No aspect of the voyages of Captain Cook have been more controversial than Cook's death. This book reprints one of the classic accounts of this episode, the vivid and lively narrative by one of the voyage surgeons, David Samwell. Introductory essays contextualize Samwell's contribution within this period of Pacific maritime history.

"Captain Cook's enduring claim to fame is that in three extraordinary voyages to the Pacific he redrew the map of the world. The news that reached London in 1780 of his death on a beach in Hawai'i the previous year was shocking, and the details of that bloody and chaotic fracas had to be turned into something nobler as befitted a martyr-hero." "This new interpretation of Cook's life and death argues that the circumstances and reporting of his death are the key to his reputation. For many years this seaman of humble origins enjoyed unparalleled status as 'the pride of his century', and in the white settlement colonies in the Pacific he became 'father of the nation'. By contrast, first in Hawai'i and then in the postcolonial world, a different view emerged of a destructive invader, more anti-hero than hero. Captain Cook's progress from obscurity to fame and then, for some, to infamy, is a story that has never been fully told."--BOOK JACKET.

Ledyard's Siberian journals recount a harrowing journey through Russia under the rule of Catherine the Great, while his diary from Alexandria and Cairo provides a brilliant and rare account of Egypt before Napoleon's invasion. Finally, Ledyard's correspondence sheds light on pre-revolutionary Paris and on his friendships with the Marquis de Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin, and Sir Joseph Banks. In his short life, John Ledyard traveled farther than any American had before."--Jacket.

James Cook never laid eyes on the sea until he was in his teens. He then began an extraordinary rise from farmboy outsider to the hallowed rank of captain of the Royal Navy, leading three historic journeys that would forever link his name with fearless exploration (and inspire pop-culture heroes like Captain Hook and Captain James T. Kirk). In Farther Than Any Man, noted modern-day adventurer Martin Dugard strips away the myth of Cook and instead portrays a complex, conflicted man of tremendous ambition (at times to a fault), intellect (though Cook was routinely underestimated) and sheer hardheadedness. When Great Britain announced a major circumnavigation in 1768 -- a mission cloaked in science, but aimed at the pursuit of world power -- it came as a political surprise that James Cook was given command. Cook's surveying skills had contributed to the British victory over France in the Seven Years' War in 1763, but no commoner had ever commanded a Royal Navy vessel. Endeavor's stunning three-year journey changed the face of modern exploration, charting the vast Pacific waters, the eastern coasts of New Zealand and Australia, and making landfall in Tahiti, Tierra del Fuego, and Rio de Janeiro. After returning home a hero, Cook yearned to get back to sea. He soon took control of the Resolution and returned to his beloved Pacific, in search of the elusive Southern Continent. It was on this trip that Cook's taste for power became an obsession, and his legendary kindness to island natives became an expectation of worship -- traits that would lead him first to greatness, then to catastrophe. Full of action, lush description, and fascinating historical characters like King George III and Master William Bligh, Dugard's gripping account of the life and gruesome demise of Capt. James Cook is a thrilling story of a discoverer hell-bent on traveling farther than any man.

Cook's three voyages of discovery, which took place between 1768 and 1779, are among the most remarkable achievements in the history of exploration. Cook charted vast areas of the globe with astonishing accuracy, and the voyages also made a significant contribution towards solving some of the great problems of cartography and navigation.With crews containing gifted sailors and navigators, as well as botanists, painters and scientists, Cook provides the link between the speculative, profit-hungry voyages of the Elizabethan seafarers and the scientific expeditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

An in-depth chronicle of Captain James Cook's three historic voyages recounts his expeditions charting the eastern Australian coast, exploring the northwest coast of North America, circumnavigating New Zealand, and discovering many Pacific islands, setting his accomplishments against the backdrop of the colonialism of his era.

The first-ever illustrated account of the explorer and cartographer’s epic eighteenth-century Pacific voyages, complete with excerpts from his journals. This is history’s greatest adventure story. In 1766, the Royal Society chose prodigal mapmaker and navigator James Cook to lead a South Pacific voyage. His orders were to chart the path of Venus across the sun. That task completed, his ship, the HMS Endeavour, continued to comb the southern hemisphere for the imagined continent Terra Australis. The voyage lasted from 1768 to 1771, and upon Cook’s return to London, his journaled accounts of the expedition made him a celebrity. After that came two more voyages for Cook and his crew—followed by Cook’s murder by natives in Hawaii. The Voyages of Captain James Cook reveals Cook’s fascinating story through journal excerpts, illustrations, photography, and supplementary writings. During Cook’s career, he logged more than 200,000 miles—nearly the distance to the moon. And along the way, scientists and artists traveling with him documented exotic flora and fauna, untouched landscapes, indigenous peoples, and much more. In addition to the South Pacific, Cook’s voyages took him to South America, Antarctica, New Zealand, the Pacific Coast from California to Alaska, the Arctic Circle, Siberia, the East Indies, and the Indian Ocean. When he set out in 1768, more than one-third of the globe was unmapped. By the time Cook died in 1779, he had created charts so accurate that some were used into the 1990s. The Voyages of Captain James Cook is a handsome illustrated edition of Cook’s selected writings spanning his Pacific voyages, ending in 1779 with the delivery of his salted scalp and hands to his surviving crewmembers. It’s an enthralling read for anyone who appreciates history, science, art, and classic adventure.

David Samwell (15 October 1751 - 23 November 1798) was a Welsh naval surgeon and poet. He was an important supporter of Welsh cultural organisations and was known by the pseudonym Dafydd Ddu Feddyg. Samwell became a surgeon in the Royal Navy and between 1776 and 1779 he sailed around the world with Captain James Cook onboard HMS Resolution. As a ship's surgeon it was Samwell's job to ensure the crew's health did not deteriorate over the long journeys to the Pacific Ocean. Aboard the ship Samwell wrote of his travels, including some poetry. The journal of his experiences aboard Captain James Cook's ship provide a detailed account of the third and last voyages of Cook to the Pacific Ocean. Part of the journal describes the death of Captain Cook at the hands of natives on the Sandwich Islands in 1779. He also wrote an unpublished journal, Some Account of a Voyage to the South Seas 1776-1777-1778 which is an innovative work of social anthropology.

New York Times Bestseller: A Pulitzer Prize–winning author retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook: “Alternately hilarious, poignant, and insightful.” —Seattle Times Captain James Cook’s three epic journeys in the eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of the world was substantially complete. Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic, vividly recounts Cook’s voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook’s adventures by following in his wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook’s embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of Cook’s vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also explores Cook the man: an impoverished farm boy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history, whose voyages helped create the “global village” we know today. “With healthy doses of both humor and provocative information, the book will please fans of history, exploration, travelogues and, of course, top-notch storytelling.” —Publishers Weekly “Horwitz retells the sailor’s story and tries to re-create first contact from the point of view of the locals—Tahitians, Maoris, Aleuts, Hawaiians, and others—and judge the legacy of his landing . . . thought-provoking . . . brims with insight.” —Booklist “A rollicking read that is also a sneaky work of scholarship . . . new and unexpected insights into the man who out-discovered Columbus. A terrific book.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award winner and New York Times–bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea “Well-researched, gripping, and peppered with humorous passages.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Part Cook biography, part travelogue, and very much a stroke of genius.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

It is no longer possible for any ship to cross the Pacific Ocean without encountering the ghost of Captain without encountering the ghost of Captain Cook and his voyages are the stuff of maritime legend.