For those of us interested in Captain Cook, Stewart Park is doubly important. It is the site of Cook's birth, and the location of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, which commemorates that event. But if you mention Stewart Park to people who live in and around Middlesbrough they will tell you of many different, happy memories.

This book was devised by the Friends of the Stewart Park to collect and preserve those memories. The compiler of the book states that it is not a formal history of the Park, but a people's history, so is largely a collection of personal reminiscences.

This large format book contains 212 pages, most of them being lavishly illustrated in colour. The story of the park is told in fifteen chapters. The first chapters recount the history of the park and its links with James Cook and Henry Bolckow. It tells of the generous action of Thomas Dormand Stewart, who purchased Marton Hall and surrounding parkland in 1923 for the sum of £25,000, and then presented it to Middlesbrough Council for public use. The park was formally opened to the public in May 1928.

The first recollections in the book are from people now in their 80s, who describe the Park and its attractions shortly after it was opened. There are over 200 contributors. Their memories are arranged in a chronological sequence, so that as you read the book you progress through the evolution of the park.

Chapter 9 tells the story of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, from its humble origins in one of the park's gatehouses, to the official opening of this purpose-built museum in 1978. The museum's visitors' book shows the panoply of distinguished guests who have visited over the years, including Prince Michael of Kent, Lady Mountbatten, Sir Richard Attenborough and a host of television celebrities.

Most people reading this book will see Stewart Park in a totally different light. It certainly opened my eyes to the important role that the park has played in the social and cultural life of the town since it opened.

Reviewer: Cliff Thornton

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 43, volume 33, number 3 (2010).

At first glance I thought I would find little of interest in this 65-page book. But, as I have said before,¹ catalogues from this Whitby museum are fantastic value. In this case, for the price of two monthly magazines you get over 70 colour illustrations, a few black-and-white ones, and pages of valuable information.

And it isn't really a catalogue. It was produced to accompany the special exhibition being held this year at the museum.² As well as descriptions of the 30 items on display, there are also three essays.

In 1773 Captain Constantine John Phipps set out to search for the open water that would take his ships to the North Pole, and enable further expeditions to cross the polar sea and reach the Pacific by way of Bering Strait. If it had been achieved, then Cook's Third Voyage would never have taken place.

In the first essay, Ann Savours explains why this voyage occurred, the preparations for it and what happened during the voyage. There was a strong belief that ice could be formed only from fresh water, so the North Pole must be surrounded by a vast open sea. The Royal Society proposed a voyage, which Lord Sandwich took to King George III. Two vessels were obtained. Not normal ships but bomb vessels with strengthened keels and additional timber supports. Constantine Phipps was appointed the captain of Racehorse, and Skeffington Lutwidge the captain of Carcass. Phipps had been at Eton with Banks, and had gone with him to Newfoundland in 1766. An astronomer was appointed, who conducted a trial of "some Longitude Watches" including one that later went on the Bounty voyage. During the voyage the two vessels became stuck in ice north of Spitsbergen, tried to cut their way through, tried to drag their boats over the ice to safety, drifted south and eventually forced their way into clear water.

An anonymous journal was published in 1774 shortly before the official one by Phipps. Watercolours by a midshipman were turned into paintings by John Cleveley and John Frederick Miller, which were engraved and included in the journal. It was translated into French and German.

Glyn Williams discusses the aftermath of the voyage, especially the subsequent voyages of Buchan, Franklin, Ross and Parry seeking the NW and NE passages. He explains that as Phipps had not sighted the ice barrier until 80°N, Cook's ships were not strengthened as they were not expected to sail north beyond 72°N; however they were stopped by ice at 70°N.

Sophie Forgan explores the library formed by Phipps, famed in his own time and mentioned in his obituaries. He had boxes of books with him when he travelled with Banks and Omai from London to Yorkshire. In doing so she explains an interesting aspect of 18th century life rarely covered. How were books obtained? From booksellers? If so, how did you find them? Did people buy second-hand books?

There are many links between Phipps's voyage and Cook's voyages. I mentioned only a few. Read this book to broaden your knowledge and be excited by what you find.

Oh. By the way. Horatio Nelson gets a mention, and there is an interesting Polish connection.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

References

1. Cook's Log, page 48, vol. 31, no. 3 (2008).
2. www.cookmuseumwhitby.co.uk/special-exhibition/

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 44, volume 33, number 3 (2010).

This book reproduces many watercolours and drawings "that go back many years" by the marine artist David Bell, a former navigator in the Merchant Navy. They are beautifully painted and dominate the pages, with the accompanying text fitting in around them. Although some are placed in the conventional way in the middle of a page with a black line surrounding them, many are printed lightly in the page, with the text on top of parts of them. By doing so several paintings are shown twice, generally to good effect. However, some appear over and over again as if a space needed to be filled and anything would do.

The book is set out in seven chapters covering: James Cook, William Bligh, George Vancouver, Matthew Flinders, Horatio Nelson, the Clipper Ships, and Shackleton with Scott. The text and captions describe the men, their ships and voyages. Regrettably, there are several errors that spoil the reading for someone who knows the stories. For example, a caption states "Endeavour - On the first voyage Cook made his first sighting of New Zealand halfway down the west coast of South Island", and Kealakekua Bay is spelt Kealeakue.

Bell refers to a "rare Beaglehole book on Pacific Explorers". However, he gives no details of it, nor is it included in the bibliography, which comprises a list of 87 book titles and authors without any publisher names or dates of publication, nor any explanation of their relevance or usefulness.

As the book is about historical ships, it is confusing to see scenes of a different age mixed in with them. The Endeavour section includes a beached ketch at Whitby c1880 and a view of a modern Staithes. Intertwined with the stories of the sailors are some personal reminiscences of the author's visits to the same places. A curious mix that adds little to the enjoyment of the story or the pictures.

The book ends with a list of the paintings and drawings selected for the book giving for each the title and original size. But there is no indication of the date each was painted nor the page number where that painting appears in the book.

My overall feeling is of a book of beautiful paintings, spoilt by attention to detail.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 44, volume 33, number 4 (2010).

This edition of Forster's book (first published in 1778) includes lengthy introductory material by the editors focusing on Forster's ethnological writings, his observations on South Pacific women, and his place in 18th century natural science. Appendixes include Forster's place names and Polynesian linguistics. The editors' notes, bibliography and index, complete the book's 440 pages.

His son George Forster published a narrative of Cook's Second Voyage (A Voyage Round the World) in 1776, two years before his father's Observations was published. Johann had not been allowed to publish a narrative of the Second Voyage but there was no restriction on him writing, in 18th century terminology, a "philosophical" inquiry into natural phenomena. This concept is shown in Forster's organization of his text into six sections, the major portion of which focuses on ethnology, a comparative study and observations of peoples. The sections include:

• Remarks on the Earth and Lands, their Inequalities, Strata, and Constituent Parts
• Remarks on Water and the Ocean
• Remarks on the Atmosphere and its Changes, Meteors and Phenomena
• Remarks on Changes of our Globe
• Remarks on the Organic Bodies
• Remarks on the Human Species in the South-Sea Isles

Forster assumed he would write the official account of the Second Voyage. However, a series of negotiations among the Admiralty (principally the First Lord, the Earl of Sandwich), Cook, Forster, and others eventually led to the decision that Cook would write the official history of the Second Voyage and Forster would prepare the philosophical observations, a "philosophically informed travel narrative," focusing on natural history and related matters. In particular, Cook alone was given access to prints and other illustrative material from the voyage that was denied to Forster, significantly reducing the scope of, and potential interest in, his work.

Forster's Observations appeared in 1778 organized as an account of the natural and scientific and human phenomena encountered during the voyage.

Forster (begrudgingly) observed the restrictions placed on his book and, by "command of the Admiralty", avoided comments on tides, magnetism, or longitude. He also ended his book with an assertion that it is not enough to merely send out "men versed in science" to "remote parts of the world" but to support and encourage their endeavors which "may prevent their fellow creatures in future from becoming sacrifices to their own ignorance."

This book is of great interest to the modern geographer, botanist, zoologist, astronomer, oceanographer, and other scientists, as well people interested in history and literature. The acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, seen in the descriptions of these phenomena, plants, animals, birds, sea life, etc., is one of the notable achievements recorded in publications about Cook's voyages and eagerly sought by contemporaries.

The significance of Observations is not only that it was an 18th century Enlightenment travel book and an account of observations during Cook's Second Voyage, but also, most importantly, it was a study of peoples of the Pacific. Ethnology, the comparative study of societies, constitutes half of the book. Forster's conclusions were based upon "environmentalism," or what might be termed geographical determinism. Forster held to the unity of the human species but also classified groups into varieties and species, much as Linnaeus classified animals and plants.

For example, Johann Forster classified the Tahitians and their neighbors in the Society Islands (French Polynesia) as the "highest rank among these nations." He sees the "cannibals of New Zealand" superior to inhabitants of New Holland (Australia) and these far superior to "the most unhappy wretches of Tierra del Fuego." Similarly, those of Tanna (Vanuatu) and Mallicolo (New Hebrides) are superior to those of New Caledonia who in turn stand higher of those of the Friendly islands (Tonga), and so on. In reaching these conclusions he drew upon observed physical characteristics and factors such as climate, and close geographical location of peoples or "nations", common languages, the systems of government, regulations, and religion. Forster concluded that people of warmer climates are more favorably disposed toward progress than those of colder, more extremes. While environmentalism is today rejected as an explanation for human or societal development, Forster's specific observations about the human population he encountered are still of great interest and value.

Co-editor Michael Dettelbach writes "the whole work advertised the 'philosophical' natural historian's insight into the economies of nature, the forces that shaped the globe, its productions and its human inhabitants, and how they might best be disposed to fulfill the moral advancement of the human species". Forster held to the Enlightenment belief in the perfectibility of mankind. He wrote, "Providence has wisely made a provision for preventing the perpetuity of misery and wretchedness in a nation, by infusing originally in the human soul, such faculties and powers, that when unfolded, or set in motion by unforeseen accidents, shall at last invigorate the minds of men and supply them with the necessary means and strength for emerging from their debased condition and enable them to resume gradually a higher rank in the scale of rational beings".

For Forster, contact with Europeans or contact with other peoples could lead to such improvement even though his son observed in his book that contact with European sailors corrupted the morality of South Sea peoples. The breadth of Forster's observations testifies to a significant effort to understand, classify, and explain the information he collected during the three year circumnavigation of the globe.

Captain Cook is referred to in Forster's book in a positive light, usually as a source of information or confirmation of phenomena observed during the First Voyage. He uses references such as "kindly communicated by that great and experienced navigator, Captain Cook" or "according to the kind informations [sic] of Capt. Cook." Cook is the source of confirmation about fogs observed in the Southern Ocean, seasonal variations, the Maori, and population density of New Zealand, opinions about Australian aborigines, the Fugeans, etc. He notes with approval Cook's gifts of cattle, rams and ewes to Tahitians as well as Cook's refusal to assist Tahitians in tribal warfare.

The final section of the book is a detailed analysis of Cook's experimentations and efforts to improve the health of seamen. Forster analyzes the various methods utilized to prevent or cure "sea-scurvy." He discounted the antiscorbutic value of lemons and oranges in place of wort of malt, "the best prophylactic against the scurvy," a relatively inexpensive solution favored by the Admiralty. Forster approvingly notes the award of the Copley Gold Medal to Cook (1776). Captain Cook promoted both citrus fruit, wort of malt, as well as ship cleanliness to safeguard the health of mariners and Forster's analysis, although (now) flawed in interpretation, serves as an interesting conclusion to this book.

Forster's Observations has a useful place in the literature relating to Captain Cook's voyages, as an 18th century travel book and as a study of peoples of the South Seas. Some conclusions are invalidated by subsequent developments in scientific knowledge or anthropology, but the author's descriptive observations remain of interest today.

Reviewer: James C. Hamilton

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 45, volume 33, number 4 (2010).

This magnificent book was written "to accompany an exhibition of the historic maps and rare books, held in the main gallery of Firestone Library from 19 July 2010 through 3 January 2011".

It is a catalogue of the maps and books that were displayed in the exhibition. The first three sections describe the discovery and mapping over 250 years of the Straits of Magellan (with nine maps), the Pacific Ocean (eight maps) and the Spice Islands or Moluccas (ten more maps). Each section begins with a short introduction about the discovery of the area followed by a catalogue-style description of each map. The maps all appear in colour, each usually appearing on its own page or across two pages, so you can see quite a bit of detail.

The fourth section has chapters on individual explorers covering: Magellan, Mendana and Quiros, Drake, Le Maire and Schouten, Tasman, Dampier, Roggeveen, Wallis and Carteret, Bougainville and Cook.

For each person Delaney summarises the expedition undertaken that is relevant to this exhibition, the charge or reason for going, the accomplishments of the voyage, and how the names of the people live on as places, plants, parks, islands and even galaxies. Before reaching Cook there are 23 maps and 10 books listed, described and illustrated.

Cook takes 55 of the 200 pages, over a quarter of the book! The chapter begins with one of the best short descriptions of his early life I have ever read, and "A Plan of the River St. Lawrence, from the Falls of Montmorenci to Sillery; at the Operations of the Siege of Quebec" published in 1759 in the London Magazine. Then his three voyages are covered with 16 maps, including one of my favourites spread large across two pages: "Sketch of Dusky Bay in New Zeeland, 1773". Several of these maps are from the official accounts of Cook's voyages, with some from the French editions. Many have been subsequently coloured.

In addition there are several engravings from the published accounts. One of the best is "Possession Bay in the Island of South Georgia" from A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World: Performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774 and 1775. It is followed with a description from that publication, "[Tuesday, January 17, 1775] I landed in three different places, displayed our colours, and took possession of the country in his Majesty's name, under a discharge of small arms... The head of the bay, as well as two places on each side, was terminated by perpendicular ice-cliffs of considerable height."

One great surprise is the original letter by James Cook to William Hodges (artist on the Second Voyage) written on 5 November 1776, while Cook was at Cape Town (on his Third Voyage) awaiting the arrival of Clerke in Discovery. I'd quite forgotten it is held by the Princeton University Library.

The book ends with some descriptions of the first encounters between European explorers and the inhabitants they came across. Although there is a list of books exhibited and source consulted, I was very disappointed to find no index and no list of illustrations, not even of the maps. Although it is a catalogue, a summary of them would prove useful to any reader.

John Delaney, curator of the Historic Maps collection of the Princeton University Library is to be congratulated on the book, the website and the exhibition. Two years of planning well spent.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 47, volume 33, number 4 (2010).

32 pages. Reading and interest level 7+

This book is a fascinating history of James Cook, his humble beginnings and visionary spirit. It is well illustrated with maps and scenes from his first voyage. It includes an interesting cutaway of Endeavour revealing the crew's living quarters and the Hold, where supplies were stored.

The bottom of each page comprises an informative time-line that spans from 1728 to 2005. It also outlines the building of the Endeavour Replica in 1987, its launch, and sailing of the ship up until 2005.

The book contains a glossary, contents page and index making it particularly useful for educational purposes. Teachers' notes are available to download from the publisher's website: www.bdb.com.au/

Reviewer: Ted Tierney

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 40, volume 34, number 1 (2011).

This book is described as a companion to the exhibition of the same name¹ that opened on 15 September 2010 at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra and runs to 30 January 2011 (extended to 6 February 2011).

The exhibition commemorates the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 "to meet weekly to witness experiments and engage in wide ranging discussions on what we would now call scientific topics." The motto of the Society is Nullius in verba (Take no-one's word for it), an expression of "the determination of the Fellows to withstand the domination of authority (such as in scholasticism) and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment."

The book's introduction contains two modern descriptions of what took place in 1768 that would have confused and annoyed the Society, Joseph Banks and James Cook. The Royal Society is said to have had a "desire to sponsor Cook's important voyage", as though the voyage was Cook's idea and the Society wanted to get involved. And the "place" of Joseph Banks was "as Cook's botanist". Fortunately the rest of the book explains how the voyage came about and the true role of the Royal Society, Banks and Cook in the voyage.

As the exhibition primarily comprises artefacts from the Royal Society, supplemented with objects from the National Museum of Australia (NMA), the result is both an exciting opportunity to see items not normally seen, but also somewhat erratic with gaps and jumps in the story that the Society played in the exploration of the Pacific in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At the back of the book there is a list of the objects included in the exhibition.

The first main item is a document with the title "Directions for Sea-men bound for far voyages", written by Lawrence Rooke and published by the Royal Society in 1661. It lists the type of information sailors should try to gather during voyages of exploration, such as compass readings, the tides, winds and weather encountered, depths of ocean and coastal waters and observations of extraordinary celestial phenomena encountered. The recommendations were adopted by the British Admiralty, with the result that there are now more than 250,000 logbooks, including those of James Cook.

In 1716 Edmund Halley proposed to the Royal Society that expeditions be organised to observe the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 from a number of locations around the world. His ideas were taken up and the exhibition includes a model from about 1760. The model is a mechanical planetarium, or orrery, built to demonstrate the principles of the transit of Venus. As the observations taken in 1761 proved inconclusive the Society arranged more expeditions, including one to the Pacific, and approached King George III for financial assistance in February 1768. The petition or "Memorial" is also included in the exhibition. However, whilst a photograph of the orrery appears in this book, one of the memorial does not, which is a great disappointment.

Instead, we get a double-page spread of a painting of "Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro", about 1838, by Owen Stanley. Its relevance is not explained, not even if it was included in the exhibition. It is followed by a reproduction of the first page of James Cook's letter to Charles Morton, Secretary of the Royal Society, written at Rio de Janeiro on 30 November 1768. It is wonderful to see Cook's handwriting and to read one page of this famous letter, but disappointing that a transcript of the whole thing is not provided - only a short extract is provided.

The next two objects in the exhibition from the Endeavour voyage show the value of the collaboration by the Society and the NMA.

From the Society's collection there is the 12-inch astronomical quadrant made by John Bird used in the transit of Venus observations. It was kept in a tent erected as a portable observatory on Point Venus, Matavai Bay, Tahiti. Although a guard stood outside the tent at all times it was stolen and was damaged before it was returned. "Fortunately, Herman Spöring, who served as clerk, assistant naturalist, artist and personal secretary to Banks on the expedition, was also a trained watchmaker. He carried with him a set of watchmaking tools and so was able to repair the instrument in time for the transit observation."

From the NMA's collection is a four-pounder cannon from Endeavour, one of six jettisoned by Cook to lighten the ship after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770. They were recovered 200 years later.

The next section of the exhibition, and this book, covers Cook's voyages in Resolution.

It begins with a long-case astronomical regulator, made by John Shelton that was taken by Cook on both his Second and Third Voyages. It was one of five created by Shelton for the Royal Society for the purpose of timing the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. This object is followed by two timepieces made by John Arnold and used by William Bayly, astronomer, in Adventure.² According to the book, "none of the Arnold timekeepers were as reliable as K1 [the chronometer in Resolution], which may account for their preservation in the Royal Society's collection: accurate timepieces were too valuable not to be used".

Another letter now appears in the exhibition, but not in this book. It is from one Fellow of the Royal Society to another. Daines Barrington wrote to Dr Charles Blagden, on 26 June 1775 of news he had just received of Cook's arrival at the Cape of Good Hope on 22 March, "noting that in a voyage of 28 months not a single person had been lost to sickness, many new islands had been discovered, and 260 new plants and 200 new animals had been collected." The letter is described as "fascinating for its glimpse of relations between the Royal Society's Fellows" and its "breathless tone... conveys the excitement and expectation with which the arrival of the Resolution was greeted". But without being able to see the manuscript or read a full transcript it is difficult for me to agree.

The last item in this section is "Captain Cook's magnifying glass", which had once belonged to William Bayly and was purchased by the NMA at auction in 2006. Once again it is not illustrated in this book, but it did appear in Cook's Log when we covered the auction.³

The next section explores Cook's later relationships with the Royal Society. Surprisingly, the items are presented out of chronological order.

It starts with a six-page letter written by Cook at his house at Mile End and sent to then President of the Royal Society, Sir John Pringle. The letter was read at the Society's meeting of 7 March 1776. From the illustration I can just about read that it begins "As many Gentlemen have expressed some surprise at the uncommon good state of Health, which the Crew of the Resolution, under my Command, experienced during her late long voyage; I take the liberty to communicate to you the methods that were taken to obtain that end". I would have liked to have been able to read the whole letter, and for the illustration to have filled the whole page of the book, rather than be squashed down to make room for pictures of the Copley Medal awarded to Cook for being "the author of the best paper contributed to the Transactions of the Royal Society by a Fellow during that year".

Early on in the book it is explained that in 1731 the Royal Society decided "each candidate for election had to be proposed in writing and this written certificate [be] signed by those who supported his candidature".

The certificate for James Cook appears in the exhibition, and this book, and shows him described as "a gentleman skilfull in astronomy, & the successful conductor of two important voyages for the discovery of unknown countries, by which geography & natural history have been greatly advantaged and improved, being desirous of the honour of becoming a member of this Society, we whose names are underwritten, do, from our personal knowledge testify, that we believe him deserving of such honour, and that he will become a worthy & useful member". The 25 signatures are led by Banks and Solander.

According to the book, the exhibition includes "examples from the Royal Society Cook Medal Papers 1784-85", though which ones is not clear. However, they include the designs by Lewis Pingo for the commemorative medal produced by the Society in commemoration of Cook, and a letter from Elizabeth Cook to Sir Joseph Banks, dated 16 August 1784. The medal and a suggested design are illustrated in the book, but not the letter. For that we must go to the excellent article about the medal that appeared in Cook's Log.⁴

After Cook's voyages, the exhibition moves on to the Royal Society's "role in the establishment of the first European colony on the Australian continent's east coast". This section includes the meteorological records for Port Jackson, New South Wales, 1788-91. They were kept by Lieutenant William Dawes whose "List of Instruments proper for making astronomical Observations at Botany Bay", presented to the Board of Longitude before he went, is also included. Many items on the list are crossed out, showing how many were not available.

The next document is a description of the anatomy of the platypus, written by Sir Everard Home, and presented to the Royal Society on 17 December 1801 when many people considered the platypus to be a hoax.

The exhibition ends with a letter from Matthew Flinders to Joseph Banks about the problem of compass deviation based on his observations while surveying the Australian coastline.

This small book of 63 pages describes an exhibition that I would have liked to have seen. It is a good substitute with good descriptions of the items displayed and their context. It would have been even better if all of the items had been illustrated and if full, or longer, transcripts of the documents had been included.

Instead there are several paintings in the book that are not listed as appearing in the exhibition, and which add little to our understanding of the Royal Society's contribution to the exploration of the South Seas.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

References

1. Cook's Log, page 14, vol. 33, no. 4 (2010).
2. Cook's Log, page 43, vol. 31, no. 4 (2008).
3. Cook's Log, page 17, vol. 30, no. 1 (2007).
4. Cook's Log, page 12, vol. 31, no. 4 (2008).

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 40, volume 34, number 1 (2011).

Nootka Sound is located off the central western coast of Vancouver Island, now part of British Columbia, Canada. During the Third Voyage, Captain James Cook visited Nootka Sound from Sunday 29 March to Sunday 26 April 1778. After departing Nootka Sound, Resolution and Discovery proceeded further north to search for the Northwest Passage.

This book is a study of the 1784 edition of Cook's journal, edited by Canon John Douglas, compared with the 1967 Hakluyt Society edition of Cook's journal, edited by J. C. Beaglehole. The author, an instructor in English at Langara College, Vancouver, utilizes "post colonial literary theory," to analyze "colonial discourse" through which Nootka Sound was known by 18th century readers. The author contends the Douglas version of the Northwest Coast "contact zone" created "an imperial past". Currie writes, "My concern is to examine how a variety of eighteenth century discourses constructed Nootka Sound for European readers. As a result, the view of the Pacific remains predominantly that of eighteenth-century Europe." Currie considers the Beaglehole edition as a corrected version of Cook's journals, to that produced 183 years earlier by Douglas.

The book contains five chapters. The first considers Cook's journals as part of eighteenth century travel and exploration literature. The second and third chapters explore the assumptions and created visions of the Northwest Coast as interpreted by John Douglas in the 1784 edition. These assumptions led to conclusions about the Yuquot native peoples, the land, vegetation, etc. The author examines scientific and ethnographic assumptions, the "mutually interdependent discourses of aesthetics and science" that provided a basis for later exploitation of land and peoples. The author asserts that the Northwest Coast is viewed through a "double filter," perceptions formed first in Europe and later in the South Pacific. This leads to the fourth chapter, the "discourse of cannibalism" among native peoples, which Currie demonstrates was incorrect and influenced by other exploration narratives from the South Pacific.

The final chapter explores the discourse constructed whereby Cook emerges an eighteenth century imperial hero. Currie provides interesting examples of various "visions" of Cook through the eyes of native peoples, later writers, and historical or other interpretations, including Cook's visit as a "founding moment" of Canadian History. She speculates about the Eurocentric view of history whereby native peoples appear only at the moment of European contact, with the assumption that there was no significant history prior to that time. The author asserts that Cook's death in 1779 is a final filter through which the accounts of Nootka Sound (and all other events) were viewed by the editor and, therefore, readers of the 1784 version of Cook's journal.

Words convey specific, shaded, symbolic, and other meanings. The author contends that editor John Douglas took great liberties, using exaggeration and myth, with Captain Cooks journal entries, creating a vision used later to support colonial and imperial expansion. Douglas drew material from other Third Voyage journals and added perceptions from others to Cook's account. Currie observes that the "official" Douglas account of the Third Voyage "suggests how social values, historical assumptions, and conventional paradigms inform and colour historical discourse in general." The author writes, "Using eighteenth-century aesthetic conventions that constructed the aesthetic subject as a landowning male, Douglas amplifies Cook's description of Nootka Sound. In the process, he transforms Cook from a working-class pragmatist into the kind of gentleman whose eye takes in and possesses all he sees."

It cannot be said that Cook discovered the Northwest Coast as native peoples were already present. To talk of first discovery is incorrect, first European contact may be more accurate, but also subject to earlier (1774) Spanish interest in the area. The land is described as foreboding and massive. Douglas used "woods" instead of "timber" (used by Beaglehole) to create a more romantic image of the land. The practical-minded Cook used the word "timber" because he was interested in trees for a replacement mast. Furthermore, since Cook wrote that the land seemed uninhabited (at a distance, on first approach). Douglas furthered this concept implying the Northwest Coast was available for the taking. Even more so, it was "virgin" land, territory to be possessed or ravished by European explorers.

The author recognizes the scientific aspects of Cook's voyages but implies that the use of the Linnaean system of classification further grafts European concepts or visions onto the Northwest Coast. She observes Beaglehole carried Linnaean classification even further: "The way that each editor uses science reflects the scientific discourses of his time. For Douglas, natural history - the work of Linnaeus and his followers - was the realm of the gentleman scientist... The fact that Linnaean lists were written in Latin meant that this knowledge-building endeavour was limited to those possessing a classical education. In England, this meant primarily men of the upper classes."

Douglas created a "hierarchical" relationship between the civilized visitors and the native peoples. Cook did not designate the Yuquot peoples as cannibals. It was the editor, Douglas, who implied the "first peoples" of the Northwest Coast were cannibalistic, using his "own sense of rhetorical flourish" to embellish Cook's journal. Here the filter of the Pacific is used to describe Vancouver Island. The author writes, "in the account of Nootka Sound at least, cannibalism reveals as much about eighteenth-century Europe as it does about the far-off Pacific, as much about discourse as about the simple observation of 'savage' behaviour." Currie asserts such language provided further justification to follow-up Cook's landing at Nootka Sound, the subsequent conflict with Spain over the coastal territory, and its incorporation into the Empire.

The book contains lengthy analysis of journal "visions" of the land and people. Currie utilizes literary, architectural, and artistic concepts of "the Picturesque" and "the Sublime" in considering language and paintings related to the 1784 edition of Cook's journal. At this point I sought refuge for definitions in the Encyclopedia Britannica. These terms were in use during and after the eighteenth century. The Sublime is characterized by grandeur of thought, emotion, and spirit. The Picturesque favors natural sensibilities, variety, and irregularity. I am unable to determine if post-colonial literary theory affects these concepts.

The author includes reproductions of some John Webber paintings in the book. Currie points out that Webber's The Resolution and Discovery in Nootka Sound (1778) includes an "enormous" British flag attached to one of the ships (almost as large as the ship's hull), the much larger Resolution and Discovery in comparison to several very small native boats, the industrious natives on shore working and trading with the British visitors, one of them presumably Cook shaking hands with a Yuquot native. The vision is of natives eager to trade with the Europeans, with implications for subsequent history, including the Nootka Sound Crises of the 1790s. Other Webber paintings are analyzed showing Nootka Sound people and their dwellings. Currie writes that Webber's Picturesque painting does not match the literary use of the Sublime by editor Douglas in describing the landscape and Cook's heroic image at Nootka Sound or during the Third Voyage.

Curiously (to this writer, for it has nothing to do with Nootka Sound) the book includes Webber's painting, A View of Christmas Harbour (1776), based on the six day visit to the Kerguelen sub-Antarctic Archipelago in December of that year. Unlike Nootka Sound, Webber's "Sublime" painting emphasizes the sense of desolation. Currie observes "nothing less Christmaslike [sic] could be imagined. Indeed, the name of the harbour seems to emphasize its isolation and inhospitability [sic]. There is awe here - an awe tempered not by wonder but by fear."

In neither of her critiques does the author suggest that Webber painted what he actually saw at Vancouver or Kerguelen Islands. Currie also omits a good deal in this analysis: Cook named this Kerguelen Island harbour because it was where Resolution and Discovery spent Christmas of 1776. Cook used the word "desolation" to describe Kerguelen Island. No mention is made by Currie of the Arch of Kerguelen, which may be the harbour's most remarkable geological formation located on the far edge of the painting. She does not mention the William Ellis drawing of Christmas Harbour, a contemporary less detailed but strikingly similar watercolour version to that produced by Webber, or subsequent engravings of Webber's painting that appear to have added details to the scene.

This book fits the genre of literary criticism. The author demonstrates considerable knowledge about Cook's voyages. The book is well-written with considerable documentation and an extensive bibliography of post colonial theory writings, as well as various editions of Cook's journals, and journals of others who sailed on the Third Voyage. It is useful to read historical interpretations that may approach events from far different perspectives or employ theoretical models (such as post colonial literary theory) for which a reader may have reservations. Constructing Colonial Discourse falls into this category.

I find the author pushes the envelope too much in, for example, the implied criticism of Linnaean classification, the characterization created by use of "timber" or "wood" to describe trees, or the interpretation of Webber's Christmas Harbour. At times too much "post colonial literary theory" jargon is bothersome.

Of course Cook, Douglas, Webber and others wrote or painted from the perspective of eighteenth century British seamen-explorers, editors, or painters. That is who they were and they used their personal frame of reference in writing or painting. It does seem valid, however, to note that Douglas inserted his words to shape and amplify Cook's account and this represents the author's contribution to Cook literature.

Currie's book is not written to serve as a narrative account of Cook at Nootka Sound. However, if a reader knew little or nothing about Cook's visit to Nootka Sound or of Cook's journals, I would first read Beaglehole's Life of Captain James Cook, or the Nootka Sound section of Beaglehole's edition of The Journals of Captain Cook, or other recent Cook biographies. I would also read the appropriate sections of John Gascoigne's Captain Cook: Voyager Between Worlds (2007) concerning the Northwest Coast of Canada, to contrast it with 18th century England. Finally, in seeking an interpretation of Cook's image over time, I would first read Glyn Williams's The Death of Captain Cook: a Hero Made and Unmade (2008). At that point, Currie's concept of colonial discourse can prove useful.

Reviewer: James C. Hamilton

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 43, volume 34, number 1 (2011).

Reading and interest level 8+.

This book is filled with colour illustrations and breakout boxes to capture the interest of children.

It narrates the three voyages of Captain Cook, and the fictional chapters engage the reader into the world of this common sailor who became a leader through his skill, courage and determination.

The book contains a time-line that spans from 1728 to 1780, and a four-page glossary.

Overall, it is an informative, engaging and well-presented book, ideal for educational use.

It is an excellent book for children to enjoy and learn about the life and times of James Cook and his voyages.

Reviewer: Ted Tierney

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 45, volume 34, number 1 (2011).

In 2006 the National Museum of Australia held an exhibition of artefacts from the Cook-Forster ethnographic collection of the University of Göttingen. It was called "Cook's Pacific Encounters".¹ A one-day symposium was held in association with this exhibition, called "Discovering Cook's Collections".²

Recordings of the seven talks, or papers, were made available on the museum's web site as well as edited transcripts. I heard Paul Tapsell say, "I normally don't read papers because I normally don't write them. But the organisers said this might lead to publication, so that panicked me into writing something."

This book is the result. However, whilst three of the talks are provided almost verbatim, and two are expanded with useful additions, the other two have been reworked and re-titled into pieces with different thrusts. No explanation is provided, which must be confusing for anyone who attended the symposium. Intriguingly, the order of the talks / essays has also been changed. However, the conversion of talks into essays has meant the welcome addition of many footnotes and colour illustrations.

The book, but not the symposium, begins with "Looking Across the Beach - Both Ways" by Greg Dening. I found it to be the hardest essay to understand, and am at a loss to understand why it was moved from its original fourth position in the sequence of talks. Dening is, I think, trying to get us to look not only through the eyes of Cook and the other Europeans who looked across the beaches at the inhabitants of the islands they came across, but also from the perspective of the Islanders "looking across their beach" at the visitors.

He points out that "looking across the beach of the past, we often see ourselves: James Cook is us as we want to be in our ideals of science and discovery; James Cook is us as we want to be in our carefulness for less privileged peoples; James Cook is us as we want to be in courage and determination". But when the Islanders looked across the beach, they were "associating the godliness of these strangers from over the horizon in their ships with the godliness of their ancestors who came from across the horizon in their canoes."

Dening speaks about Tupaia and his role and achievements from Wallis's arrival at Tahiti in 1767, to his death in 1770 at Batavia. He points out that "Tupaia, as he travelled with Cook on the Endeavour, gave the great man lessons on the protocols he should obey in the encounter with island peoples. He urges Cook to show reverence and respect in his body postures when he arrives on the beach. He should bring gifts, not trade. Both wealth and power in the islands is in giving."

In chapter two Nigel Erskine writes about "Cook, the discoverer: George Forster's monument to Captain Cook", i.e. the commemorative piece for Captain Cook that Forster published in German in 1787 as "Cook, der Entdecker".³ After describing George's early life with his father Johann Reinhold Forster, their voyage with Cook and the controversy over the official publication about it, Erskine briefly covers the editing of the account of the Third Voyage by John Douglas, canon of Windsor. It leads to Erskine's explanation of why Forster wrote "an insightful cameo portrait of the great explorer which was unequalled in its day".

According to Erskine "Forster describes Cook's attention to detail and the care he took in implementing his plans for the voyages." Erskine is enthusiastic about "Forster's richly personal descriptions" and his "literary skills to transport his readers to experience the scene", including "colourful details of island life". Erskine points out that "Forster was keen to underline his own association with the great navigator" but feels "Forster is capable of insights unmatched among the many journal accounts of other Cook voyagers". Perhaps we have gained from Forster's targeting of "a German public who, for all their interest in the new discoveries, were relative novices in regard to such seafaring adventures".

In the next chapter Paul Turnbull writes about "The chief mourner's costume: religion and political change in the Society Islands, 1768-73". Known as a heva, this elaborate costume was worn during funerary ceremonies for high ranking people and examples were eagerly sought on Cook's expeditions. Turnbull takes nearly a third of the essay to reach the point at which he describes how Joseph Banks first encountered a heva and had its purposes "explained by Tupura'a, as best that gesture and limited understanding of each other's language allowed". Tupura'a "was to be chief mourner for a female relative". The heva in the Göttingen collection is illustrated and described as consisting "of a number of elaborately decorated parts, including white tapa robes, a feather and netting mantle, and a headpiece of pearl and turtle shell adorned with tail feathers of the saacred red tailed tropic bird". Banks's description of the ceremony is accompanied by that of James Morrison, after the Bounty mutiny and some comments of George Forster.

Turnbull speculates on why the Islanders were willing to part with heva, noting that European testimony "recorded during the course of the nineteenth century needs to be interpreted cautiously". However, it seems that they were exchanged for the red feathers brought to Tahiti on the Second Voyage as these "held out the promise of securing the favour of 'Oro", the war-god.

Adrienne Kaeppler expands on her talk "To attempt some new discoveries in that vast unknown tract: rediscovering the Forster collections from Cook's second Pacific voyage". After explaining she had spent 30 years "on a journey to discover what had become of all the artefacts that had been collected during Cook's voyages" Kaeppler explained that in this essay she focuses on the ethnographic collections made by Georg and Reinhold Forster and their present locations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and elsewhere.

The Forsters apparently acquired about 500 ethnographic artefacts "often collecting two or more of the same kind of artefact". However, most of "the objects were not distributed systematically. On the Forsters' return to Europe, many of the artefacts were given away or sold to people and institutions that were, or could be, useful to the Forsters financially and/or for reasons of prestige or influence." Kaeppler describes the collections she has tracked down in 14 museums across Europe, and how they got there.

Kaeppler then goes on to describe how "further information about the objects collected by the Forsters can be found in the five plates of artefacts that were published in the official account of Cook's second voyage" and which are reproduced in this book. They are of objects from New Zealand, Tonga, the Marquesas, New Hebrides and New Caledonia. She also points out that "the collection from Tonga could be described as a jewel among the treasure collected by the Forsters on the second voyage."

Lissant Bolton begins her essay, "Brushed with fame: museological investments in the Cook voyage collections", by explaining that Google found her 16 million sites when she typed Captain Cook into its search bar. Three years later, I got 3 million sites for Captain Cook and 14 million sites for Cook Captain!

Bolton then goes on to suggest "Cook's popular importance can be measured by another slightly bizarre criterion, the number of objects purportedly associated with his death. The Australian Museum has for many years held an arrow said to be made of Cook's leg bone. In response to pressure from the Captain Cook Society, the museum had the bone tested, and concluded in 2004 that the arrow was probably from the north-west coast of America, and the bone in question was most probably antler."

After a short discussion about celebrity endorsement, Bolton remarks that Cook's "name is often used to endorse exhibitions about the Pacific" and that had he "not died, but sailed home to England, his fame might have been diminished by the ordinariness of age and infirmity." She points out that Cook's voyages were "team efforts, in which many individuals collaborated on a single project. The products of the voyages, the written records, paintings and drawings, the collections, were all made by a group of people, not by Cook himself alone. Very commonly, however, Cook is made to stand for the group, and the others, the officers, seamen and men of science, are far less well known." Museums often feel the need to use Cook's name as a hook to attract the public to a special exhibition that may have little to do with him, and quotes some examples from her own experience. Although exhibitions may not last long, their catalogues can have a lasting significance. According to Bolton the "most notable among Cook catalogues is Kaeppler's own catalogue of her 1978 Bishop Museum exhibition of Cook voyage material".⁴ She comments "the 2006 exhibition of the Göttingen collection at the National Museum of Australia celebrates and, partly though its own catalogue,⁵ potentially alters Cook's popular profile in Australia."

Paul Tapsell's essay, "Foot prints in the sand: Banks' Maori Collection, Cook's first voyage 1768-1771", explores the role and significance of the presence in Endeavour of Tupaea (as his name is remembered and recorded by the Maori). Tapsell believes "Tupaea was more than some hapless Polynesian hitchhiker picked up on a whim by Banks in Tahiti." As Endeavour sailed around New Zealand "Banks and Cook remained uncomfortably dependant on Tupaea to negotiate the initial encounters of each landing", and when Cook returned on his Second Voyage "Maori greeted him again by shouting for Tupaea and grieved when told he was dead." I was particularly struck by Tapsell's suggestion that "like an uncharted rock just below the surface, his unrecognised influence continues to quietly ripple and shape our maps, history books and museums."

Tapsell wonders what happened to Tupaea's belongings after his death. It is only recently that his watercolour paintings have been attributed to him, so perhaps his other possessions were acquired by Banks. Tapsell discusses the dog-skin cloak worn by Banks in the painting by Benjamin West and, possibly, the same one given by Banks to Christ Church, Oxford. Such dog-skin cloaks were worn only by chiefs. Banks does not record how he obtained the cloak. So, perhaps this cloak and "the chiefly breast ornament and flute now properly attributed as part of Banks's Christ Church collection were originally Tupaea's personal possessions."

The final essay is Doreen Mellor's "Cook, his mission and Indigenous Australia: a perspective on consequence". In it she sweeps us from Cook's relationships with the Indigenous Australians at Botany Bay and Endeavour River, through the early exchanges between the Aboriginal Australians and the British, Dutch and French (especially at Port Jackson) to the "long history of taking Indigenous children away from their parents in order to socialise them as contributing, if menial, members of white society." She includes two interesting excerpts from 350 recorded interviews that reflected on the forced separation that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations. Cook is a symbol of the brutal legacy, and in Northern Australia "white people themselves are often referred to as Captain Cooks by Aboriginal people." Mellor writes that "Indigenous Australians have suffered as an ironic consequence of Cook's courage, his leadership qualities, his Yorkshire commonsense and his exceptional navigation and seamanship skills."

In a similar point to that made above by Bolton, although a symposium may not last long, a book about it can have a lasting significance. I have already seen one of these essays referred to in another book.⁶ I expect to see more. The organisers of the symposium are to be congratulated on turning the talks into papers for us all to enjoy. Take the opportunity to grab your copy and enjoy the richness of its contents.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

1. Cook's Log, page 27, vol. 29, no. 4 (2006).
2. Cook's Log, page 18, vol. 29, no. 3 (2006).
3. Cook's Log, page 16, vol. 30, no. 1 (2007).
4. Kaeppler, Adrienne L. Artificial Curiosities: Being an exposition of native manufactures collected on the three Pacific voyages of Captain Cook. Bishop Museum Press. 1978.
5. Cook's Pacific Encounters: The Cook-Forster Collection of the Georg-August University of Göttingen. National Museum of Australia. 2006.
6. Kaeppler, Adrienne L. and Fleck, Robert (editors). James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific. Thames and Hudson. 2009.

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 46, volume 34, number 1 (2011).