Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Geoffrey Blainey, Viking, $34.99.
One of the most remarkable expeditions in recorded history was the first long voyage of James Cook in the Endeavour. He not only sailed around the world, but he changed the maps of the world.
Professor Blainey, one of Australia’s most prolific and popular historians, has a curiosity about Cook that’s apparent. He articulately navigates the ‘great’ navigator’s long journeys to distant places, pointing out the intricacies of the expeditions. The journeys are eloquent experience.
“Captain Cook was the first to explore most of the coast of New Zealand. He was the first – so far as we know – to explore a vast stretch of the east coast of Australia, and the first to explore thee longest reef in the world, the Great Barrier Reef.” During this voyage more plants of novelty were found than in any previous expedition in world history.
In 1768, Cook and his crew set sail on a small British naval vessel, the boldly named Endeavour, bound for the Pacific Ocean. He was ordered to establish an observatory at Tahiti in order to record the 1769 transit of Venus, and – with the skills of naturalist Joseph Banks and his team – to collect natural history in this far part of the world. His brief also included a secret mission from the British Admiralty: to discover Terra Australis Incognita, an unknown southern land that might prove to be larger and richer than Australia.
Cook’s ship eventually crossed the Tasman Sea in 1770 and reached the southern coast of NSW. Sailing north, he charted Australia’s eastern coastline and claimed it for Great Britain. It was the most significant of Cook’s voyages, transforming the world map and the way Europeans viewed the South Pacific Ocean and its lands and peoples. This was the strange quest for a missing continent and he was not alone in this mission.
Professor Blainey has revised and renamed his previous book, Sea of Dangers, partly to recognise the 250th anniversary of Cook’s discovery of the eastern coast of Australia.
Captain Cook’s Epic Voyage reveals the hardships, adventure and achievements of his most significant voyage.
