Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz

Jul 05, 2008 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-history, travel

I knew next to nothing about Captain James Cook when i picked up this book... history books generally gloss over his voyages, even though he explored an area that encompasses nearly 1/3 of the globe. Horwitz's urge to learn all he could about the man and his work is infectious... you can see this in the text rubbing off on those around him, as seen in Roger, his companion on many of his "Cook" travels.

Retracing Captain Cook's three voyages, relying heavily on the diaires of Cook himself, Horwitz...more I knew next to nothing about Captain James Cook when i picked up this book... history books generally gloss over his voyages, even though he explored an area that encompasses nearly 1/3 of the globe. Horwitz's urge to learn all he could about the man and his work is infectious... you can see this in the text rubbing off on those around him, as seen in Roger, his companion on many of his "Cook" travels.

Retracing Captain Cook's three voyages, relying heavily on the diaires of Cook himself, Horwitz decides to take a short trip to the Pacific Northwest to sail for 10 days in a replica of Cook's ship. He wanted a feel for the life or a seaman, and he sure gets it!! Next he sets off to Australia and New Zealand. His journalistic style brings in great aspects of history, anthropology, and language. He interviews Maori people in New Zealand and Aborigines in Australia, asking them what memories their people have of Cook and his men. Both groups remember Captain Cook, oftentimes in a negative light. It does not appear that they despise Cook as a man, but more of what he stood for, and what his exploration meant for the native culture.

Horwitz and Roger then begin to island hop around the Pacific. I particularly liked the time they spent on the island of Niue (like Horwitz, I had never heard of this island.) Describing the scene, Horwitz claims it may be the last part of Polynesia that is not spoiled by commercialism and tourists. He and Roger stay for a week on this small island (only 11 miles long!) and try to unravel the mystery of the hula hula (Cook's men were scared away from these islands by men with red teeth, and they named the island Savage Island because they thought the people were cannibals).

Roger and Horwitz go to Yorkshire, England, Cook's birthplace (and Roger's too), and take part in a few days of the Cook festival. They meet Cliff, the young president of the Captain Cook society, and try to find out as much as they can about the enigmatic Cook. Going to Cook's own home gives Horwitz a different take on the man, and he learns more about Cook's beliefs and his philosophies.

Their travels end in Hawaii, like Cook's did in 1778. They commemorate Cook on the beach where he was killed.

The other aspect of this book that fascinated me was how Horwitz tried to get "into Cook's head". Cook was a son of the Enlightenment, and did not come to Polynesia with preconceived notions of God, Gold, and Glory like earlier explorers. He wanted to discover and learn about others, and was very scientifically conscious for a man of his time. (less)

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Oct 15, 2007 Mary rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history and sailing fans

Despite an interesting topic (Captain Cook) and a fascinating setting (the Pacific), I found this book ponderous and lacking momentum. Perhaps it was the organization but once I'd read about Cook's first journey to the South Pacific, I was done with this book (I did finish - you know by now that if I'd quit the rating would be 1 star "it's a book"). It picked up again when the author visited Yorkshire, Cook's childhood home, but then bogged down. The end was awkward, bringing in the author's chi...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

In my research for Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii, I read a dozen accounts of Captain James Cook’s deadly encounter with the natives of Hawaii in 1779. This included not only the Captains’ journal, but that of seaman, John Ledyard, and that of first mate, Lt. King. When Tony Horwitz declared that in Blue Latitudes he would take us boldly where Captain Cook had gone before, I didn’t expect to learn anything new. What I found was the most informative, well-researched, fun account of the famous...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Tony Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very interesting and so well written. The author, Tony Horwitz, decides to follow the course of Captain James Cook, the great English explorer of the 19th century, as he travelled the Pacific on three epic voyages "discovering" many unique places that had never been visited by Europeans. Horwitz tells of his own adventures with a fine sense of humor, made all the more delightful by his traveling companion, a mostly-soused Englishman who lives in Australia and loves to sail. The author did his re...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Brooks rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, very much like traveling with Bill Bryson. It is an arm chair travel guide to the three trips of Captain Cook through his home town of Yorkshire, Australia, Tonga, Hawaii, Alaska, and Niaea. Cook is an enigmatic figure - tons of material written by his hands, but nothing on his feelings or dreams. He was a self-made man from an age where getting anywhere in the British society without being an aristrocrat was near impossible. He was a strong leader - keeping his crew...more I really enjoyed this book, very much like traveling with Bill Bryson. It is an arm chair travel guide to the three trips of Captain Cook through his home town of Yorkshire, Australia, Tonga, Hawaii, Alaska, and Niaea. Cook is an enigmatic figure - tons of material written by his hands, but nothing on his feelings or dreams. He was a self-made man from an age where getting anywhere in the British society without being an aristrocrat was near impossible. He was a strong leader - keeping his crew together through threw year journeys, trying all sorts of weeds to keep scurvy from his crew, and the best surveyor - his maps were still used until the 1950s in some areas. The comparisons between the statues in London of Nelson versus Cook shows how little England cared for Cook. Australia has a much closer connection to Cook - since Cook surveyed the east coast. Australia even bought his boyhood home and brought it to Australia (too bad it was not quite is home). Overall, Cook is shown as a heroic figure, and not the demon that is displayed by many native cultures that were destroyed by contact with Europeans. Even Cook lamented the changes he saw in the five years between contact with some cultures. The Tiahitions became prostitutes and were rapidly loosing their culture. The aborigies of Australia initially threw back the beads and trinkets as they had everything they needed - and they were the most primative of all the Oceanic native cultures - no tools at all. And now their simple life and happyness are gone.
The book is made up of chapters of travel to different places by the author and a friend, Roger Williamson. As I read Rogers parts, I kept envisioning it played in a movie by Athony Bordain - same alcoholic wit as on his TV shows and books. My favorite chapter was the hunt for the Red Bannana - a great short story in itself. When Cook landed at Niae, the natives had Red teeth and Cook quickly left, but not before naming the Island, Savage Island, and saying the natives were cannibles. The author searches the island for the fabled red bannannas used by the natives to dye their teeth. (less)

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Nov 28, 2012 David P rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, history, travel

This is a travelogue, following the journeys of Captain James Cook on two different levels. It deserves to be savored slowly.

On one level, this is the story of three great voyages of discovery by Cook, between 1768 and 1779. Sailing for the British navy, Cook cruised across the Pacific Ocean, discovering and mapping islands, and also probing the edges of Antarctica and of the Arctic in search of new lands and new passages. And paralleling those voyages are those of the author, Tony Horwitz, re...more This is a travelogue, following the journeys of Captain James Cook on two different levels. It deserves to be savored slowly.

On one level, this is the story of three great voyages of discovery by Cook, between 1768 and 1779. Sailing for the British navy, Cook cruised across the Pacific Ocean, discovering and mapping islands, and also probing the edges of Antarctica and of the Arctic in search of new lands and new passages. And paralleling those voyages are those of the author, Tony Horwitz, retracing many of those trips in the company of his hard-drinking Australian pal Roger, also exploring Cook's roots in Yorkshire and tasting the sailing life aboard a replica of Cook's "Endeavour." The two stories are nicely intertwined, each presenting its unique viewpoint.

Cook was the last of the great explorers, and as Horwitz points out (and suggests in the book's subtitle, heading this page) his exploits have an uncanny resemblance to those of the "Starship Enterprise" in TV's "Star Trek." Even the names resonate--"Enterprise" and "Endeavour," Captain Kirk and Captain Cook. Cook wrote that he "sailed further than any man has been before" whereas the mission of the Enterprise was "to boldly go where no man has gone before." All that may be more than a coincidence, although "Star Trek" has no parallel to the strange and tragic way in which Cook's voyages ended. Was his body eaten by the Hawaiians who killed him, or (as the book suggests) was his flesh carefully removed and discarded, while his bones, believed to have magic powers, were carefully stashed--and if so, where? No one seems to know. And could Cook had saved himself that day, had he known how to swim?

The civilizations touched by Cook were alien and exotic. Tahiti seemed obsessed with sex, even staging public exhibitions (babies born of such unions were smothered at birth), yet it also knew violent warfare. New Zealand was a tangle of warring clans, each with its fortified hilltops, and losers were sometimes eaten. Australia's aborigines, by contrast, were feral, shy and unsophisticated, living close to nature without artifacts of civilization. Cook noticed their nakedness and presented some of them with garments, which were later found in a pile, discarded. Cook almost came to grief on that journey, discovering too late that the placid sea along Australia's shoreline was actually hemmed in by a vicious wall of coral, the Great Barrier Reef.

Aleuts lived underground in man-made caves, adapting to their icy climate, and Hawaiians--with distant ties to Tahiti--had their own mix of sex and warfare, with chiefs, priests and strange taboos. Try to match all that, "Star Trek"!

Two centuries later Horwitz obviously finds great changes, many traceable to the two great scourges brought by the Europeans--disease ("the pox") and alcohol. But the imprint of the original societies remains among their descendants, and one often gets the feeling that stone-age societies do not easily adjust to the modern world. Some of those descendants still try to recapture their past, or at least preserve it, and the memory of Cook among them may be alternately reviled and cherished. Encounters with such descendants make interesting reading, too.

Two subsidiary questions are also addressed. What was life like aboard Cook's ships, on voyages lasting years on end? After a short trip aboard the "Endeavour" replica, the author agrees that sailors had a raw deal--hard work, vile food and cramped quarters, swaying hammocks touching each other. Their work took them to the high rigging of a swaying ship, with no better footing than a stretched rope, and for sanitation, there was the "head"--a board with a hole, jutting over the water at the bows. Death was lurking everywhere, and scurvy was a real threat, with supplies carried for preventing it totally useless. No one had heard about vitamin C, of course, but Cook at least knew that fresh food offered a safeguard and never missed any opportunity of obtaining it.

The other question concerns Cook's origins: how did the son of a day laborer, raised in a "biggin," a mud-and-thatch hovel, rise to the top ranks of the British Navy? He was even awarded a coat of arms, though posthumously. It was (as often happens in such stories) a combination of talent and persistence, with a good measure of luck thrown in. He was lucky to get three or four years of schooling before being employed in a store, then became apprenticed to a merchant whose ships carried coal from Newcastle to London. But all the time, he was studying--learning math and navigation, developing his terse factual style of writing, gradually rising in the ranks of the coal-hauling fleet. Then, when he was offered a command of his own, he resigned and joined the British Navy, where he distinguished himself in the attack on Quebec.

The rest is history, as the saying goes. Yet that was Britain of the 1700s, still extremely aware of aristocratic background. Cook could claim none, and maybe that was why after his death his memory tended to fade, at least officially. Luckily, his legacy is so powerful that diverse individuals across the globe have made it their mission to ensure the public did not forget. Tony Horwitz took pains to locate such people, listened to them, and here he passes their messages to us. If the spirit of Cook is still hovering above the Pacific, it should be pleased.

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Note: If you liked this sort of two-level travelogue, you may also like "Out West" by Dayton Duncan. It describes the expedition of Lewis and Clark of 1805 while retracing its route in the present, helped by persons passionate about its story. Published by Viking Press (1987) with a paperback by Little, Brown and Co. in 1996, reprinted 2000, also available from sellers of used books. (less)

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Feb 17, 2012 Ensiform rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, travel

Over 440 pages, the American author follows in Cook’s footsteps, recounting the captain’s exploits every step of the way. He meets British admirers of Cook, Maoris who excoriate the man as a murderous syphilitic invader, Australians who are ignorant of his exploits, and Pacific Islanders who accept his as part of their history. He interviews the king of Tongo, sails on a replica of Cook’s ship The Endeavor, and drops in on remote Inuit fishing villages. Trying to get at the heart of Cook, Horwit...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let this wonderful book be your introduction to Captain Cook and the culture of love and vitriol surrounding him, even today. Cook was not an American, of course, and so there is nothing absolutely great he could have accomplished in the way of daring and understanding and prudence when exploring both poles and every latitude between on three unprecedented voyages. However, for an Englishman he did pretty well. He charted previously uncharted waters with a thoroughness and precision unmatched un...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Clifdisc rated it 3 of 5 stars

Blue Latitudes is half history and half travelog as author Tony Horwitz travels the world in the footsteps of Captain Cook. Horwitz is a great writer and I really enjoyed the way he cut back and forth between the historical details of Cook's travels and his own modern day travels investigating Cook's legacy. The balance was well struck and both stories were interesting, though the history was perhaps a little more interesting.

Horwitz is also a funny writer with a knack for finding colorful peopl...more

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Nov 11, 2010 Mike Hankins rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book is yet another to add to the pile of books that could have been so good, yet fell so short of glory.

I had high hopes for this one. I became fascinated with the story of Captain Cook recently, having never, not once, ever learned about him in school. He was one of, if not the greatest explorer who ever lived, discovering and mapping most of the pacific islands, Austraila, New Zealand, and Hawaii just to name a few. His adventures are legendary, and he caused giant leaps forward not only...more This book is yet another to add to the pile of books that could have been so good, yet fell so short of glory.

I had high hopes for this one. I became fascinated with the story of Captain Cook recently, having never, not once, ever learned about him in school. He was one of, if not the greatest explorer who ever lived, discovering and mapping most of the pacific islands, Austraila, New Zealand, and Hawaii just to name a few. His adventures are legendary, and he caused giant leaps forward not only in our understanding of geography and the world, but in human relations, and even in nutritional science of the times. Why our public school system thought it wise to excise him compeltely from the cirriculum is beyond me.

In any case, having read a little bit about him, I was anxious to devour any material I could find, and this book seemed like a great starting place. The author, Tony Horwitz, would visit the places Cook visited, retracing his steps, showing what these places are like now, while elucidating us on Cook's historical journey's as he goes. It sounded like a great idea. It even begins with a Star Trek reference. How could this book go wrong?

The first problem is, we are basically reading a bunch of irrelevant episodes from Tony's lame vacation. And that's pretty much it. While there are a few pages devoted to Cook's journey, there are two ro three times as many pages devoted to the bars that Horowitz frequents, the wet t-shirt contests he observed, the boat races he took part in, etc.

If you can wade through all the nonsense, and useless garbage he spouts on the page about his own trip, you can get to his lame attempt at giving everything a historical context, and this is the second problem. Horowitz contrasts a few passages about Cook, with his observations of the same areas in modern times, often interviewing locals of the area. Does he choose to interview history professors, or sociocultural experts? No. His interview largely consist of bikers he meets at bars, teenagers smoking joints out in the woods, strange hermits living in shacks removed from society, and extremely prejudiced social activists. Most of the people he interviews are either apathetic to Cook, unknowledgable about him in the slightest, or, worse, hate him with a venom I haven't seen outside of political debates.

Chapter after chapter is given over to these "witnesses" who decry Cook as a harbinger of destruction, blaming him and all of Western Society as the executioner of native culture, native peoples, and native values. While the author occassionally inserts a sentence or two at the end of these diatribes saying something to the effect of, "well, that is a little overstated," or, "Cook probably wasn't as evil as all that," these lengthy venting sessions make up far too large of a percentage of the book. They are ignorant, prejudiced, and filled with logical fallacy. I can't underestimate how angry I get at this "Western Culture is evil" montra that is so often spouted whenever the topic of encounters with native peoples comes up. These arguments ignore the savagrey of native peoples, and the good that has come from contact with western civilization. There were so many moments in this book where I almost stopped and said outloud, "if you hate living here so much, then sell all your crap, and go live out in the woods without power, a/c, fresh water, or plumbing, where the height of technology is a rock tied to a stick--and shut up! You can do that! No one's stopping you from leaving! Shut up and get out of here if you hate it so much!"

The truth that Cook was instrumental in promoting healthy, peaceful relationships with all the cultures he encountered--much more so than any explorer of his time, and often to the detriment and harm of his crew--is mentioned by glossed over by Horowitz, who doesn't have time for a subtle analysis, since he has to get back to another drunken festival to interview some strung out hippies about why they hate authority.

Ultimately, if you skip over the filler and the junk, and only read the sections about Cook (about 25% of the book) then yes, you'd have a pretty good overview of Cook's life and journeys. However, the real use for Blue Latitudes is that it shows you which books you should read instead. Horowitz regularly consults Beaglehole's famous biography of Cook, and the bibliography was a great source for finding out where I need to go for further study.

If you're interested in Cook, check out one of the many real biographies instead of this waste of time.(less)

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Sep 05, 2010 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010books, audio, non-fiction, historical, travel

I knew very little about Captain James Cook, the late 18th century circumnavigator, going into the book which is kind of a shame considering all that he accomplished. My interest in fictional stories involving the British navy during the Napoleonic war, made the facts of Cook's career and voyages that much more interesting as his personal story and adventures are almost better than fiction.

He rose to British Navy Captain from an impoverished childhood in Yorkshire England, an incredible feat in...more I knew very little about Captain James Cook, the late 18th century circumnavigator, going into the book which is kind of a shame considering all that he accomplished. My interest in fictional stories involving the British navy during the Napoleonic war, made the facts of Cook's career and voyages that much more interesting as his personal story and adventures are almost better than fiction.

He rose to British Navy Captain from an impoverished childhood in Yorkshire England, an incredible feat in and of itself, and in 3 voyages charted most of the Pacific Ocean (Notable ports of call- Tahiti, New Zealand Australia among others), and pushed the boundaries of human exploration in both the Antarctic and Arctic. His life was ended violently and bizarrely by being killed and then cut into pieces by Hawaiian natives at the end of his 3rd voyage.

Tony Horwitz structures the book as part biography, part history lesson, and part travel book. Every other chapter takes place in the present day with Horwitz following along on Cook's routes and comparing how the places Cook visited have changed in the ensuing 200+ years. He also spends a lot of time examining various attitudes about Cook. For many native Polynesians Cook opened the book on European involvement in their affairs and in most cases the dissolution of their culture. Horwitz's take on these detractors is that while the ultimate fate of many of the islands that Cook visited was not positive, Cook was an explorer and nothing more with no imperial orders of motivations. And that while it is clear he mishandled some encounters with natives, his journals reflect a man who was before his time in his opinions about the value of all human experience. I.E. Horwitz is overwhelmingly a fan of Cooks and presents a positive view of the Captain while still addressing the downside of his explorations.

Not only does the book flip back and forth through time, Horwitz's tone also switches between a journalistic presentation of the historical facts and a more casual and humorous account of his own travels as he follows Cook's journeys complete with a comic-relief friend who tags along with him. Along with its fascinating subject, the injection of humor and modern day travelogue makes the book very readable.

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Jul 08, 2010 Yakinikuman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Horwitz alternates telling the history of Cook’s background and expeditions with stories about the author’s own travels to some of the same regions. I liked the book a lot and thought it was an entertaining way to learn about Cook and how he is perceived today.

As the subtitle alludes, Horwitz was inspired by comparisons of Cook to another captain, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk. James Cook::James Kirk. The Endeavour::the Enterprise. Seeking out new peoples and new civilizations. Makes you wonder if Ro...more Horwitz alternates telling the history of Cook’s background and expeditions with stories about the author’s own travels to some of the same regions. I liked the book a lot and thought it was an entertaining way to learn about Cook and how he is perceived today.

As the subtitle alludes, Horwitz was inspired by comparisons of Cook to another captain, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk. James Cook::James Kirk. The Endeavour::the Enterprise. Seeking out new peoples and new civilizations. Makes you wonder if Roddenberry was paying homage to the great navigator. Cook did boldly go where no (European) man had gone before, and experienced the drama of “First Contact” numerous times: in Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest.

The conditions aboard an 18th century sailing ship and the dangers Cook encountered during his three, multi-year journeys really give cause for admiration of his courage and determination. It’s sad that many even today see Cook as the evil bringer of Western imperialism and the destroyer of native culture. Maybe the native cultures really were idyllic and totally wonderful (kind of doubt it … people tend to remember the good and not the bad). But, change was inevitable. If not Cook, then someone else would have “discovered” these places and peoples. It seems that Cook was probably more just to the natives than many other explorers might have been in the same situations. I think that we need to remember Cook in the context of his own time and culture, and respect his accomplishments. What he did was akin to exploring the Moon or Mars in our own day…gotta give him a little credit.

In light of this book and the previous one I read on Stanley, it makes me reconsider some of the places that would be fun to visit. I used to want to travel to many exotic destinations; now I think I would be content to just read about most of them. (Grand European Tour = still on!)

Factoids, etc:

Cook likely pronounced his name “koook”. That’s what Horwitz reports as the Yorkshire accented pronunciation, which is where Cook was from. Fits with the Tahitian name for Cook: “Toote”. There wasn’t a “k” sound in the Tahitian language, but Toote sounds a lot more like Koook than Cook.
The Polynesian dancing that is p.c.-ized as being about “the rhythm of the seas” – er no. It’s about what it looks like it’s about. Traditional Polynesian culture was much more, shall we say, liberated with respect to morality than even our society today.
Seems like Cook wasn’t up to form during his third (and final) expedition. He lacked some of his previous initiative (choosing not to try to find Fiji or Samoa after hearing of them) and was more insensitive to his crew and to the natives than before. Horwitz cites experts speculating that a vitamin-B deficiency, caused by ringworm infestation of the intestines, may have been to blame.
Herb Kane’s historical re-creation painting of the Death of Cook on Hawaii is mentioned and discussed at length in the book, but isn’t included. So I found the link: http://www.herbkanestudio.com/gallery...(less)

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Jun 04, 2010 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

480 pages.

In an exhilarating tale of historic adventure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Confederates in the Attic retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook, the Yorkshire farm boy who drew the map of the modern world.

Captain James Cook's three epic journeys in the eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a...more

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Feb 07, 2010 Arachne8x rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, biography, pop-history, travelogue

This book gets a five star rating, because I first read it about 6 years ago and I keep recommending it to people and discussing with them the things I learned from it. Any book whose memory gets me to write about it years later has something special.

This is part travelogue, part biography, and part pop history, which is clearly what I like about it. The author tells the story of Captain Cook and his voyages of 'discovery' while also relating what the parts of the world that he touched are like...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Lisamichelle23 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book especially where he visits places today that Captain Cook visted hundreds of years ago. While I learned alot from this book the thing that struck me the most that I never thought about before was how destructive the spread of Christianity was to alot of the world. Many native cultures, tradtions and historys have been lost forever because they were orally passed down through generations and the Christian missionarys discouraged this after the natives converted

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Nov 15, 2009 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apparently what I knew about Captain James Cook could have been put on the back of a postage stamp and there would still be plenty of room for the adhesive. In this wonderful book, Tony Horwitz uses Captain Cook's journals of his voyages of discovery and sets out to visit many of the same places that Cook explored to try to understand the magnitude of Cook's accomplishments and to uncover how Cook is viewed in the Pacific Rim in the early 21st century. His travels took him to Australia--his home...more

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May 29, 2012 Marianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Blue Latitudes is the 4th book by Pulitzer prize-winning American journalist and writer, Tony Horwitz. It has been described as part-travelogue, part-history and in it, Horwitz follows, to some extent, the three Pacific voyages of British explorer, navigator and cartographer, James Cook. Horwitz compares points of interest from Cook’s journals with their current day state and comments on contrasts and similarities. Observations from Cook’s diary of the peoples and lands he discovered, which migh...more Blue Latitudes is the 4th book by Pulitzer prize-winning American journalist and writer, Tony Horwitz. It has been described as part-travelogue, part-history and in it, Horwitz follows, to some extent, the three Pacific voyages of British explorer, navigator and cartographer, James Cook. Horwitz compares points of interest from Cook’s journals with their current day state and comments on contrasts and similarities. Observations from Cook’s diary of the peoples and lands he discovered, which might have made for dry reading, are made more interesting when related to Horwitz’s own present-day experiences in those places. Horwitz admits that it is difficult for him to faithfully follow Cook’s travels when he is not doing so in a wooden ship sailing to inaccessible, inhospitable and antisocial places like Antarctica, which he expediently omits. Horwitz starts his experience with a short stint on HMS Bark Endeavour, to give him a taste of a sailor’s life in the 18th century. He then travels on, by more modern means, to Tahiti and Bora Bora, New Zealand, Australia, Niue and Tonga, Yorkshire and London, Alaska and, finally, to the scene of Cook’s death at Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii. His companion is cynical, drinking, swearing, Aussie (ex-Yorkshire) Roger, whose wry reflections add plenty of humour. Horwitz comments on the changes wrought to peoples first discovered by Cook, because of that discovery, and the impossibility of Cook’s missions: terra australis and the North West Passage. If the eyes begin to glaze over in the Tonga chapter, the mention of Cook’s descendants soon remedies this. Amid the dearth of authentic Cook relics in Yorkshire, Horwitz finds a clue to Cook’s character in an unlikely place. It was interesting to learn of the derivation from Polynesian of certain words and expressions now in common usage in the English language, among them tattoo and taboo. Bougainvillea and kangaroo also had surprising origins. An interesting and informative read.

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Oct 31, 2010 Beth Evans rated it 4 of 5 stars

I almost fell in love with James Cook! Horwitz does an amazing job of putting us in the catbird seat on Cook's tiny boat, enduring storms and seasickness, unheard-of encounters with native Pacific Islanders, boredom and terror, exotic and exciting encounters.

Horwitz follows a plan that's familiar to readers of his other excellent books. He traces parts of Cook's three voyages so that he can "boldly go" etc. The result is a lively, entertaining, educational and even emotional journey through Coo...more

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Aug 19, 2011 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tony Horwitz tells about Captain Cook's three great voyages while visiting most of the places he went and learning what he can about Cook's life. Much of the time he -- Horwitz, not Cook -- is accompanied by Roger, an Australian misanthrope who mostly seems to be in quest of a few drinks, and then of a few more drinks. When Horwitz is with Roger, he drinks a lot, too, and it's amazing he can recollect some of the events of this book at all, let alone with journalistic clarity. They have a few mi...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Kupkake rated it 5 of 5 stars

I didn't know as much about Capt. James Cook as I might have liked, but thank god for Tony Horowitz, my preferred guide in the geo-historical field. Capt. Cook is a contriversial figure of importance, historically he "discovered" much of So. Pacific islands, as well as Australia, while at the same time his discovery brought these paradaisical places into the rotteness of the colonial world. His background as a Yorkshire farmboy, clawing his way up the English Naval hierarchy, goes a long way tow...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Mitch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, travel

Tony writes two books here, a history book and a travel book. He shuffles the two together because 1 is all about Captain Cook, with a focus on his three amazing voyages of discovery, and 2 is all about Tony's trip (mostly with his drinking pal Roger, who grumbles a lot) that touched down at various important places where Cook once went.

I have zero idea if that last sentence really IS a sentence, and if it makes sense. Regardless-

I liked Tony's style; it's easygoing and casual. History is not m...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Katrin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant book; I was very sad when it ended. It traces, in a very personal and entertaining manner, the journeys of Captain Cook. Tony Horwitz tries to go everywhere Cook went -- from New Zealand, Tahiti and Tonga to Alaska, Cook's home county North Yorkshire and finally to Hawaii, where Cook famously died. Once arrived, he asks everyone he meeets what they think about Cook; he tries to visit every memorial erected in Cook's honour, every little Cook museum, every Cook festivity. His travelogue...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Mik Hetu rated it 5 of 5 stars

An educational but FUN book about Captain Cook’s voyages and his influence on the current state of the lands he “discovered.”
This well–researched book will fill you with amazement and awe over the facts of the voyage (did you know that the Beagle was a converted coal barge, with a pretty much flat bottom and soft chine? The modern equivalent of sailing her into the then unknown Pacific would be exploring space in a refurbished school bus! And remember, not only no GPS navigation, of course, bu...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

About 2/3 done. Good read, but somehow a bit of heavy-going for me - I find myself putting it down and not being inclined to pick it up. That may simply be that it's Large Print and physically heavy. Or it may be that there's no photos, sketches. Are there such in the regular edition??

Ok done. I sure do feel like I've accomplished something. What, exactly, I'm not sure. It's definitely not an adventure story. Mostly it's a travelogue, I think. Something of a memoir, of the part of Horwitz that i...more About 2/3 done. Good read, but somehow a bit of heavy-going for me - I find myself putting it down and not being inclined to pick it up. That may simply be that it's Large Print and physically heavy. Or it may be that there's no photos, sketches. Are there such in the regular edition??

Ok done. I sure do feel like I've accomplished something. What, exactly, I'm not sure. It's definitely not an adventure story. Mostly it's a travelogue, I think. Something of a memoir, of the part of Horwitz that is interested in Cook. Something of a biography of Cook and a history of Cook's voyages and their impact, then and still, on the places & peoples he touched.

So, yeah, with all that, it was a fairly dense read. But not heavy, not difficult - just a lot of information. And it seemed balanced - yes, Cook had instructions to respect native sovereignty, and was generally peacable, but of course much damage was done by all European explorers, including Cook and his crew.

Note that these voyages were taken during the same time period that the American colonies were breaking free from England.

Let's see - 7 bookdarts...:

1. I like the Maori greeting Kia ora, good health. I'll use it.
2. The Maori word for computer is rorohiko - lightning + brain. Cool.
3. In his journals, "Cook's remarks were also unsettling. They presaged the fate of New Zealand's natives and their environment, just as Lewis and Clark's journals foretold the ravaging of the American West."
4. For example, "[W]e interduce amont them wants and perhaps diseases... disturb that happy tranquility... tell me what the Native of the whole extent of America have gained by the commerce they have had with Europeans."
5.,6. references to artwork I need to search online to see - Claes Oldenburg 'Bottle of Notes' and William Hodges's portrait of Cook.
7. A couple of verses of Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' remind me I want to re-read that poem. Coleridge attended school where one of Cook's astronomers, William Wales, taught mathematics and talked about his voyage (Cook's second, on the resolution).

Another good book on this subject is Stowaway by Karen Hesse. I read that a few years ago and found nothing here to give lie to anything Hesse wrote. She does good research and writes beautifully to make history alive for those of us not fans.(less)

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May 31, 2010 Jared Della Rocca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-to-charlie

Tony Horwitz takes you on a journey through Captain Cook's three voyages (two through the South Pacific, the third up to Alaska and the Bering Sea before returning to Hawaii). Mingling the story of his own current journey with descriptions of Cook's through both the Captain's writings, as well as those of his shipmates, readers are able to experience the past and the present. We are able to gain an insight into the world that Cook walked, and flash forward to the effects of his landings. The wri...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Elia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub, nonfiction

1/2 History Book, 1/2 Travelogue. Fantastic Locations. Just like the content of the book, it comes with mixed results. It really depends on whether you can appreciate both of these types of content. I found that most people either enjoy one or the other. While I found the travelogue section mostly interesting, hearing the author run into a wide range of people with a variety of stories, backgrounds, and thoughts related to the famous or in some places infamous explorer Captain Cook, but the hist...more 1/2 History Book, 1/2 Travelogue. Fantastic Locations. Just like the content of the book, it comes with mixed results. It really depends on whether you can appreciate both of these types of content. I found that most people either enjoy one or the other. While I found the travelogue section mostly interesting, hearing the author run into a wide range of people with a variety of stories, backgrounds, and thoughts related to the famous or in some places infamous explorer Captain Cook, but the historical adventures felt a bit repetitive and kind of boring after a while. It's possibly my bias because my favorite period of history is the ancient history (Ancient Grece, Rome, and Egypt, specifically). So for me, the book does get repetitive at times as there's only so many outcomes for the first interactions with indigenous peoples. There's very little personality to explore of Cook, and whatever there is, is pieced together through the journals and the author's insight into the journals.

It does a good job of mixing the two content sections together so you're never reading one type or the other for too long. The stories he tells sometimes have no bearing on Cook himself, his personality or his actual adventures, but more about the author's sociological exploration of the people that currently inhabit each place, mostly tied through a comparison to Cook's own thoughts about each place, and maybe some insight into Cook's legacy of the island.

Overall I enjoyed the book for what it was, and the historical parts in particular are well-researched, informative, and include fun insight as well, while the newer travelogue stuff kind of reads like a journal. All of it feels rather sterilized though as the author and Cook were both objective writers, and the personality really comes out from the cast of people they interact with.

The most exciting portions for me were not reading about either the author's adventures or Cook's adventures but more about the meta themes of exploration, what it feels like to be the first person to interact with an indigenous people, what it must be like to be in a time warp out to sea for many years, in a land you've never visited.

(less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

I can't get enough of Tony Horwitz. He's like a smarter, less cheezy Bill Bryson (whom I also like, dont get me wrong). How Horwitz packs new historical perspective into a book this enjoyable is amazing. Every book is the same: I feel wiser and happier when I'm finished.

This journey with Captain Cook was no different. An entire part of (fairly recent) human history I knew nothing about turned into a fun romp through renaissance exploration. It added a brilliant understanding of early Pacific peo...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Mara rated it 5 of 5 stars

I almost recall the hubbub when this book came out in 2002, as I was living in the unincorporated town of Captain Cook at the time. But something kept it from me until now. It certainly lives up to its acclaim!
Just the idea of following the travels and travails of Captain James Cook, certainly one of the great explorers and exploiters of the entire world, put me in a traveling mood! And Tony Horwitz keep you moving - from his first voyage to his last and everywhere in between.
The subtitle says...more

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Dec 24, 2011 Andrew Frueh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, history

An absolute pleasure to read. The very best type of history book. Much like David McCullough, he puts history (Captain Cook in this case), in very human terms. He doesn't focus simply on dates and events, but instead on the thoughts and motives of the people involved - faults and all. He tries to the best of his ability to help the reader understand Cook as a human being, not as a hero or devil.

But Horwitz even surpasses McCullough in the regard that he makes an effort to connect the past to th...more

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May 25, 2009 Kc rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am not normally much of a non-fiction reader, but a friend passed this book along to me - yes it was five years ago and I am just now reading it. I loved it. Tony Horwitz combines his own re-creation of Captains Cook's adventures with the history of Cook's own voyages, making the book a wonderful history read but also a hilarious journal of his own travels. And his travel buddy Roger Williamson is not to be missed. He actually steals the show from both Horwitz and Cook.
By the way, my version o...more

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title link	preview: Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94529.Blue_Latitudes?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316136524l/94529.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94529.Blue_Latitudes?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz[/url]

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

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