Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Certainly, in terms of circumnavigation hers was a singular feat and
one which would not be repeated for many years.
By the time Bougainville reached home the most famous of
all Pacific explorers was already in the South Sea on a course for
Tahiti. The three voyages of James Cook belong more properly to the
history of discovery than to the history of circumnavigation. Cook
solved, almost singlehanded, most of the remaining mysteries of the
world's largest expanse of water; he added new islands and land-
masses to the charts; he familiarised himself with the wind and cur-
rent patterns of previously untravelled oceans; and he kept his ships
free of scurvy and fever throughout months at sea. Yet, because he
made mariners more familiar with the world's oceans and opened
up new routes, his travels profoundly affected the story of circum-
navigation. This is particularly true of his second voyage which we
will follow in some detail. But first we shall have to consider briefly
the expedition of 1768-1771 which overlapped with those of Bou-
gainville and Carteret.
James Cook was a thirty-nine-year-old ship's master who had
served on merchant and naval ships for twenty years and had lat-
terly been employed as a marine surveyor of the coast of Labrador
and Newfoundland. He had a keen mind, little encumbered by formal
education. This made him both eager to learn from experience and
able to assimilate, evaluate and accurately record information. Add
to this the facts that he was methodical in his habits and quietly au-
thoritarian in the exercise of command and you have a character
ideally equipped to lead men into - and through - the unknown.
The main objective of the voyage which began on 25 August
1768 was the continuation of the work begun by Byron and Wallis,
particularly seeking out the elusive
Terra Australis
which was still
believed to lie to the south of the routes taken by earlier ships:
