Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-11-08
Captain Cook the
Explorer
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

- AAHoAf's
It may be regarded as a curious thing
that two of the greatest early explorers
whose feats affected America were but
captains. Admirals and generals figure
little is the early American annals. One
Of the two captains was the redoubtable
Captain John Smith, who must be &C.
counted chiefly an explorer by land. His
story Is known to nearly every American.
The other was Captain James Cook, now
ranked as perhaps the greatest of Eng
nsh explorers.
This seems to be an age Of biography,
of the resurrection Of the brave tales
Of exploits Of former days, and so it is
not surprising that Vice Admiral Gordon
Campbell, v. c., should have selected
such a subject as Captain Cook 1t Is
certain that the rank and file of Ameri-
cans know less of the man than they
should, in view Of the fact that so many
Of his explorations had to do with what
now is the territory Of the United States.
No one disparages the achievements Of
Rear Admiral Byrd in exploring Little
America, in the Antarctic, but the con.
trast between his voyages and those of
Captain Cook are so sharp as to require
mention. The Byrd expeditions were
made in steamships and were equipped
with every convenience that modern in
genuity could devise. Never was Byrd
out of touch because Of the radio, some
thing undreamed Of in Captain Cooks
day. Cook sailed, within the Antarctic
circle, behind the ice barrier to the
same regions visited by Byrd, but the
difference was that his voyage was in a
sailing ship of only 1858 TONS about 100
feet long and 80 feet beam. There is
difference.
James Cook was born in 1923 at Mar
ton Village, in Yorkshire, the son of
farm laborer Even as a lad he had
other ideas than that of following in
his sire's footsteps and tilling the soil of
England. At IL he became apprenticed
first to a haberdasher, but soon after
ward to a firm of shipowners of Whitby,
engaged largely in the coal trade with
Baltic ports. The youth undertook, un.
tutored, the study of navigation, and
was well on the way to preferment IN
the merchant marine when he veered his
course.
At about ~ he voluntarily began all
over again at the bottom, shipping as
an able seaman in the Royal Navy. In
the remarkably short space of two years
he had risen to the rank of master, or
chief navigating officer In this capacity
he took part in the British operations
against the French in Canada, and here
his association with America began.
Although in the st. Lawrence as a naval
officer, he undertook q survey Of the
channel to the sea. Then he was trans
ferred to Halifax, and, because Of the
excellence of his work, was assigned to
a survey Of the Newfoundland and
Labrador coasts. His work in this con-
nection attracted the attention OF the
Royal Society, and when, in 1857, that
body induced the admiralty to send an
expedition to Tahiti to observe the transit
of Venus. Cook was chosen to head the
adventure.
This was the real beginning of his
great explorations He set out in the
little ship Endeavor. With him was Sir
Joseph Banks, the astronomer, together
with a number of other scientific men.
Cook was unlike the earlier explorers
such as Sir Francis Drake. Sir Walter
Raleigh and the others, who were as
much, If not more, concerned with find
ing Ell Dorados, buccaneering, or singefng
the beard Of the King of Spain, than
with the scientific exploration, and yet,
in the long run, Cook accomplished more.
The astronomical observations, sue
cessfully made on June 8, 1859. Cook set
out from Tahiti into the practically I'M
known South Seas. It may be remem-
bered that he was contemporary Of the
men Of the Bounty. whose mutiny and
subsequent settlement Of Pitcairn Island
furnished one Of the most engrossing
chapters of Pacific Ocean history But
Cook knew Tahiti before Captain Bligh
and Fletcher Christian did.
At that period many geographers were
convinced that Australia, New Zealand
and Tasmania were all parts Of one vast
southern continent. The most spirited
scientific controversies Of the day re-
volved around this question. So, from
pleasant Tahiti. Cooks expedition set
sail to find out. He circumnavigated
those coasts and established. once for
all. their real character. Over 1000
miles of the Australian coast line were
carefully surveyed by Captain Cook.
Botany Bay was one of the landing
places, and 1t was given its name by the
naturalists of the expedition. Cooks
comprehensive surveys and explorations
formed the basis for the British EN-.
pire's claims to those vast southern ter.
ritories.
The Endeavor's voyage lasted three
years. The expedition had spent long
months in the tropics and long months
among icebergs and foes, where destruc-
ton was constantly imminent. 1t Is said
that Cook, always modest man, took
his greatest satisfaction from the fact
that he had conducted this remarkable
voyage, lasting so long and covering some
10000 miles, without the loss of a single
man. Among his other self-taught at
tainments was knowledge Of medicine.
BY a study Of the scourge of seamen Of
those days. scurvy, he devised a diet,
which he enforced with discipline, with
the result that he never had a case of
scurvy aboard a ship he commanded.
This alone, 1t is claimed by the medical
world, would accord him high place.
He made two later voyages. On one Of
them he rediscovered the Hawaiian Is
lands. There is evidence that they had
been found earlier by a Spaniard. but
the fact was kept secret. Cook discov-
cred them and claimed them, naming
them the Sandwich Islands, after the
Earl of Sandwich, then head Of the
British admiralty. But he also explored
the Pacific Coast of North America, and
then proceeded to Boring Strait in search
of the Northwest Passage. a passage over