A plaque in East London reads, “The ablest and most renowned Navigator this or any country hath produced lived in a house a few yards from this spot, 126, Upper Shadwell“. This ‘ablest and most renowned’ navigator is Captain James Cook, who is credited to have done more than any other explorer in human history to fill the map of the world. Cook explored thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe, surveying, recording and naming features for the first time, including large parts of the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.
Explorer Non-Pareil
He was no ordinary explorer. None among the pantheon of courageous, intrepid and fearless men could match him in seamanship, surveying and cartographic skills, exemplary leadership and sheer animal courage. He was a pioneer and an icon, a beacon of challenge, excitement and inspiration to all explorers of his time and beyond. If arrogance seemed an essential part of his personality, it was a natural by-product of an uncommon confidence and intrepid courage.
His life was an adventure replete with daring, drama and destiny. And while he lived his life precariously, ever-teasing, ever-inviting and ever-challenging trials, troubles and tribulations, his death was even more dramatic and infinitely tragic.
The son of a Scottish farm worker, Cook was born in 1728 and worked on the land alongside his father until he was 18, when he was offered an apprenticeship by a Quaker shipowner. With seafaring blood soon coursing through his veins, he joined the Royal Navy and became ship’s master at the age of 29.
His Expeditions
In 1768, he took command of the first scientific expedition to the Pacific aboard his ship, the Endeavour and set sail on 25th August the same year on his first voyage. The voyage that lasted for more than two years led to the discovery of Australia, New Zealand, and the Great Barrier Reef. His second expedition aboard the Resolution that lasted for close to three years took him to Cape Town and New Hebrides (Vanuatu today) while revisiting some of his old discoveries. He was the first to cross the Atlantic Circle at 66 degrees 33 minutes South and reached upto 71 degrees south, just 1,820 kms short of the South Pole.
His third major voyage taken with boundless confidence and enthusiasm began on July 12, 1776 from Plymouth. Sadly, it ended in a tragedy and a finale that Cook had never anticipated. Discovering en route numerous island that dotted the Pacific, he became the first European to set foot on Hawaii, landing his ship Discovery at Kealakekua Bay.
Hawaii – End of Adventure
Cook’s fateful arrival on Hawaii coincided with an annual festival in honour of the fertility god Lono, celebrated with great energy and reverence by the local aborigines. It was believed that the God was supposed to descend to their land on that day. So, when Cook arrived that very day , his imperious and imposing demeanour and his handsome and fair countenance created an aura never witnessed hitherto by the inhabitants of that island. The Hawaiian people had never seen a white man before, nor anything like the huge sailing ship in which he arrived, and concluded, quite naturally, that Captain Cook must be Lono himself. As a result, his men and he were lavished with feasts and gifts.
Cook was ecstatic and pleased without end on being bestowed such providential privilege. However, it was short-lived. One of Cook’s sailors died from a stroke, possibly brought on by over-indulgence; the Hawaiians ruefully realised that their guests were not immortal after all and relationships became strained. And once Cook set sail, he had to return for repairs when his mast was broken in a storm. Gods do not permit such setbacks.
One thing led to another. Tension began brewing between the men of Cook and the islanders. Mischievous removal of wood from a burial ground, allegedly at the orders of Cook, brought matters to a boil. Enraged at the sacrilege, some natives took as compensation one of Cook’s small boats – a cutter. This infuriated Cook, who in his trademark arrogant fashion, went ashore to confront the Hawaiian king.
Cook marched through the village to claim the king and take him aboard his ship. One of the king’s wives, two chiefs and an old kahuna (priest) were able to distract Cook from boarding his vessel long enough to allow a large crowd to form at the shore. Luck further seemed to have run out for Cook as the cannon fire unleashed by his ship was misdirected to another group of islanders. This infuriated the crowd to no end and Cook panicked, left the king and fled towards his ship.
But he would not make it. As Cook turned his back to help launch the boats, he was pelted by stones by the huge mob already gathered. He was then stabbed in the back by a warrior brandishing a knife that had been a gift from Cook himself. As he fell into the surf, he was repeatedly stabbed and pounded with rocks. Struck on the head by the villagers and then stabbed to death with his face in the surf, the end was bloody and violent.
The esteem which the islanders nevertheless held for Cook caused them to retain his body. They carried his body away and prepared it with funerary rituals usually reserved for the chiefs and highest elders. They ritualistically prepared Cook’s corpse, preserving his hands in sea salt, then roasted the rest of his body in a pit before cleansing his bones. The body was disembowelled and baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages. Some of Cook’s remains, thus preserved, were eventually returned to his crew for a formal burial at sea.
The date was February 14, 1779 and Cook was just over 50.
Over two hundred and fifty years have passed since that fateful day. In many parts of the world where Cook left his immortal footprints, his legacy is remembered and celebrated. However, history revisits times and events inevitably and many have questioned the colonial narrative of his discoveries and conquests as an unfair and unilateral edification of a ruthless and violent greed, both inhuman and immoral. This debate may be relevant, even necessary, but Cook’s place in history shall remain unassailed as both an enabler of British colonialism in the Pacific and as an explorer par excellence. Robert Tombs, a known chronicler of Cook’s life, associated him with the values of the Enlightenment and posited him as “the leading figure in an age of scientific exploration”. A reassessment of Cook’s legacy, even the most radical, cannot take away his impact felt across the globe, from the eponymous islands, towns, hospitals, plaques and memorials, to a brand of salt in India, and the Australian slang phrase “Have a Captain Cook” meaning, quite simply, to have a look.
And his end, a man of towering stature and personality felled by the angry passions of a frenzied mob, left little lacking in irony. Perhaps Thomas Gray’s words most poignantly describe his life and end:
“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.“
scribo ad LX 