Last week I stayed in the small country town of 1770, which was Captain James Cook's second landing in Australia. Cook was traveling with a pair of botanists.
Cook had a standard upbringing, he was an apprentice in ship building. Bored of this at 27, joined royal navy for battle against France in Canada. He was promoted for his attention to detail and good navigational skills almost immediately upon his enlistment.
When he got back he went out on a scientific voyage following an eclipse to figure out how far the sun was away from the earth. This was a voyage to correct latitude and longitude measurements.
They travelled into Tahiti where the Tahitian women would have sex with them for any shiny pieces of metal (ex. nails).
Because there was so few nails left in his ship, Cook had a dilemma to solve.
He decided to open up an envelope that he wasn't supposed to open. The orders were to find the great southern continent, believing that there was an equal amount o land on the southern hemisphere. The Dutch had named this place New Holland about 100 years ago. Cook sailed out and reached the two islands of New Zealand mapping them meticulously to prove it was not what they were looking for. When he eventually hit botany bay which he named stingray bay, naming it afte what he ate, which he usually did.
They mapped the coast meticulously, taking back over 1500 plants and animals to analyze in England. He got stuck in the great barrier reef, dumping everything they didn't need. He went up to cairns and fixed the boat in the low tide. He stopped at possession island where he claimed the land under the English law of paradulis, (sp?) meaning no mans land. He the sailed to Singapore and had his boat fixed and then home.
Years later he sailed out looking for the great landmass again the paradulis (sp?) but had to turn back because he was too cold in Antarctica. In 1788 he sailed out on his final voyage the resolution to find a trade route between China and England. Discovering Hawaii, where the Hawaiians thought he was god. He stayed a bit too long and the passage was blocked by ice. Upon his return to Hawaii they were not too impressed, however I have been told of two probable endings of the famous Captain James Cook...
1: the highest honor to a god is to eat him, so to pay true homage to Cook the Hawaiians killed and ate him.
2: Cook suspected someone of stealing, and as he was snooping around someone stabbed him with a spear, realizing he wasn't a god they killed him.
Some of Cooks greatest accomplishments were: adding a third of the worlds land mass to the British empire. While he also discovered and cured scurvy by feeding sailors sour kraut and fruit.
His maps were used up until 15 years ago because they were so accurate, you can put them up to a satellite image and they are accurate up to 100 meters!
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