Our organisation is 50 years old!!

Following correspondence between an Australian, Mary Lambe, and an American, John Mahoney, a society for people interested in Captain Cook stamps was formed as a Study Unit of the American Topical Association (ATA).  In late 1975 an “Introductory Issue” of Cook’s Log was produced.  It announced, “the American Topica1 Association has officially chartered the Captain Cook Study Unit...  The date of the charter is 27 October, 1975.  This is obviously a significant date for our Unit—the birthdate of Captain James Cook”.

Mary Lambe became our first President, Richard L. Miller our Secretary/Treasurer and John Mahoney became what he described in the Introductory Issue as “your temporary editor”.  He told me recently, “At that time, I worked for a small high-Tech firm as a research physicist on ion engines at Electro Optical Systems located in Pasadena, California.  I enlisted the aid of a fellow employee, a graphic artist, who drew up the logo at the top of the original Cook’s Log.  With no computer available to me at that time, all logs were written using a small portable type­writer and subsequently xeroxed at a local printer”.

26 members were listed in the Introductory Issue: 18 from the USA, five from Australia, two from Canada and one from the UK.  Only one of them is still a member—David John of Australia. 

Volume 1, number 1 of Cook’s Log was issued in January 1976.  Everything appeared to being going well during the first few years of the Captain Cook Study Unit (CCSU).  An issue of Cook’s Log came out every quarter with eight pages full of articles, details of new stamp issues, checklists, etc.

The warning signs were there, but few noticed.  The first two directors failed to renew their 1977 membership and were not replaced; the first president resigned from her position, and was not replaced; more than once, appeals were made for more articles.  Finally, the last issue of Cook’s Log for 1978 failed to appear.

In April 1979, the Secretary/Treasurer wrote to all members to say that the editor was too busy at work to carry on publishing.  A volunteer from the remaining members was requested to step forward to continue the good work.  I know that at least one person offered their services, but nothing further was heard.  In February 1980, I wrote to 11 people in the UK (members and others) to see if there was support for a re-launch from the UK.  Seven people replied, of whom three volunteered to be an officer (fortun­ately for different posts). 

So, from such tentative steps we came alive again (with support from the ATA), and produced our first issue of Cook’s Log at the end of the same year.  At this time the officers were: Kieran McGovern as President, David Seymour as Secretary, Bernard Atkinson as Treasurer, and myself as Editor.  Bernard resigned his position at the end of 1981, and was succeeded by Andrew Bardell.  I’m pleased to say that Kieran, Andrew and I are still members.

Cook’s Log at the time of the relaunch of the CCSU was still at its previous size of eight pages.  However, after a year it rose to 10 pages and then 12 as more and more articles arrived for publication.  In 1984 it hit a peak of 28 pages in one issue!  After that, each issue varied in size according to the number of articles waiting to be published.  From 2004, each issue had an average of 48 pages.  The April 2020 issue was the largest with 84 pages.  We now average 48 pages.

In 2002, members voted to rename the Captain Cook Study Unit (CCSU) to the Captain Cook Society (CCS).

The change came about as members’ interests had grown beyond the initial philatelic ones, though they still existed, and it was felt the name of our organisation deterred many potential members from joining as they assumed that it must be an erudite body attached to some academic institution.

In 1984, a branch was formed in Australia, Robert Martin as President, James Ross as Secretary and Ken Sheahan as Treasurer.  James is still a member.  They produced a newsletter called Endeavour Lines, edited at first by Robert Martin.

Membership itself grew from the original 26 in 1975 to 211 at the end of 1978, to 228 at the beginning of 1986.  After a few years of decline, it was 311 at the beginning of 1998, 464 in 2004, 565 in 2007.  At the beginning of this year, we had 494 members.  More than 2,000 people from 40 countries have joined over the last 50 years. 

In 1975, the dues were US$4.00 (surface mail).  At the re-launch in 1980, they were converted into £3.00 (air mail).  The next year, Herbert Keogh volunteered to collect the dues in the US.  In 1984, Australian members could pay their subscriptions locally.  We now also have members willing to collect subscriptions in Canada and New Zealand.  Cook’s Log continues to be created as a paper journal.  A digital only option was introduced in 2005 with a reduced rate of subscription. 

Our first meeting was held in 1976 at Interphil, Philadelphia, USA.  It was a joint meeting with the Ships on Stamps Unit of the ATA.  The first UK meeting was at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 1983.  The first in Australia was at Ausipex, Melbourne, in 1984.  Since then, there have also been meetings in Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland.  Meetings can be organised by any member, and I am grateful to those people who have done so. 

The first postal auction was held in 1977 by Mary Lambe, Australia, with 40 lots being offered.  This year, we are holding our 35th auction with 131 lots. 

After the organisation’s relaunch, Cook’s Log was produced through the good services of Ken Hermon.  The 1982 issues were run off at a local school whose headmaster was a member of my local philatelic society.  The following year, I used a local printer, who never complained even when the number of pages went erratic.  Unlike the current printer, he did not put copies into envelopes, add stamps, and post them.  My thanks to Cliff Thornton and others who helped me do that.  The address labels on the wrappers were at one time produced by Ruth Burkholder in Canada, which saved me from writing them.  Nowadays, a digital version of each issue is sent to our printer, who does it all for us.

In 1982 members were asked to design an emblem to appear on a badge and a tie, and on our stationery.  The one from Andrew Bardell was chosen as the basis for a lapel badge and a neck tie, and the one from Ian Woolford for a new letter heading.  Following the change of our name from CCSU to CCS, new versions were created, and they were made available to members in 2006.  The last of our ties was sold in 2013, and no more have been produced due to lack of demand.

Paul Capper created a chronological account of Cook’s life, which was serialised in Cook’s Log from 1985 to 1996.  It appears on our website.¹

A checklist of Cook stamps was produced by Brian Sandford in 1985, and published in Cook’s Log.  Only stamps containing direct references to, or associated with, Captain Cook were included.  Brian updated the checklist many times.  The latest version of 16 pages was produced in 2011.  Ad de la Mar decided to assemble a checklist of stamps showing the Fauna, Flora and Birds seen during Cook’s Voyages.  All of these checklists are available on our website.²  So far, no one has volunteered to update any of them. 

Albert Batchelder produced an index of Cook’s Log in 1987 covering the first nine volumes.  It was followed in 1989, 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2000 for the volumes up to, and including, 1999.  The index was based on the titles of the individual articles, rather than their contents.  The index was available to members in two printed versions: page order and alphabetical.

Brian Sandford decided in 2000 that it would be a good idea to put every issue of Cook’s Log into digital format, and include an index.  He developed a CD-ROM.  To make it even more useful, he added the Captain Cook Stamp checklist and Joseph Banks’s Endeavour journal.  Each year, he created an updated version.  The latest one came out in 2013, covering all copies of Cook’s Log from the Introductory Issue to volume 35 (1975 to 2012). 

The organisation’s first presence on the internet was in 1997, when it was hosted and managed by Chris Jones.  In 2003, I redesigned the site’s contents and look, and moved it to a new hosting server.  In 2012, the website was relaunched with a new look designed by Robrecht Siera, who also hosts it for us.  In 2023, Robrecht produced a new design for our website, which he continues to host for us. 

In 2016, Wendy Wales started a project to produce a definitive listing of Cook memorials.  The first entries were added to our website the following year.³  There are currently 170 entries, with more being added every year.

Since 2020, we have hosted on a separate website the “Fleck Family Tree” developed by Rod Fleck.⁴  It traces the extended family of Captain Cook’s sister Margaret who married James Fleck, a fisherman from Redcar.⁵  There are over 5,000 people.  Wendy Wales has added the extended family of Captain Cook’s wife Elizabeth (with over 500 people), and the immediate family of Captain James Cook (only 39 people). 

John Robson decided in 1994 to create a bibliogra­phy of books and articles about Cook.  In 2001, he made it available on his own website, then allowed it to be added to our website, where it remains.⁶  The list was last updated in 2024. 

Membership cards were introduced in 1987.  In 2013, they were replaced with a redesigned plastic version.  It features a painting by Robin Brooks, “We Stretched to the Southward”, depicting, Adventure in the foreground with Resolution off her port bow.

The Captain Cook Society Facebook group was created in 2018.  Membership of this group is open to all users of Facebook, and not just members of our Society.  By the end of June 2019, it had 226 members.  At the end of June 2020, the number had risen to 640.  Now, the group has over 3,000 members, some of whom are also members of the Society.   

During our 50 years, we have had six Presidents, who have come from Australia, Ireland, Scotland, England, New Zealand and Canada.  We have also had five Secretaries, four Treasurers, and two Editors.

Finally, when the new officers took over in 1980, it took us a year to discover that we had a set of rules that governed the organisation.  They were then published for the first time in Cook’s Log together with a set of changes to bring them into line with the way the relaunched organisation was actually being run.  Our Constitution was revised in 2007, and then again in 2020.

Ian Boreham

References

1. www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-life/overview
2. www.captaincooksociety.com/remembering-cook/collectables/stamps
3. www.captaincooksociety.com/remembering-cook/memorials
4. www.captaincookfamilytree.com
5. See page 6.
6. www.captaincooksociety.com/remembering-cook/books/bibliography-of-books

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 3, volume 48, number 4 (2025).