when something easily prevented or treated today could be fatal.
Class determined destiny for the vast majority of people. Even Cook, who was not upper class, treated gentlemen and commoners very differently.
A rivetting storybook Cook’s Journal is not, but it is a primary source document from a time that just precedes our modern world.
If you do follow Cook’s voyage, please familiarise yourself with longitude and how to measure it along with other sailing-age navigation terms. Figure out how to enter latitude and longitude coordinates on Google Maps if you don’t know how already. Almost every entry includes this navigation information. In Cook’s time, it saved lives. He was known as a meticulous navigator.
Besides logging latitude and longitude, weather, and sea depth, Cook wrote about the people he met, from the distrusting Portuguese in Brazil to alcoholic sailors aboard his own ship, to the friendly Pacific Islanders, violent Maoris, and the shy Aborigines of Australia. He even describes the Kangaroo for the first time.
History buffs, those who like biography, and armchair travelers will enjoy Cook’s Journal. There may be some easier-to-read, newer versions of it. Ask your local librarian if you want help choosing the best version for you. I got mine from Project Gutenberg. It is not well-adapted to either the modern reader or the Kindle.
Have you read Captain Cook’s Journal? Are you a fan of travel writing? Any suggestions you could float my way?