James Cook was a navigator who, in his short life, managed to win the love of friends and the respect of enemies. Contemporary researchers marveled at its effectiveness and productivity. He made two voyages around the world, managed to supplement world maps and explore the southern islands of the Pacific Ocean and the ice of the Arctic. Almost 150 years have passed since his ship "Endeavor" (which means "effort") first docked on the east coast of Australia. Below are 10 little-known facts about Captain Cook, who promised to swim "as far as possible" early in his career.
1. Cook went to serve in the navy relatively late
Before joining the Navy, Cook worked on a farm in Yorkshire. At the age of 17, he joined the merchant flotilla, on the ship of the Walker brothers. He sailed on various ships of the company for almost 10 years, tirelessly studying cartography, geography, mathematics and navigation. James Cook resigned his position as captain of a merchant ship and instead enlisted in the Royal Navy as a simple sailor. Cook was 26 years old. The command almost immediately appreciated the talent and experience of the new recruit and two years later Cook became a master, and a few years later he received his own ship in command.
2. He was a skilled cartographer
During the Seven Years' War, James Cook's cartographic expertise helped Britain win the Battle of Quebec. In 1760, on his own ship, he explored the island of Newfoundland, located off the coast of Canada. Cook's map was so accurate that it was used until the middle of the 20th century. Captain Cook's skills in navigation and navigation became the main arsenal of his research activities. He was allowed to travel around the world on his own ship largely because he was able, like no one else, to navigate unfamiliar waters.
3. Captain Cook's first trip around the world was actually a secret mission
The first exploratory expedition of Captain Cook began in August 1768, the British government put in command the ship "Endeavor", which consisted of about a hundred crew. Officially, the trip had a scientific purpose - to observe the passage of Venus in solar orbit, but in fact the captain had an additional task - to search for the "Great Southern Continent". According to assumptions, this land mass was located far to the south. Cook swam to the 40th parallel, but did not find any hint of the continent. He sailed around New Zealand, proving that they are actually two islands that are not connected. During his second voyage around the world, Cook continued to search for the southern continent. In 1770, he swam incredibly close to Antarctica, but heavy ice made him turn back.
4. "Endeavor" nearly sank on the Great Barrier Reef
After his first voyage, Cook decided to sail north from Australia. As he chose unknown waters, the ship sailed directly to the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. On June 11, 1770, the Endeavor was broken through and began to fill with water. His team, frightened of the crash, began to fight the leak and even throw heavy guns and barrels into the sea. The team closed the hole for more than twenty hours, after which the Endeavor returned to Australian Harbor. After 2 months of repair, the ship was again ready to sail from the coast.
5. James Cook used new methods to prevent scurvy
In the 18th century, any long journey was accompanied by a fatal disease - scurvy, but Cook was able to avoid its occurrence on all three of his long-term expeditions. Captain Cook tried to get fresh food at every stop. In addition, he noticed that consistent consumption of vitamin-rich sauerkraut reduced the risk of illness. While preparing for the expeditions, Cook stocked up on tons of cabbage. The only problem was getting the sailors to eat this unusual dish. Cook was tricky and asked the cooks to serve sauerkraut to the officers' table every day. The sailors, seeing that the command was eating this dish, began to ask them to add it to their diet.
6. Even the enemies of Britain respected Captain Cook
Despite the fact that Cook's travels took place while Britain was at war with several states, including the United States, Spain and France, his reputation as an outstanding navigator and explorer allowed him to sail in enemy waters in comparative safety. In July 1772, during the second round the world voyage, the Spanish squadron briefly detained his ships, but realizing that Cook was their captain, they released the ships.
7. Captain Cook was looking for the northwest passage
In 1776, at the age of 47, Cook set out on his third research expedition. This time, his goal was to find the northwest passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Having circled half the globe, Cook's ships headed for the northern shores of Western Canada and Alaska. Cook almost made it to the pass, just 50 miles away. Further searches were impossible due to the rapidly advancing ice. Extreme conditions, including strong currents and many heavy icebergs, drove Cook's team to strike. Seeing the mood of his sailors, Cook was forced to return.
8. Hawaiian natives mistook Captain Cook for a god
On his third voyage, James Cook became the first European to set foot on the Hawaiian Islands. It was an incredible coincidence that the arrival of the ships of the Royal Navy in Hawaii coincided with the annual festival in honor of the god of fertility. Since the local population never saw the white people or the huge ships on which they sailed, Cook and his companions were mistaken for gods who decided to go down and accept the gifts. Europeans eagerly pounced on both gifts and food, practically depriving the natives of food supplies. Their "divine" life ended when one of the sailors died of a heart attack. The natives saw that strange white people were not immortal. Since then, relations between Captain Cook and the Hawaiian tribes have been intensely strained.
9.Captain James Cook died a terrible death
In 1779, Captain Cook's ships were forced to stop for repairs in the Bay of Hawaii. By that time locals began to treat newcomers to Europeans very hostile. After the aborigines stole a longboat from one of the ships, the captain lost his composure and went down to land demanding the return of the property. Cook and a small group of armed men tried to capture the leader, but local residents came to help. Trying to drive the local population away from the captain and his men, cannons were fired on board the ships, which further frightened and angered the natives. Cook rushed back to the boats, but did not have time to reach them. The natives threw stones at him, and when they caught up, they began to beat him with heavy wooden clubs. The leader, whom the captain tried to take prisoner, wounded Cook with a knife. After the local population realized that the captain was dead, they prepared the body of the researcher for burial with honors worthy of a king.
10. NASA named their shuttles after Captain Cook's ships
Cook has explored and mapped an incredible amount of land in his lifetime, more than any other navigator in the 18th century. His incredible achievements astounded not only sailors, but also NASA scientists and engineers. NASA's third space shuttle was named after Cook's third spacecraft, Discovery. Their last shuttle was named Endeavor, after Captain Cook's first ship on which he made his first trip around the world.
Let us ask ourselves the question: what is land? The Geographical Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1988 edition, says that land is a part of the earth's surface that is not covered by seas and oceans, that is, continents and islands. There is also an addition: "The concept of land usually does not include lakes and reservoirs." And the glaciers? In some places on the maps they are marked in blue, in some places in black. Is this why the numbers differ total area sushi? In some sources - 29.2 percent of the Earth's surface, in others - 25. The question, of course, to some extent, theoretical: well, what's the difference - to consider glaciers as a land or a water body? But because of this uncertainty, funny incidents happened in the history of geography ...
In the 18th century, the participants of James Cook's second round-the-world expedition, among whom were two naturalists, Johann and Georg Forster, became the closest in the 18th century. The famous English navigator and German scientists did not consider ice - glacier (ice of glaciers) and firn (ice of snowfields) - a rock and did not take them for land. The point of view that ice - water in a solid state and no more - cost Kuk ... not to discover the Ice Continent.
On January 30, 1774, the sloop "Resolution" reached a record south latitude for that time - 71 ° 10 ", and in the captain's diary there appeared lines unusual for the southern - water - hemisphere of the Earth:
“At 4 o'clock in the morning, a dazzling white stripe was noticed in the south - a harbinger of nearby ice fields. Soon from the mainmast they saw a continuous ice barrier (emphasis mine - V. Sh.). stretching from east to west over a vast expanse. The entire southern half of the horizon shone and sparkled with cold fires. I counted 96 peaks and peaks along the edge of the ice field. Some of them were very high ... "(J. Cook. Journey to the South Pole and around the world. M., 1948.)
What Cook and the Forsters saw on that clear day on the horizon is perceived ambiguously by geographers. Some believe that travelers have seen the barrier of the ice shelf adjacent to the present-day Walgreen Coast. Other geographers, for example, Konstantin Markov (K. Markov. Travel to Antarctica. M. 1957.), were sure that "he certainly could not see the mainland at a distance of 150 km."
And if Cook had been called a solid ice barrier Shore, he would have been the discoverer of southern mainland Earth. The first geographical name on the future Ice Continent - Trinity Land (Trinity) appeared only in the 19th century, when the British William Smith and E. Bransfield on January 18, 1820 (old style) saw rock outcrops in the area of the modern Antarctic Peninsula. Two days earlier, Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered the land of the White Continent, but they did not give the name to the "ice field dotted with hillocks" and "hard ice of extreme height", like Cook, although they became the discoverers of Antarctica.
Subsequently, mariners in Antarctica did not distribute place names to high natural sites, composed of glacier and firn ice. So in the 19th and 20th centuries, “Fr. Emerald "," about. Dougherty "," about. Nimrod "," about. Victory ", discovered by Soviet polar explorers in the 60s. These islands were inscribed in black, although they turned out to be giant icebergs, quite quickly after their discovery, destroyed by the sea and warmer air.
Navigators of past centuries took for land only those areas of the earth's surface that were composed of rocky or loose rocks, and they considered the white and blue ice mountains "petrified water". Although both G. Forster and J. Cook in January 1775 on the island of South Georgia "saw how small blocks of ice were carried out into the sea from here, and heard a strong crackling of larger masses, which, apparently, split in the depths of the bay" (G. Forster . Travel around the world. M., 1986.). So both Cook and Forster could well have connected the numerous ice islands near the Antarctic Circle with the mainland or huge size an island from which they split off during the warm season.
Ironically, among the members of Cook's Antarctic expedition was a seventeen-year-old boy Vedidey (O "Hedidi in G. Forster), who was born on the tropical island of Bolabo-la (Borabora) of the Society archipelago. The boy had never seen snow or ice before meeting with the Forsters and Cook , so well known to Europeans. ”But this did not stop the Bolaboltz in December 1773 from calling the huge ice barrier he saw" Voenois Titus ", that is," White Earth ".
Georg Forster, hearing about the "White Land", tried to prove to an uneducated youth, far from the physical geography of high latitudes, that high ice mountains, like low pack ice fields, are just water in a solid state. The naturalist even led the inquisitive young man to a barrel of fresh water, where ice formed after frost. It is a pity that in Cook's second round-the-world expedition there was no hydrogeologist who would tell Vedida, and at the same time Forster and Cook, that high ice islands are formed not from water in the liquid phase, but from solid atmospheric precipitation - snow, snow pellets, hail - which the observant Vedidey called "white stones".
If for the keen-eyed bolabol the high ice islands, shining mountains and hills in the south of the planet were the "White Land", then the scientist G. Forster "it seemed as if in front of them were the fragments of some destroyed world or, perhaps, a corner of hell, as the poets describe it." ...
If Vedideus discovered the White Land Society archipelago for the aborigines, about which he colorfully spoke on the island of Tahiti, then Cook discovered the Sandwich Land for the Europeans, which he took for the northern protrusion of the southernmost continent of the Earth they were looking for. Alas, "Sandwich Land", thanks to the efforts of F. Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev in 1820, turned into the South Sandwich Islands, and Vedidea "White Land" already in the 19th century became the White continent called "Antarctica". Even in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, the Vedidian name “White Land” appeared. It is not for nothing that the Bible says: "Hidden from the wise and revealed to babies."
I involuntarily recalled the unlucky Cook, the wise Forsters and the young Vedidea on September 14, 1997 on the South Island in the Barents Sea, where in the Lazarev Mountains I discovered a lake that was not shown on any of the topographic maps. The area of the glacial lake at that time was about 350 square meters, and the depth is more than 30 meters.
It was formed on the site of the Vasnetsov glacier, which retreated by almost 700 meters over the past 45 years, or rather, its southwestern tongue, which descended in the early 50s to 300 meters above the level of the Barents Sea. The lake had an unusual - dark green - color. But in the Lazarev mountains, I was interested not so much in the new glacial lake as in the Vasnetsov glacier degrading due to climate warming. In some places, from under the firn, light blue glacial ice was revealed, crumpled into bizarre folds.
It is a pity that such folds have not been seen by Cook, Forstera's father and son. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson noted folding in one of the ice shelves in the area of Adélie Land. Folds of the most diverse shapes are also found in glacier ice, sometimes stuffed with fragments of rocky, semi-rocky and loose rocks, as well as air bubbles of past eras. But not a single naturalist, geographer or geologist has yet recorded folds in ice of sea, lake or river origin.
Looking at the folded "white land" of the Vasnetsov glacier and its brainchild - the new Emerald Lake, it was already easy for me to interpret the term "land". For me, as for the young Vedidea, land is an area of the earth's surface that is not flooded with the waters of the seas, oceans, lakes, rivers and swamps, as well as their ice during the cold season. And I fully share the point of view of the young Polynesian that glaciers are white land, composed of ice of snow puffs, snowfields and glaciers.
For the Russian hydrogeologist Nestor Tolstikhin, all these ices are not only “the solid phase of water”, but also “icy rocks”. So Vedidey and N. Tolstikhin perceived glacier ice as a rock forming the land, although Bolabolets never went to school, and Nestor Ivanovich was a doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences and knew a lot about rocks ...
The name of the English navigator James Cook in the minds of most people is inextricably linked with Australia. Someone is sure that Cook is its discoverer, someone, recalling the humorous song of Vladimir Vysotsky, is confident in the sad connection of the local population and the death of Captain Cook. The beloved bard of the entire post-Soviet space, indeed, made a lot of confusion, being right in only one thing - James Cook was killed by aborigines, but not Australian and not for the purpose of cannibalism.
By the time Captain Cook set out on his first voyage around the world (1767-1771), during which he sailed between the east coast of Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian continent was already partially mapped to geographical and nautical charts. The western shores were roughly indicated and partially described, but, of course, there were still many blank spots, and the entire east coast was completely unexplored.
Finding Terra Incognito
Looking into history, I recall the expression "Terra Incognita", or rather "Terra Australis Incognita" - Unknown Southern Land, as the medieval geographers of the Roman Empire named a part of the land, which, in their opinion, should be located somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. This hypothesis has existed for quite some time. for a long time and was the reason for numerous marine explorations, not only of scientists and travelers, but also seekers of adventure from different countries who are struggling to get rich. In search of this mythical southern land, the islands of Oceania, Australia and New Zealand were discovered.
The first information about the seen outlines of the unknown land came from the Portuguese. It is known that they were secretly searching for islands with gold and rare spices; in one of such voyages in 1522, the first landing on the shores of the northwestern coast of Australia was carried out. And although reliable evidence has not survived, old maps of Portuguese origin that have survived to this day show part of the coast of the Great Australian Land.
Later, in 1605-1606, a Spanish expedition with captain Luis Vaez Torres in search of the unexplored southern land, discovering the New Hebrides archipelago, circled the coast of New Guinea from the south and passed a number of large islands, unable to land due to strong currents and numerous shoals. During this voyage, Spanish sailors proved that New Guinea is an island, and became the first Europeans to cross the strait, dangerous due to coral reefs, separating it from Australia. For a long 150 years, the Spanish government managed to keep its discovery secret, until, during the Seven Years War, the documents with maps fell into the hands of the British.
At the same time, in 1606, the Dutch navigator Willem Jansson landed on the northernmost point of Australia, Cape York Peninsula. The discovered lands were named New Holland and declared the possession of the Netherlands. Following along the coast to the south, in one of the bays, the team first met with Australian aborigines. The expedition's cartographer mapped a detailed image of the discovered coastline and some of the nearby islands.
In 1616, the Dutchman Dirk Hartog discovered the western coast of Australia and walked along the coast for about 300 km. In 1619, the coastline was surveyed near present-day Perth and further north. In subsequent years, Dutch ships regularly visited the shores of the new land they discovered, described and mapped bays and bays, replenished the supply of drinking water on their ships, but all the time noted the inhospitable and disembodied coast of Australia. Once a whole tragedy broke out when one of the ships, following with passengers to the island of Java, was severely damaged during a storm, and about 300 surviving people were able to escape on one of the islands. Not finding enough water and food there, the captain sailed in a boat to the coast of Australia, walked along 250 km, but could not find drinking water. He had to sail for help to the island of Java, and when he returned to those who remained on the island, more than half of those who survived the shipwreck were killed by several mutinous sailors who wanted to leave the island and become pirates. This story has become the basis of many books and plays.
The secret mission of the British Kingdom
But back to James Cook and his contribution to the discovery of Australia. The British Admiralty, equipping an expedition to the Southern Hemisphere to the island of Tahiti, officially announced its goal as astronomical observations of the movement of Venus, while in secret orders, Captain Cook's primary task was to move south and find the southern continent. The British Kingdom urgently needed new colonies. After completing an official assignment, Cook headed for New Zealand, discovered a previously unknown strait between its islands, which was called the Cook Strait, and in 1770 discovered the eastern coast of Australia. Stopping in one of the bays of the coast, the botanists who were part of the expedition discovered and described many unknown and unusual plants, on this occasion the bay was named Botanichesky.
Moving to the northwest and finding himself sandwiched between the shores of Australia and a huge ridge of coral reefs that did not allow access to the open ocean, James Cook discovered the strait between Australia and New Guinea, until then considered part of the Australian land. The main most important task of the leadership, the discovery of new lands of the elusive southern continent, was never completed. It must be said that neither in the second nor in the third round-the-world voyage of Captain Cook did he manage to find Antarctica. This was done in 1820 by Russian navigators Mikhail Lazorev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen.
The death of James Cook
In 1776, Great Britain equipped a third expedition led by Captain James Cook, whose task was to open a passage through North America, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. During this voyage, a group of new islands was discovered, which he called Sandwich, and later the name Hawaiian was stuck behind them. The first acquaintance with the local population, the exchange of gifts and gifts. When Cook went ashore, the aborigines prostrated themselves, showed heightened signs of respect and attention, as if he were one of their gods.
After a short rest, the team moved to the coast North America, to continue the exploration on the instructions of the Admiralty, and then returned to Hawaii for repairs, rest and resupply. It should be noted that in those days, Cook was one of the rare European explorers of new lands, who sought to establish relationships with the aborigines through negotiations, exchange of goods and establishing communication. While most other seafarers did not stand on ceremony, slaughtered entire villages if they were refused to supply the ships with food supplies for free.
As in his previous voyages, the captain filled his ships with gifts and goods for exchange, was determined to establish friendly communication with the indigenous population. But this time everything went differently. After a short stay for repairing ships on one of the islands, the aborigines, who at first happily greeted the Europeans, began to change their attitude towards them. Conflicts and misunderstandings began, theft of things and tools. James Cook decided to urgently complete the renovation and leave the islands.
Sailing from Hawaii, the crew was caught in a storm, the ship was severely damaged and was forced to return. But they were not at all happy, clashes and clashes continued. During the next conflict, the British were forced to use weapons, in the ensuing turmoil, Cook was killed with a spear and his body was carried away deep into the island.
Last honors to the captain
The legends and numerous stories that have arisen after the death of the great navigator are undoubtedly based on information about the cruelty and bloodthirstiness of the aborigines of Oceania, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and other corners of the earth remote from civilization. Many tribes of warm latitudes practiced cannibalism, obeying their culture and religion. In the Hawaiian Islands, religion was based on the worship of wildlife and the spirits of ancestors, the aborigines worshiped many gods. There were complex rituals of worship and strict religious rules, human sacrifices were performed. The second captain of the expedition, after unsuccessful negotiations to return Cook's body back to the ship, carried out a punitive operation, destroying the coastal settlements. The captain's body was returned in separate fragments, with the severed head missing the jaw. What exactly the aborigines wanted to do - to eat their enemy or use his remains in rituals according to their laws, one can only guess. The remaining members of the expedition buried the great traveler in the waters of the bay, which was later named sacred.
It would be nice to report that upon his return to England, Cook became the hero of the day. But apparently this was not the case. For the general public and the Royal Society, Banks and Solander were significant figures. It was they who brought testimonies, proofs and souvenirs from those exotic and enchanting lands on the other side of the world, all trophies, all the skins of animals and birds about which the world knew nothing, fish never seen before, countless unknown insects and hundreds of preserved plants unknown in Europe. It has been estimated that the unfortunate Parkinson, a naturalist-draftsman, had made over 1,500 drawings and sketches of unknown flora and fauna before his death. And there was no doubt that Banks and his scientists deserved every praise: in the most difficult conditions they coped with their work remarkably, and their achievements in natural science were surpassed, perhaps, only by Darwin. So Banks and his friends basked in the glory, while Cook was viewed by many as the man who simply transported them from place to place.
Moreover, of course, the reception they received was in keeping with their character. Banks, a wealthy young member of high society, had many powerful friends and loved to be treated like a celebrity. Cook, rather restrained, cold, passionately seeking to protect his personal life from prying eyes, avoided the bright light of fame to the best of his ability. Obviously, he was indifferent to the general praise. He was determined to fulfill his goals, achieved them, and this was the main reward that he thought about.
But even for Cook, it was extremely pleasant that the approval that came from the professionals, the only people who were really able to appreciate the greatness of his accomplishments. The Lords of the Admiralty, usually a reserved and uncommunicative clan when it comes to awarding a well-deserved honor, heaped such accolades on Cook that he must have found them a little onerous. In fact, the praise only seemed exorbitant: given Cook's accomplishments, none of the praise would have been too high for him.
There was no doubt that Cook's superiors now regarded him as the greatest explorer and navigator of the era. Of course, his "inappropriate" origin and many years of service as a simple sailor were forgotten, now he was one of them, a close and true friend of those who walked with him along the corridors of maritime power. But at the same time - and without any cynicism - it was taken into account that Cook was now the most valuable tool in manipulating public opinion. The extraordinary success he achieved bears witness to the insight and sagacity of those who chose the right person for this great risk, namely Their Lordships themselves.
A great asset such as this should not be allowed to rust in idleness. Immediately upon his return, Cook was promoted to become a Commodore, and was assigned to His Royal Majesty's ship, the Scorpion. It was clear that the Admiralty had no intention of allowing Cook to sail on board; it was simply a temporary assignment, a means by which he was kept on a full salary, while he was free to devote himself to a more vital task - preparing for a new expedition to the South Seas.
It is not entirely clear who was the inspiration or what was the root cause of the second expedition. Some mystery shrouds the birth of this idea. Sometimes such projects seem to have grown out of nothing, then gradually they begin to be discussed, then the rumor about them spreads outside the country, and they acquire some certainty and suddenly turn out to be widely and universally accepted, and the idea becomes a reality. Of course, the Royal Society had a hand in this - they considered themselves a semi-governmental organization and represented a powerful force in society. Undoubtedly, the position of Cook himself was far from passive in this matter: like all great pioneers, as soon as he tasted the joy and satisfaction of penetrating into the unknown, he would never rest until he again embarked on this path. There is no doubt that the leading geographers of the time, especially Alexander Dalrymple, who continued to believe in his idea of the southern continent, would have rushed to organize a second expedition. But everyone understands that only the Lords of the Admiralty really made decisions.
Perhaps they were thinking of the possibility that Cook would indeed stumble upon the mythical southern continent, or some other country or island, not yet discovered, and join them, with his usual promptness, to the British crown; an intriguingly enjoyable and far from impossible thought, as the South Seas remained largely unexplored. It is more likely that they told Cook that he must embark on another heroic journey for discoveries - no matter which direction he goes - that will bring new trust, honor and glory to him and his country, as well as to them, the Lords of the Admiralty. ...
In support of this point of view, it should be noted that on the second journey, the most terrifying ever undertaken, Cook received no special instructions. It may be noted in passing that no one would ever undertake such a journey again, because when Cook finished it, there was little left to discover in the high latitudes of the southern ocean.
There is no doubt that Cook received carte blanche as to where he was supposed to sail and what he was supposed to do. This can be proven. In the diary of his first trip, he wrote:
“I hope it will not be misunderstood if I give my opinion that the most accessible method to make further discoveries in the South Sea is to enter the path that leads to New Zealand, first reaching the Cape of Good Hope. From there, continue south of New Holland to Queen Charlotte Bay, where you can refresh your water and firewood again, making sure to leave in late September or early October at the latest when you have all summer. Then, passing through the strait, perhaps with prevailing westerly winds, sail eastward at as high latitudes as you please, and if you do not encounter land, you will have ample time to circumnavigate Cape Horn before the end of summer. But if for some reason you do not meet the continent, or you have other goals, head north and, having visited several already discovered islands, continue sailing with the trade winds back to the west in search of what was mentioned earlier - thus opening in the South Sea will be completed. "
(There is some confusion at the beginning of this passage. Cook actually meant that the next expedition would sail to Cape Town and then directly to Cook Sound in New Zealand, from where he intended to sail into Antarctic waters.)
Since this is exactly the route that Cook should have taken, there is no doubt that the Admiralty was in full accord with him. They also readily complied with two of Cook's requests: his ship should be larger than the Endeavor, which he considered too cramped; and for safety, convenience and mutual support, a second ship should be sent on the expedition.
Since Cook found the Endeavor, apart from its size, extremely suitable for his purposes, the Admiralty purchased two more coal-type vessels from the Whitby shipyards - the Marquis de Granby with a displacement of 462 tons and a staff of 118 sailors and the Marquis de Roquinchem. with a displacement of 350 tons and a staff of 83 people. When transferred to the Navy, they were manned under the names Drake and Railay; however, prudence prevailed. The Spaniards still had significant claims in the Pacific - to put it simply, they considered it their private property - and believed that the two names would inflict almost as much offense on the Spaniards as Drake and Reilly themselves had nearly two centuries before. Therefore, the ships were given new names - "Resolution" (decisiveness) and "Adventure" (bold venture, risk).
Cook's assistants were to be: a certain Lieutenant Cooper, a distant relative of Cook's old patron Palliser, and Lieutenants Pickersgill and Clarke, who had been with him on the Endeavor and even earlier with Wallis on the Dolphin. They were now embarking on their third voyage around the world, so Cook had no shortage of experienced assistants. The captain of the Adventure was to be Tobias Furneau, a very experienced officer who had already sailed around the world with Wallis. His assistants were named Schenck and Kemp.
Banks and his entourage, consisting of scientists and servants, were invited to join this expedition. Various claims were made: the proposal came from Lord Sandwich (in those days, the first lord), and from the Royal Society, and from Banks himself. It doesn't matter: Banks, with his wealth and re-established ties to the establishment of the day, was an extremely influential young man and was favored.
Alas, a long period of admiration in the highest circles of London society seems to have had a significant impact on his sanity. He had decided from the start that he, Banks, would manage the journey and decide where they should sail and how long they should stay in one place or another. In addition, he wanted to take at least fifteen people with him, including two musicians playing the horn, for his own training. Finally, when he saw the Resolution, he said that it was not proper for a gentleman to climb onto its deck. He had the audacity to hint that a larger ship would be provided for him; it is quite understandable that the Admiralty immediately rejected such a hint. He then suggested that the large cabin on the Resolution be expanded and a mock deck built over the existing one to provide him and his entourage, as well as all scientific equipment, with as much space as they needed. To this astonished Admiralty agreed.
While these adjustments were underway, Cook, busy overseeing all the preparations for the expedition and recruiting the sailing crew, got into trouble. The official version of his logbook from Endeavor was being prepared for publication. But Cook himself was not allowed to do such a delicate literary work, because he was a simple rough sailor, and the leading luminary from literary circles and a bosom friend of Dr. Johnson - a certain Dr. John Hawksworth was called to put the necessary polish, - or he himself was fraudulently received this commission - and if the latter was true, then for the sake of a fee of 6,000 pounds for this work, a fortune in those days, it was worth cheating.
Hawksworth was a pedantic idiot with an unbridled imagination, and the end result of his work was a parody of what Cook had written. Cook was supposed to be consulted. But Hawksworth did not pay attention to this, published the magazine the way he did it, ignoring Cook's objections and not giving him the opportunity to review or edit it before publication. Luckily for Cook, before the book came out, he was at sea. Note in passing that a certain Dr. Biglehole had issued an unadapted edition of Cook's magazine a few years earlier. This option is so much better because it seems incredible that anyone other than professional historians would ever want to read Hawksworth's book.
At the same time, Cook was in trouble with the Royal Society, whose members expressed their disappointment with the results of the passage of Venus. It is true that most of their criticism was directed at Green, but Green was dead and Cook felt the need to stand up for him, and did so with such anger and bitterness that his lines were excluded from the official issue of the Journal.
In the meantime, the restructuring aboard the Resolution was completed. Its impact on the stability of the ship was disastrous. The ship's center of gravity shifted, and it was ready to capsize even in a relatively calm sea. The pilot who was escorting him down the Thames refused to raise all the sails so that the ship would not capsize, and said that he would be damned if the ship went to sea at all. Lieutenant Clarke, who participated in this very terrifying ordeal, wrote: “I swear I would go to the sea and to the tub if need be, or to the Resolution if you like it, but I must say, I think this is the most unreliable the ship that I have ever seen or heard of. "
Obviously, the Admiralty thought the same, because they ordered him to be taken back to the dock and all new superstructures removed. It was reported that Banks, seeing this, "swore and stamped his feet in the shipyard like a madman" and wrote to the Admiralty, scolding everyone for their act and demanding that a larger ship be provided immediately. It seems that the Admiralty was already fed up with Banks, his insolence and repeated manifestations of megalomania, and he was told that this expedition was being arranged not only for his benefit, but if he thinks that this is so and he is the leader and chief of the entire enterprise, then he deeply mistaken. Banks went on a private expedition to Iceland. Interestingly, however, the friendship between him and Cook did not suffer: when Cook returned from his second trip, no one greeted him as warmly and enthusiastically as Banks.
Scientists and artists, who had left in full force with Banks, had to be replaced by someone. The group of scientists was headed by the famous German naturalist John Reinhold Forster, a grumpy and narrow-minded bigot who complained about everything and everyone from the moment he boarded the ship. But he was a real scientist, there is no doubt about that. With him was his son George, with a more pleasant character, who was to act as a naturalist painter. William Hodges was invited as a landscape painter; an astronomer from the Council of Longitude, a certain William Wells, was also recruited, who, together with Cook, was to test the qualities of a new type of chronometer by measuring longitude at sea. (Another astronomer, William Bailey, was on board the Adventure for the same task.)
On July 13, a year and a day after Cook returned on the Endeavor, the Resolution and Adventure sailed from Plymouth.
The journey south to Cape Town was relatively calm. Cook lost one sailor who fell overboard, and Furneau lost two sailors, who contracted a fever while stopping in the Cape Verde Islands. (They had stopped earlier in Madeira to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables and, of course, replenish Madeira's supply.)
They arrived in Cape Town on October 30th. To Cook's chagrin, the stocks ordered in advance had not yet arrived, and he had to wait about a month for them. While he was there, he received news of the operations of French ships in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. There was a rumor that two ships from Mauritius had found land southerly from Mauritius, but that was not the case, but at 48th latitude, that was true. Two other French ships, commanded by a certain Marion Dufresne, arrived in New Zealand in March 1772. In June, their leader was killed by the Maori in the Gulf of Plenty, and the French sailed back, giving the island the name Ostrel-France and declaring it the possession of the French king, not knowing that Cook had already declared it a possession of the British crown. But unlike Cook, they did not go around the island and charted it.
While in Cape Town, Forster met the renowned Swedish botanist and former student of Linnaeus, Anders Sparman, and asked Cook's permission to take him with him. He agreed. The carefree attitude to travel in those days can be evidenced by the fact that a botanist in Cape Town can almost accidentally get on a ship, which, as he was warned in advance, would be far from civilized places for the next two years.
Having fully completed the food supplies for a long sea voyage - among the cargo there were all kinds of cattle of both sexes for settling in the Pacific islands, on November 22, both ships went to sea. Cook's original intention was to try to find an island with an odd name - Circumcision Island. Cook believed it was an island; of course, it could turn out to be a peninsula of the legendary southern mainland. It was believed to be about 1,700 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope and was spotted by Captain Bouvet and had a reputation for being trusted; it is possible that this island is somehow connected with the recently discovered island of Kerguelen, which was located at approximately the same latitude, but much to the east - perhaps it was part of the southern continent.
Kuku had been unable to locate Circumcision Island, and this was hardly surprising. In fact, it exists - now it is known as Bouvet Island, but it is an unimaginably small point in the vast expanses of the South Atlantic. For two or three weeks in stormy weather, Cook cruised the sea in search of this eluding island and eventually concluded that it did not exist. It is clear that whatever coordinates Cook had received for this island would have turned out to be incorrect, because with the help of Kendall's new and extremely accurate chronometer, which he had, Cook determined the location of even the smallest islands in the Atlantic with absolute precision. However, Cook did not believe that the time was wasted: he accurately established that in this area there is not a part of the southern continent.
Although the height of summer was approaching in these latitudes, the cold was already very strong, and the sailors put on jackets made of thick cloth, and the cattle were dying from the cold, and around the middle of December the first icebergs appeared. Cook decided to take another look at the surroundings in search of this elusive island, and then abandon any further searches.
It was cold at Christmas, but the weather was good. The crew, as Cook dryly noted, "were inclined to celebrate Christmas in their own way because they had been hoarding booze for some time for that purpose, and I also increased their portion of their daily booze ... joy and good humor reigned throughout the ship." ... John Forster commented: "Wild hubbub and drunkenness."
In early January, abandoning all hopes of finding Bouvet land, Cook turned the ships first southeast and then south, down to the Antarctic regions, to make the first deep sounding in search of the unknown continent of Dalrymple. Icebergs were everywhere, unprecedented floating islands towering above ship masts, islands painted with the most unusual combinations of pastel colors, most often bluish-green, although sometimes purple and pink were also found. Some icebergs were very small, no bigger than a ship, others were two miles in diameter. Since snow and fog did not interfere with visibility, icebergs were not dangerous. At this time of year, there is enough light here almost around the clock, and there was no danger if the ship did not come too close to them. Icebergs drifted further north, their underwater part thawed from the relatively warm sea water, and it often happened that due to underwater erosion, the ice block suddenly lost its stability and overturned on its side.
Now the problem was the lack of drinking water, and a simple solution was found thanks to ice. When they encountered a field of ice of reasonable size, a boat was launched and ice was brought to the ship. Cook mentions that they brought in about fifteen tons. When it was melted, it turned out that it did not contain salt at all, but there were obvious differences from ordinary water so much that everyone who drank it had swollen tonsils in the throat. According to Forster - and he was apparently right - this was because the ice does not contain traces of free oxygen, which is part of normal water.
On January 17, 1773, ships crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time in history. The next day, they met the first field of pack ice, that is, ice formed as a result of the freezing of the upper layer of seawater, in contrast to the iceberg, which originates from glaciers on land. Soon fields of pack ice stretched to the horizon and became so thick that further advance was impossible. Cook headed north again, quite satisfied: if the southern mainland of Dalrymple existed, then it was increasingly shrinking in size.
In early February, the Resolution and Adventure sailed in a relatively mild climate and warm water around 48 ° S in search of Kerguelen Island. The searches, and they were very intense, yielded nothing; today we can say that this is not surprising, because Cook was looking in the wrong place. It had the correct latitude, latitude 48 ° S, but there was no indication of longitude. Cook was told that Kerguelen Island lay south of Mauritius, and he knew that the longitude of Mauritius was 57 ° 30 "East. Kerguelen Island is actually 70 ° East longitude, so Cook made his searches hundreds of kilometers west of its actual position.
The weather conditions were now extremely unfavorable. Stormy south-westerly winds were constantly blowing, and both Whitby Coalmen were badly battered by the huge waves. During the rare, very rare intervals between storms, the ships were shrouded in thick fog, and during one of these fogs on February 8, Resolution and Adventure lost each other. For three days, as agreed in advance, the Resolution cruised the area, firing a signal cannon every hour during the day and lighting fire at night. But they couldn't find Adventure. Cook was not worried. He foresaw that something like this might happen and made an appointment at Queen Charlotte's Bay in New Zealand. He was not worried about the Adventure's prospects of sailing there - Tobias Furneau was an excellent sailor and navigator.
The weather conditions were so bad that the most obvious and simplest thing Cook could have done was take advantage of the southwesterly winds and sail straight to the Cook Sound in New Zealand, but if Cook decided to explore, simple and obvious solutions for him did not exist. He turned the Resolution southeast and headed back into the polar waters. The weather continued to be terrible, and Cook did not dare to take his ship as far south as January 17 (by the way, if he could do this at this longitude, he would have been able to discover Antarctica, because this is where part of Wilkes Land lies to the north Antarctic Circle).
But Cook traveled east for three weeks, if you can use that word, in disgusting weather conditions, approximately along the 60th parallel, although on one occasion it reached 62 ° S and was only three hundred miles from Wilkes Land. (On January 17, he was much closer to Antarctica.) During this time, he did not meet a single piece of land, not even the most insignificant island - nothing but the eternal, icy, sea expanse raised by storm winds. It was only on March 17 that Cook sent Resolution northeast to New Zealand. He was very pleased. He did not discover anything, but established an irrefutable fact: wherever this great southern continent - if it really existed, it was constantly decreasing in size - was located, it was certainly not located in the southern latitudes between South Africa and New Zealand. We can say that Cook established that the Southern continent is not in this region of the Indian Ocean; it remained to be sure - whether it was in the South Atlantic or the South Pacific. It must be constantly borne in mind in order to be able to appreciate the stunning scale and scope of Cook's accomplishments that no one before him has explored the waters of the extreme south of the Indian, Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. Cook had to explore all three oceans in one amazing journey. And this, we note, after the two huge central regions of the Pacific Ocean, which he has already explored. The first voyage, and the lesser of the two, however, was of such a scale that it easily covered a land the size of Australia. The dimensions of the second, which carried it almost from Antarctica to the equator and many thousands of miles from New Zealand east to Easter Island, were so great that they are difficult to comprehend: undoubtedly, it was the greatest research expedition ever undertaken in Tikhiy the ocean.
Cook's original intention was to sail straight to the Cook Strait and meet Furneau there in Queen Charlotte's Bay, but he changed his mind and headed for the first safe and accessible anchorage - Misty Bay in the southwest of the South Island, which he noticed on his first voyage. The apparent reason for this was the desire to explore the natural resources of this area and assess the potential of this bay as a port. The real reason was almost certainly the desire to give the team a rest and recuperate. They made a 117-day - almost four-month - voyage during which they saw no land. Four months in low temperatures and difficult seas. John Forster, though inclined to always complain, even under the best conditions, was probably right in describing the journey as a series of tribulations, one worse than the other.
Six weeks later, with the crew fully rested and ready to sail, Cook sailed north to meet Furneau, whom he found enjoying life in the beautiful calm waters of Queen Charlotte Bay, rigging removed from the Adventure, and looking forward to a very pleasant winter. spent in this idyllic paradise. Thanks to favorable and very strong winds, Furneau made an extremely fast transition from the place where they were lost to Tasmania - a distance of more than three thousand miles - in twenty-six days. He sailed south along the east coast of Tasmania to decide once and for all whether there was a strait between it and Australia; for some incomprehensible reason, he and his officers came to the conclusion that there is no such thing and that this is just a gulf that juts out very deeply into the land. Cook believed his words and did not swim to check it himself - he had no reason for this.
Much to Furneau's dismay, Cook ordered him to put all the rigging back on the Adventure without delay. He had no intention of messing around all winter in this bay. They came here to research, and they will research, if only to prove that the work continues even with the coming of winter. The site he intended to explore extended to the east and north of New Zealand, much of which remained untouched to explore.
The Resolution and Adventure left Queen Charlotte Bay on June 7, crossed the Cook Strait, and headed almost straight west without finding anything. Then they turned a little further north, hoping to find Pitcairn Island, which was discovered by Carter in 1767, but Cook was forced to change plans when on June 29, to his dismay, he learned from Furneau, who himself was suffering from a gout attack at that time, that he was on board. Adventure ”one person died and twenty were seriously ill. Cook immediately climbed aboard and found that the other crew members were also in poor condition. To Cook's chagrin and anger, in all cases the cause was the same - scurvy. And all this is simply because Furneau did not bother to establish the anti-scurvy diet that Cook insisted on. It should be noted that at the same time, on board Cook, not a single person was sick.
Cook abandoned his plans for research for the near future and turned to Tahiti. The well-being of the Adventure team was much more important than the search for new islands, it was necessary to deliver the sick to a safe and secure place as soon as possible, and the island of Tahiti was the closest known Kuku paradise in this part of the Pacific Ocean.
Exactly two weeks later, Cook made his second landing on the island of Tahiti. Because he was anxious to get fresh supplies of fruits and vegetables as quickly as possible, he made his first stop at Whitepia Bay in the southeast of the island. It was not far from his last camp on this island. While they were out of the harbor, buying fruit from the boats from the Tahitians, the wind fell, and the powerful current swept the Resolution and dragged it to the coral reef, and despite all the efforts of Cook and his team, the collision with the reef seemed inevitable, but at a critical moment a miraculous coastal breeze blew and carried the ship away from the coral. Sparrman, a Swedish botanist, marveled at Cook's calmness and lack of panic among the crew even in a moment of danger, but he was shocked by Cook's language. Another report said the crisis was so severe that Cook was forced to revive himself with brandy. This seems unlikely.
Cook was unable to obtain fresh fruit at Waitepia Bay. And with the Adventure he sailed around the island and returned to the old Endeavor anchorage at Mataea Bay. Cook, along with the fifteen officers and sailors who were with him aboard the Endeavor, received a noisy reception. Old friendships were renewed and strengthened, and new ones struck at such a speed that we find in Forster's diary the following bitter lamentations: "A large number of women from the lowest ranks of society were brought in by our sailors and remained aboard at sunset."
On the site of the former Venus fort, tents were erected, and the sick were carried there from the Adventure, where they were treated. Cook insisted that they eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible, as much as they could eat, and this treatment had a quick and remarkable effect. A month later, Cook decided that the Adventure crew was ready to go to sea again, and since he came to Tahiti mainly to improve the health of the sailors, he, as usual, was not in a position to hesitate.
In addition, he wanted to set off on a further journey for two other pressing reasons. In both Vaitepia and Matavai, it was impossible to get fresh meat: the pigs that inhabited the island in huge numbers were almost completely exterminated. But, as Cook learned, there was plenty of supplies to be found on Huahine and Raiatea, two islands he had visited earlier on his first voyage. Secondly, time was running out. He wanted to locate a group of islands that Tasman discovered in the middle of the last century - Tasman named them Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Middleburg, and then return to Queen Charlotte Bay to be ready to set off from there in November for summer exploration of high latitudes.
The Resolution and Adventure sailed in early September with a supply of water, firewood, and as much fruit and vegetables as they could take away; with them were also two young men who were to serve as translators: Odiddi, a young man from Bora Bora, and Omai from Raiatea, who was sailing aboard the Adventure. Once again, Cook noted that the joy with which they arrived in Tahiti was overshadowed by their sadness at parting with this island. As before, the weeping Tahitians begged them not to leave; as before, the bay was swarming with boats filled with crying locals.
Their first target was Huahine, which Cook had visited three years earlier. The welcome was as warm as on the previous visit. They were able to get at least three hundred pigs there, so the problems with fresh meat and corned beef were solved for a long time. The rest of the supplies they procured from Raiatea, so that when the ships left the islands of the Society, they were even better supplied with provisions than when they left England.
Cook headed west with a slight southward slope. On September 24, they saw two small islands that Cook did not consider worthy of exploration. He named them the Hervey Islands and sailed past. (This was part of the larger archipelago now known as Cook Island.) On October 1, they arrived on the first of three islands discovered by Tasman; Middleburgh - This name has now been replaced by the original Eua.
Cook and his sailors were the first white people seen by the inhabitants of Eua, but if we talk about the attitude of the natives, they seemed to have found long-lost relatives. Their kindness, hospitality and friendliness were so great that it seemed incredible. Even on his beloved Tahiti, Cook has never seen anything like it. They were treated to dinner, a party was arranged for them, and they were taken around the island, showing it. The islanders reached, as Cook noted in his diary, more high step development than any other people in the Pacific. One of the crew members wrote that they were wonderful people on a beautiful island. All arable land was carefully cultivated, divided into neat square plots with paths crossing them. Their homes were the cleanest dwellings Cook had ever seen in the Pacific, with immaculately clean reed mats on the floor. They were a virgin, healthy, happy and resourceful people, noble even in their trade - Cook wrote that they sought to give rather than receive, such a statement he could not have made about the natives of any other island in the Pacific Ocean. Astronomer Wells wrote that they were the funniest and most joyful creatures he had ever seen. Cook noted with considerable surprise that men and women not only ate together, which was forbidden in Tahiti, but the men were so gallant that they were the first to offer food to women.
From there they sailed to a large island, which Tasman named Amsterdam, which now bears its original name Tongatabu. The same exceptionally warm welcome awaited them on it, as on Eua. Here, too, they were able to conclude quick and very profitable trade agreements and, like on Eua, did not meet a single native with weapons. But Sparrman, who turned out to be as sanctimonious, petty and grumpy as his friend Forster, made a rather somber note, demanding that they find out why, if these people were so remarkably peaceful, he met many batons everywhere. Apparently, it did not occur to him that these clubs could serve for defensive purposes only against aliens from other islands: the islanders from Eua and Tongatabu, with their developed and intensive farming systems, were relatively wealthy people and should have been very tempting prey for poorer tribes from neighboring islands.
When both ships left the island on October 8, their holds were laden with fruits and vegetables, and, moreover, they were carrying with them - alive - three hundred heads of poultry and about one hundred and fifty pigs. There is a desire to compare both ships with barnyards.
Because of the amazing hospitality shown to them, Cook gave these islands the name of Friendship Island, but although it is still in use today, they are more - and officially - known as the Tonga Islands.
Two weeks later, the ships were close to Hawkes Bay on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, suffering heavy damage from southerly and southwestern gale winds, making it nearly impossible to push south to the Cook Strait. Subsequently, the storm winds turned into a real storm, so strong that Adventure was carried out to sea, while Cook lost contact with him on the night of October 29.
Cook managed to make his way to Cape Palliser - the southeastern tip of the North Island and to the entrance to the Cook Strait when, to his chagrin, the wind changed to the northwestern one and made it almost impossible to enter the strait. Cook was carried first to the southeast, then to the south, along the eastern coast of the South Island, so far away that he seriously thought about finding a harbor somewhere nearby rather than going to Queen Charlotte's Bay. Unfortunately, he had no choice - there was an appointment with Furneau, so Cook made his way north against the changing headwinds until he found shelter in a cove in the Cook Strait itself, just beyond Cape Palliser, at the southern end of the North Island. If only he knew it might have served as some consolation on that day in May three and a half years ago, when he dashed past Sydney Bay without paying attention to it, because now, in search of protection from the storm, he stumbled upon a luxurious natural the harbor of Port Nicholson, which is now the capital of New Zealand, Wellington.
The winds calmed down, and the next day the Resolution arrived at Queen Charlotte Bay. There was no sign of Adventure, but Cook did not expect to see it there until a few days later. They waited in the bay for about three weeks, and during this time they learned an interesting and extremely unpleasant news: the Maori living in these parts, with whom Cook and his sailors were on good terms, were cannibals, because while the British were here, the local military the Maori troops arrived from a raid on their enemies, the Maori from Admiralty Bay, bringing with them the body of the enemy, which they cooked and ate with great delight in front of the frightened observers from the Resolution.
At the end of those three weeks, Cook decided that he could no longer wait: to get any distance into polar waters, he had to walk in midsummer or not walk at all, and if he held out any longer, it would be too late. Therefore, he left a letter for Furneau in a bottle, where he wrote that on his return from the circumpolar regions he, in all likelihood, would go to Easter Island, and then to Tahiti, leaving Furneau to decide for himself whether to return to England or try to meet him where- anywhere in the Pacific; the absence of any deadline made this proposal very optimistic.
Since Furneau will no longer meet in the story of Cook, this seems to be the most appropriate place to briefly describe what happened to him. After being parted from the Resolution during a storm, his ship was thrown into the open sea a considerable distance to the north and east, and it took him several days to fight his way back to the east coast of the North Island. When the ship approached it, it entered Tolaga Bay, the first port that Cook entered New Zealand on his first voyage to replenish water and firewood, and then moved to Queen Charlotte Bay. Unfortunately, headwinds prevented him from entering Cook Strait until November 30, and Cook left Queen Charlotte Bay on the 25th - they parted for only a few days.
Furneau anchored in Queen Charlotte's Harbor and spent two weeks there refurbishing the Adventure. Then on December 16, he sent a boat crew of two officers and eight sailors ashore to collect as many vegetables and herbs as they could. They didn't come back. A search party that followed them the next day found that all the people had been killed and eaten by the Maori.
Horrified by this incident, Furneau decided to return to England. He made the trek to Cape Horn extremely quickly, in just one month, and then stopped in Cape Town before returning to England.
Cook, leaving Queen Charlotte's Bay, sailed south for nearly ten days, then changed course to the southeast; after a week of following this course, he met the first icebergs, and after two or three days they already occupied the entire space from horizon to horizon. Temperatures had dropped below freezing, and the heating methods aboard the Resolution were so primitive that it was almost as cold inside the cabins as on the upper deck. Forster Sr. especially - in his defense can be cited the fact that he suffered severely from rheumatism - bitterly complained about the conditions in his cabin, which was located behind the main mast, where both the wind and icy water could, apparently, penetrate inside ... Forster was delighted when the fog began, which, combined with the many icebergs floating in the immediate vicinity, made the situation very dangerous and forced Cook to turn north again.
He was not happy for long — the weather had improved a week before Christmas, and Cook turned the Resolution south again. On December 21, Resolution crossed the Antarctic Circle for the second time in history, and both times Cook did. At Christmas they were still moving south, and Forster Sr. wrote in his diary for that day that he did not know whether to be upset because of the suffering that this icy Antarctic desert, which seemed to him hell, or because of “ disgust, curses and swearing ”that surrounded him on all sides, because the“ Resolution ”team celebrated Christmas in the traditional nautical way.
By that time, the tests were enough for Cook. He wrote: “Our ropes turned into wire, sails into cardboard or tin sheets, and the pulleys quickly froze in blocks, so that superhuman efforts were required from us to raise or lower the topsail. The cold was so strong that it was almost impossible to bear it, the whole sea was covered with ice, it was dominated by a strong storm, and everything was shrouded in thick fog. In all these unfavorable circumstances, it was natural that I thought about returning to more northern regions. " So he turned north, into the warmer forties, and probably just in time, because George Forster, the son of the elder, or nagging Forster, wrote that both the health and spirit of the team had reached a low level. His father and at least a dozen acquaintances became completely disabled and were unable to work due to rheumatism - although his father apparently did not suffer from his hands, because the complaints continued every day in the pages of his diary. Considering that the entire interior of the ship was saturated with moisture and dampness, it is surprising that there were so few people suffering from rheumatism. Forster Jr. continued that the whole crew was weak and looked sick, and even Captain Cook himself was pale and thin, because he had completely lost his appetite.
For fourteen days, Cook navigated the ship north, but as soon as he was convinced that his crew was again in order, to the incredible horror of Forster Sr., he turned the Resolution south again. When Cook began to perform a task, it was difficult to get him to turn to the side; if the Southern mainland exists, he will find it. He did not tell his officers and sailors what their destination was, for the simple reason that he himself did not know it. Forster wrote in despair: "There can be nothing so depressing as a complete ignorance of where we are going, which for no apparent reason is constantly kept secret from all the people on the ship."
For the third time, making his way between icebergs and ice fields, Cook sent his ship beyond the Arctic Circle. Cook's unparalleled icy courage blended well with the polar deserts that surrounded him. Few captains of our day with steel ships with powerful engines and high maneuverability could repeat what Cook did in his clumsy "coal miner" on that long past January day in 1774, being at the mercy of any whims of wind or current, surrounded by all icebergs and hardly capable of setting the sails in the most advantageous way, let alone raising or lowering the sails, because they were frozen and were like steel sheets, because the ropes were no longer ropes, but icy cables. But here's exactly what Cook did - he didn't stop at the Antarctic Circle.
He continued to move south for four more days, and then on January 30, 1774, he came to a stop, bumping into a hard and impenetrable pack field, stretching from horizon to horizon. The coordinates of this place were 71 ° 10 "South latitude and 106 ° 34" West longitude. This was the southernmost point that Cook reached. No one had ever been farther south before him. It is worth noting, by the way, that since then until our time, more than two hundred years later, not a single ship has penetrated further south in this area.
In his diary, the captain admits that he did not regret that he himself made the decision whether to go even further south. This phrase from his diary, probably the most quoted, gives us the most frank - indeed, the only frank - statement that Cook has ever made about himself and about what prompted him to an unparalleled series of exploits and discoveries: “I who hopes, that ambition leads me not only further than any other person before me, but as far as I believe it is possible to go, I do not regret that I faced this obstacle. "
It is worth saying that fate played a very cruel joke with Cook, because he could not discover Antarctica - what a triumph it would have crowned his entire legendary career. But even when he turned back, he was only two hundred miles from the nearest shore. It has not been noted or suggested that the southernmost point that Cook reached was significantly farther south — in some cases more than three hundred miles — than about half the coastline of Antarctica. Between approximately 170 ° East longitude - which is the longitude of New Zealand's South Island - and 10 ° West longitude, which runs halfway between Cape Town and the east coast South America, - the approximate semicircle of the Antarctic coastline in the high latitudes of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans passes between the Antarctic Circle and 70 ° south latitude. It should be recalled that Cook penetrated southward beyond 71 ° S latitude. If he made this southernmost penetration in the areas that we talked about above, he, without a doubt (if he was lucky with the pack ice), would have reached the shores of Antarctica. But it so happened that Cook made his attempts in the high latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, where the coastline of Antarctica recedes strongly to the south, in some places at least seven hundred miles further south than in the Atlantic. But whether he discovered Antarctica or not, his voyage in January 1774 will still remain one of the most incredible ever undertaken by man.
Thus, having indisputably proved that the mythical continent of Dalrymple does not exist in either the Indian or the Pacific Oceans - there was still an insignificant possibility that a very small continent could be found in the South Atlantic - Cook, to the great relief of Forster Sr., turned " Resolution "to the north.
Now the question arose before him: what to do next? He has done almost everything that he has outlined in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and could perfectly head home. Cape Horn was not too far away, and it could be in the Atlantic in just a few weeks. Or, if he wished, he could repair the ship and spend the winter in Cape Town, and then make a new raid into the polar regions next summer. But none of these options pleased Cook. When research fever enters the blood of a person, the disease develops in only one way - it is constantly aggravated, and Cook was an incurable case. Apart from a few islands with an unclear location, the entire South Pacific remained uncharted wilderness. What could be more obvious? What further actions would be most appropriate in this case?
Cook gathered his officers and sailors - if he wanted to extend the voyage by another year, the least he can do is give them the opportunity to express their opinions - and laid out his proposals. He wants to find the land supposedly discovered by Juan Fernandez in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and then go to Easter Island. (Cook did not have much faith that he would find them. The source of information about the existence and position of the former was none other than Alexander Dalrymple himself, and Cook's trust in him reached an extremely low level; Easter Island existed, this was not doubts, but, as Cook wrote, about its location "there were such varied indications that I had almost no hope of finding it." I have not sailed on this route. He then intended to march to New Zealand, cross the Pacific Ocean again, round Cape Horn by November, and then spend the summer in the high latitudes of the south Atlantic, and then sail home through Cape Town. In listing, it doesn't look so colossal. In fact, it was a huge journey that could not have been completed in less than eleven months.
There was not a single vote against: everyone, apparently, was delighted with these plans. The fact is that for a sailor of the Royal Navy, both in those days and now, the most beautiful view the ground opens when you look at it from the gangway. Perhaps they were so happy that they escaped the icy embrace of Antarctica that they were willing and happy to agree to anything. It is more likely that many of them themselves suffered from exploratory impatience. But most likely, they understood that they were an elite participating in accomplishments that no one had ever succeeded in, and it was they who made history with their own hands, and such things happen because their almost deified captain makes them happen. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what effect Cook’s personality had on his team, but it’s clear that this effect lay somewhere between "huge" and "colossal." The enormous prestige given to them by the very fact of serving on the Resolution also played a role: fifty years after that, when some of the young men on board grew old, they had only to say: “I sailed with Captain Cook,” and they immediately turned into special people.
The land of Juan Fernandez - and this did not surprise anyone - never materialized: for Cook, Dalrymple's authoritative statement that it was there, with such and such coordinates, was a guarantee that it did not exist. On February 23, the researcher came to the conclusion that this land simply does not exist, and he headed in the direction where, in his opinion, Easter Island was most likely to be.
It was at this point that serious concerns for Cook's health arose. He experienced tremendous physical and mental stress, most time during this voyage he spent in Antarctica, was exposed to the severe cold on deck. And unhealthy food was not conducive to well-being. Now he went to bed with colic gallbladder, his body did not take any food or medicine, and his condition quickly deteriorated, turning from serious to critical. Apparently he was suffering from some sort of gallbladder infection. And undoubtedly, only the devoted and tireless attention from the ship's doctor - his name was Patten - saved his life.
When Easter Island appeared on the horizon on March 12, Cook reappeared on deck, still weak, but on the mend. The Resolution sailed along the coast in search of a natural harbor, but there was none. The crew of the ship stood along the side and looked in amazement at the massive stone statues that dotted the entire island: some stood on the slopes of the hill, some on massive stone platforms. When the members of the expedition landed, they found many more statues lying on their sides and almost completely overgrown with tall grass. The natives, who turned out to be quite friendly, had no idea who had built these statues and when. Cook's theory that the Polynesians were incapable of art and technology and could not carve and raise these gigantic statues from stone, and, therefore, this is the work of some previous, more advanced civilizations, now extinct, is undoubtedly correct. But the origin of the famous stone idols of Easter remains a mystery today.
Easter Island turned out to be a poor source of food. They didn't even manage to get there fresh water... Cook decided to sail to the Marquesas Islands, discovered by the Spaniards almost two centuries before; he wanted to clarify their position, which was unclear, and hoped to replenish food supplies there. On the way to the Marquesas Islands, Cook fell ill again, and his life was again in danger. But the departure of a dedicated doctor helped him recover. On April 7, the Marquesas appeared, and the next day the Resolution dropped anchor at Waitahu Bay on the island of Tehuat.
The islanders were very friendly, and although they could not get fresh meat, there was an abundance of fruits, and there were some vegetables. What particularly struck the British, and the opinion on board was apparently unanimous, was appearance the Marquis. Slender and graceful people, whose skin was so light that women and children could easily be mistaken for Europeans, were the most beautiful race that Cook and his team met not only in Oceania, but throughout the world.
Now Cook headed to the places that, in essence, became his second home - in Tahiti. After a nine-day voyage that passed through the Tuamotu Islands - a widely scattered group of coral atolls, Cook tried to land on one of them, but the natives made it clear that they did not want the presence of foreigners, so he continued on his way and on April 22, anchored at Mataiea Bay on Tahiti.
The reception was usual - enthusiastic. The island, which had almost one little pig when they left it last time, was now full of these animals. Cook bought so many of them that he had to put together a shed for pigs on the shore. He already felt a shortage of goods for exchange, but found a wonderful substitute for currency - a large number of red feathers, which they had collected the previous fall on the Friendship Islands; then Cook did not know that red was considered the sacred color of the Tahitian god Oro, and red feathers, which, as it turned out, could not be obtained in Tahiti, were a necessary attribute for the performance of a certain religious ceremony.
While Cook and some of his officers and scientists were on the shore, they were invited to become spectators of the most extraordinary spectacle that took place in the neighboring bay, where the capital of Papeete is now located. The Tahitians were preparing to land on the neighboring island of Moorea, whose leader rebelled against Tahiti: it was dress rehearsal in suits. A large fleet of twin boats filled the entire bay. Some of these boats were almost as long as the Resolution. At the stern of these ships, platforms were erected for soldiers armed with spears, clubs and a huge supply of stones. (Strikingly, in all of Polynesian Oceania — and nowhere else in the world — stones were the most common offensive weapon.) Counting the rowers, who also fought in times of need, there were about forty warriors on each boat. Cook counted at least 160 boats; in addition, he noticed almost as many smaller boats, which he considered to be ammunition carriers and transport boats.
Reports from the time describe how large some of these warships were, carrying up to two hundred rowers and warriors, and this seems very plausible. In any case, the sight was impressive as hundreds of boats and thousands of soldiers lined up for the military review.
Cook, out of caution, did not wait for the outbreak of hostilities. The departure was especially painful this time because Cook told them sadly that he would never return to Tahiti. In fact, he returned three years later.
From Tahiti, they went to Huahine and Raiatea in the archipelago of the Society Islands, known to them almost as Tahiti. There they stocked up on provisions, and there Odiddi, languishing with homesickness, returned to his family. From there they sailed west to the Friendship Islands. We passed the island they named Palmerston Island, a coral atoll from the Cook Archipelago. A few days later, they approached a larger island, where they were met with a hail of arrows and stones, and could not get down to the ground. Savage Island (Wild) - that is how Cook called it, and for the cause, because if he had not quickly moved from one side to another, he would have been pierced by an arrow. The descendants of the stone throwers, by the way, claim that their ancestors were killed, and the people of Niue - the original name of the island, which they still bear today - were actually quite friendly.
Cook traveled to the Friendship Islands, whose people, as it turned out, are as friendly as the people of Tahiti. When he returned to these places three years later, he spent at least three months idly cruising between these islands, apparently not finding the strength to leave them. But in this case, he did not stay. The end of June had already come, he wanted to go around Cape Horn in November, and before that he decided to look for a group of islands between the Friendship Islands and the Australian coast, the existence of which both Kyros and Bougainville claimed to exist. From the Friendship Islands - Tonga - Cook directed the Resolution westward with a slight deviation to the north and passed the Fiji Islands, which lay just north of its route. The first island of the Greater Cyclades, as Bougainville called this archipelago, an island called Maeve, appeared on July 17th. And from that moment on, Cook was in a maze of islands - there were about eighty of them in total: the Greater Cyclades archipelago stretched for five hundred miles - a huge field for the application of Cook's cartographic talent.
It turned out that in the Great Cyclades, two races met, two cultures - the Polynesians and the darker-skinned Negroid Melanesians. They were markedly different in temperament: uncompromising hostility towards strangers, apparently, was only a character trait of the Melanesians. When Cook landed on the two predominantly Melanesian islands, Malekula and Erromanga, he was greeted with cold hostility, which turned hot on Erromanga when the natives tried to take possession of the boats from the Resolution. Stones flew into the air, the natives launched spears and arrows; The sailors from the Resolution were forced to resort to muskets to save their lives. Several natives were killed, many were wounded; two British sailors were also injured.
Cook blamed only himself for this: “We entered their ports and tried to land on land in the most peaceful way. If it succeeded - all is well, if not - we would still have landed and defended ourselves, thanks to the superiority of our weapons. How else can they view us other than the invaders of their country? " This topic appears more than once in Cook's diaries. Unlike the overwhelming majority of his compatriots - and Europeans in general - he was very well aware and felt that they were intruding by force into the life of a people who were completely happy before their appearance, by force they took what rightfully belonged to others, and that over time In time, the coming of the white man could harm and bring destruction to these peoples of Oceania. Such a thought really scared Cook: paradoxically, or it only seems so, but when it came to quickly annexing new territories to the dominions of the crown, there was no one among the discoverers who could compare with Cook. But in reality there is no paradox, just the eternal struggle between duty and conscience.
The Polynesian part of the Greater Cyclades met Cook in a completely different way. He desperately needed water and wood and tried his luck on the southernmost of the group's large islands, Tanna, on which there was an active volcano. It was inhabited by Polynesians, and although the initial reception was cold, friendly relations eventually developed, despite the fact that one of the natives was killed by a sentry for no apparent reason.
The natives of the island of Tanna were eager to trade, and Cook was able, to his delight, to replenish the supply of fresh meat. When Cook, after this most pleasant stay in Oceania, left the island, out of friendliness he equated them with the Tahitians and natives of the Islands of Friendship; he had to record two observations: he considered Tanna the most fertile island in the Pacific Ocean, which he attributed to the volcanic ash that regularly falls on the island, and, in addition, he called it the most beautiful place he had ever seen. Such a remark from the lips of Cook, a convinced "Tahitian", is indeed a great compliment.
Cook headed north to make another round of the Greater Cyclades and finish mapping them, then veered south towards New Zealand. According to Cook, Bougainville, the French pioneer, barely touched this group of islands, while he, Cook, visited all the large and many small islands and carried out a thorough topographic survey and plotted everything on the map, not forgetting to give out new names when he sailed by ... Accordingly, Cook believed that he had more rights to this than Bougainville, and gave the entire archipelago the name New Hebrides and annexed it to the king's domain. Until now, this archipelago is predominantly English - part of the Anglo-French joint possession.
They walked south until September 3, when they saw a mountainous island rising out of the sea right in front of them. A number of dangerous reefs and shoals were visible to the north, so Cook headed up along the east coast until he found a suitable anchorage. The natives of these islands - a race unfamiliar to Kuku - proved to be very hospitable, and the Resolution stayed there for about a week. In the land where Cook found inhabitants very similar to the Australians - a friendly and very funny people, intensive farming flourished.
During this stay, Cook climbed the mountain and found that this island, shaped like the back of a whale, was about thirty-five miles wide. When they set sail again, they were surprised at its length from south to north - about two hundred and fifty miles. Cook realized that, aside from New Zealand, it must be the largest island in Oceania, and, as usual, he was right. Ignoring its local name Balad, Cook replaced it with New Caledonia.
On October 10, they stumbled upon a small, uninhabited but fertile island, which Cook named Norfolk. They stopped on it just long enough to have time to annex it to the possessions of the British king, and then went further along the western coast of the North Island to Queen Charlotte's Bay, where they arrived on 18 October.
They spent three weeks in the bay, stocking up on water and wood and getting the Resolution in top condition for the next long leg of the journey, around Cape Horn to Cape Town, before which they would have been unable to stock up on provisions anywhere. From the trunks of the trees cut by the saw, Cook realized that another ship had been here. The message he had left for Furneau was not there. Using graphic language, Cook was able to learn from the Maori the approximate departure date of the Adventure.
Cook noticed that the Maori had changed since the last time he was here, almost a year ago. Then they were friendly, sociable; now they were restrained, shy, careful. It was only when Cook sailed to Cape Town and received a letter left for him by Furneau and learned of a case of cannibalism that he realized that the Maori from Queen Charlotte's Bay had cause for concern.
The Resolution left the Gulf on November 10 and sailed southeast until it was a thousand miles south of its starting point, then turned east, making its way very quickly to Cape Town, leaving strong westerly winds behind it, around 55 th parallel. Furneau traveled roughly the same way, and neither captain nor the other met a trace of the mainland of Dalrymple.
The journey to Cape Town was uneventful. Cook even noted that it was boring. They spent Christmas in the Terra del Fuego area, gathering plants, mapping, gathering food and water supplies, then circled Cape Horn on December 29 and headed for the Atlantic.
Cook's last goal was to cross the South Atlantic at high latitudes, where, in his conviction, it was in vain to look for land - part of the large southern continent, about the existence of which Dalrymple and other famous geographers spoke out, so sure of its existence that they even drew its map in advance. So Cook again moved into the depths of ice, brutal cold and thick blinding mists. He discovered South Georgia - a lifeless, bare and sad island of ice and snow, devoid of population and completely unfit for any purpose, but this, undoubtedly, did not prevent Cook from going ashore and annexing it to British possession. Then he discovered a useless group of islands, which he also annexed, and called them the South Sandwich Islands, and to the south of them - another lifeless piece of land, which he called South Tul.
In addition, Cook searched everywhere and everywhere, but did not find a trace of that land of Dalrymple, let alone the Southern mainland, for a reason that had become obvious to Cook for a long time - it simply was not here. Cook has been looking for Bouvier Circumcision Island for the past couple of weeks and has not been able to find it. His new route crossed with the one he took about two years ago when he first crossed the Antarctic Circle. He skirted Earth in an area so high latitudes that such a trip was considered absolutely impossible, and finally buried Dalrymple's dream, proving that there was no Southern continent. Cook was given a task, or, if you like, he set it to himself, and he completed it.
Now it was time to sail home, if only because he had nothing left to explore in the Southern Hemisphere. On March 21, he sailed to Cape Town, where repairs were to be carried out, which took five weeks. There he was given a letter left by Furneau, from which he learned about the tragedy that was unfolding in Queen Charlotte's Gulf.
The way back "Resolution" lay through the island of St. Helena and the Azores. On July 30, 1775, the ship dropped anchor at Spithead, three years and eleven days after the start of what remains the greatest geographical expedition to this day.
For a long time there were no stamps with images of travelers and their famous sailing ships. Today's story is about James Cook's second voyage around the world on the sloop Resolution and his failed attempt to discover Antarctica. As always, the brands will help us with this. And the story of the first trip can be found.
Australian Antarctic Territories stamp, 1972 (Michel AQ 22, Scott AQ L22)
James Cook's second trip around the world
In 1772 England equips another long-distance geographic expedition to the southern seas and James Cook again becomes its head. The expedition this time consisted of two ships, Cook commanded the ship "Resolution", the captain of the second, "Adventure", was Furneau.
On July 13, 1772, the ships left Plymouth. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the ships headed south-east and in January 17, 1773 they crossed the South Arctic Circle for the first time.
After 200 years, a commemorative stamp was issued on the island in honor of this event.
Norfolk Island stamp commemorating the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle. 1973, Mi: NF 132, Sn: NF 152 During the cold winter months, Cook decided to explore the poorly explored areas of the Pacific Ocean. Due to an outbreak of scurvy, the ships were forced to enter Tahiti, where the abundance of fruits allowed the entire crew to be cured of this scourge.
Resolution and Adventure in Tahiti. Hood. Francis Jukes The ships then headed for New Zealand again and lost sight of each other. Cook waited for Furneau in Charlotte's Bay, but that was not. And he moved south alone. Furneau did not come to Charlotte's Bay until a week later. And then a terrible event happened - eight crew members sent to the shore for supplies were killed and eaten by the natives. Dumbfounded by this event, the captain of Adventure decides to return to England.
The Resolution's advance southward was not an easy one. The route was constantly blocked by pack ice and icebergs. Cook finally comes to the conclusion that the southern continent does not exist and leaves the polar waters.
Iceberg seen on January 9, 1773 Then Cook sails to Easter Island and further to the Marquesas Islands and again to Tahiti. Having described an arc around the southern part of the ocean, the Resolution approached the Espiritu Santo Islands, which Cook renames New Hebrides. Then he moved westward and in September 1774 discovered a large island, which he called New Caledonia.
Stamp of New Caledonia, 1926 Back Cook returned past New Zealand and Cape Horn. During this expedition, which lasted three years, Cook crossed the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. The total length of the route was 84 thousand km, that is, more than twice the length of the Earth's equator.
Map showing the route of James Cook's second voyage (1772-1775), National Maritime Museum, London Upon his return, Cook was promoted to Captain First Rank and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Although this time Antarctica was not discovered, Cook's voyage significantly enriched geography with new information about the southern part of the world ocean.
The very next year, Cook organized a third expedition to find the North Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. But more on that in the next episode.
Portrait of James Cook, taken after the completion of the second expedition. Nathaniel Dance, National Maritime Museum, London, UK "Resolution" (James Cook's ship)
"Resolution" (Resolute), like the first ship of James Cook, a former coal miner.
The Resolution was built at the Fishburn Shipyards in Whitby in 1769 for Captain William Hammond, and was originally named Drake. In 1771 it was acquired by the British Admiralty for £ 4151 especially for Cook's second expedition. Before sailing, the ship's hull was reinforced at the shipyard in Deptford. The best equipment of that time was installed on the ship - a chronometer, an azimuth compass, an ice anchor, a desalination plant.
Resolution. Painter William Hodges, 1774 Specifications:
- type - sloop
- displacement - 462 t
- deck length - 33.7 m
- keel length - 28.5 m
- width - 9.3 m
- crew - 110 people
- armament - 12 guns
Resolution in ice. Painter William Hodges, 1774 After he faithfully served his captain on Cook's second and third expeditions, the Resolution was converted into an armed transport in 1780 and sent to the East Indies in March 1781. On June 9, 1782, the ship was captured by de Suffren's squadron. After the battle of Negapatama (July 6, 1782), the ship was sent to Manila, where she was supposed to replenish supplies, as well as to recruit by force all the sailors available there. On July 22, the ship set off and went missing.
"Resolution" on stamps
James Cook and his ships very often appeared on the stamps of various countries. I have counted almost a hundred brands with "Resolution", it's just not the easiest job to list them.
The first appearance of "Resolution" on stamps was most likely in 1920 in the same series, issued in the small island states of Oceania, which were part of the British Commonwealth - Aitutaki, Penryn, Niue and Rapotonga. The issue of identical stamps for the colonies was quite common.
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