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Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Kindle Edition
First published September 14, 2009
133 people are currently reading
399 people want to read
About the author
James Cook
535 books35 followersBritish navigator James Cook, known as Captain Cook, commanded three major exploratory voyages to chart and to name many islands of the Pacific Ocean and also sailed along the coast of North America as far as the Bering Strait.
During circumnavigation of the globe from 1768 to 1771 with James Cook, Joseph Banks collected and cataloged numerous specimens of plants and animals.
James Cook, captain, visited Austral Islands in 1769 and 1777.
James Cook, fellow of the royal society, served as a cartographer in the Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making, and achieving the first recorded European contact with the eastern line of Australia and Hawaii and the record around New Zealand.
Cook joined the merchant as a teenager and joined the royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This mapping helped to bring Cook to the attention of the admiralty and royal society. This notice came at a crucial moment in career of Cook and in the overseas direction and led to his first commission in 1766 of His Majesty's bark Endeavour.
Cook went thousands of miles across large areas of the globe. From New Zealand, he mapped to Hawaii in greater detail and on a not previously achieved scale. He progressed on his discovery, surveyed features, and recorded lines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
A fight with Hawaiians killed Cook. He left a scientific and geographical legacy to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and people dedicated numerous memorials worldwide.
During circumnavigation of the globe from 1768 to 1771 with James Cook, Joseph Banks collected and cataloged numerous specimens of plants and animals.
James Cook, captain, visited Austral Islands in 1769 and 1777.
James Cook, fellow of the royal society, served as a cartographer in the Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making, and achieving the first recorded European contact with the eastern line of Australia and Hawaii and the record around New Zealand.
Cook joined the merchant as a teenager and joined the royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This mapping helped to bring Cook to the attention of the admiralty and royal society. This notice came at a crucial moment in career of Cook and in the overseas direction and led to his first commission in 1766 of His Majesty's bark Endeavour.
Cook went thousands of miles across large areas of the globe. From New Zealand, he mapped to Hawaii in greater detail and on a not previously achieved scale. He progressed on his discovery, surveyed features, and recorded lines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
A fight with Hawaiians killed Cook. He left a scientific and geographical legacy to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and people dedicated numerous memorials worldwide.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 31, 2011
Hard to get thru in parts, due to all Cook's notes on tides, winds, and location. Other sections were immensely entertaining,(i.e. when he explores Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia), especially when one considers all the logistics of this voyage. Three years circumnavigating the world, exploring areas unknown to Europeans, keeping his men alive, sailing thru the Great Barrier Reef...all while literally charting these waters. Also so amazing when one considers this was about 220 years ago...and how much has changed in such a relatively short period of time. Amazing insight into an amazingly skilled man.
February 7, 2008
After reading Lt. William Bligh's recounting of his later voyages to the Pacific, and the resulting Mutiny on the Bounty, I took an interest in reading about Captain James Cook's first voyage. It was interesting to see how one expedition literally made preparations from island to island for expeditions to come later, or just to setup a safe harbor with food for other ships passing through the area.
January 17, 2012
Parts of these journals were quite fascinating - the encounters with various native tribes and peoples were the best parts - however much of it is the humdrum of the day to day - weather, longitude, latitude, distance travelled, depth of water etc and really is a slog to go through. Having said this, it was also a fabulous insight into the character of someone like Captain Cook and what drove him to explore.
December 3, 2013
Clearly Cook's Journal was the model for the Star Trek adventures with Captain Kirk. It's all there - the landing parties with the doctor, scientific reporting, encounters and trade with unknown cultures, discovery of Botany Bay, spreading gonorrhea (well maybe not that), and rivalry with the harsh-speaking Dutch who weren't very nice to him. Skim through the navigation and weather reports, and Cook's writing is exciting when it's time for adventure.
March 5, 2016
Useful sections for a pirates and explorers topic - 4*
Scanned this for useful journal entries for my 'Land Ahoy' topic.
I learnt a lot about Captain Cook's life; personally, I found this interesting because he is from the same area as I am.
Scanned this for useful journal entries for my 'Land Ahoy' topic.
I learnt a lot about Captain Cook's life; personally, I found this interesting because he is from the same area as I am.
October 28, 2019
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Read for personal research
- found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
Read for personal research
- found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
July 6, 2023
Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World
The title gives the overview. The title doesn't tell you how different everything was in 1768 when James Cook left Plymouth to circumnavigate the globe.
Huge parts of the map were unknown even to the sailing nations. Cook discovered various South Pacific Islands and was the first European to navigate and chart New Zealand and Eastern Australia.
National rivalries were fierce. Sea routes were guarded as state secrets. And interfering with another nation's colonial possessions had heavy consequences.
Information traveled very slowly. Because there were so few sea explorers, journals and charts from decades earlier were the only sources of information about far-off lands.
Vitamins and nutrients were unknown. A trip far from land would mean sailors could expect a short and miserable end if they contracted scurvy. Cook would become one of the most influential captains to argue for a better diet at sea, and years later, his hygienic and dietary experiments would influence many others.
Despite Cook's rigor in minimizing scurvy amongst his crew, his sailors dropped like flies after catching Dysentery and Malaria in Batavia. It was a time without modern medicine when something easily prevented or treated today could be fatal.
Class determined destiny for the vast majority of people. Even Cook, who was not upper class, treated gentlemen and commoners very differently.
A rivetting storybook Cook's Journal is not, but it is a primary source document from a time that just precedes our modern world.
If you do follow Cook's voyage, please familiarise yourself with longitude and how to measure it along with other sailing-age navigation terms. Figure out how to enter latitude and longitude coordinates on Google Maps if you don't know how already. Almost every entry includes this navigation information. In Cook's time, it saved lives. He was known as a meticulous navigator.
Besides logging latitude and longitude, weather, and sea depth, Cook wrote about the people he met, from the distrusting Portuguese in Brazil to alcoholic sailors aboard his own ship, to the friendly Pacific Islanders, violent Maoris, and the shy Aborigines of Australia. He even describes the Kangaroo for the first time.
History buffs, those who like biography, and armchair travelers will enjoy Cook's Journal. There may be some easier-to-read, newer versions of it. Ask your local librarian if you want help choosing the best version for you. I got mine from Project Gutenberg. It is not well-adapted to either the modern reader or the Kindle.
The title gives the overview. The title doesn't tell you how different everything was in 1768 when James Cook left Plymouth to circumnavigate the globe.
Huge parts of the map were unknown even to the sailing nations. Cook discovered various South Pacific Islands and was the first European to navigate and chart New Zealand and Eastern Australia.
National rivalries were fierce. Sea routes were guarded as state secrets. And interfering with another nation's colonial possessions had heavy consequences.
Information traveled very slowly. Because there were so few sea explorers, journals and charts from decades earlier were the only sources of information about far-off lands.
Vitamins and nutrients were unknown. A trip far from land would mean sailors could expect a short and miserable end if they contracted scurvy. Cook would become one of the most influential captains to argue for a better diet at sea, and years later, his hygienic and dietary experiments would influence many others.
Despite Cook's rigor in minimizing scurvy amongst his crew, his sailors dropped like flies after catching Dysentery and Malaria in Batavia. It was a time without modern medicine when something easily prevented or treated today could be fatal.
Class determined destiny for the vast majority of people. Even Cook, who was not upper class, treated gentlemen and commoners very differently.
A rivetting storybook Cook's Journal is not, but it is a primary source document from a time that just precedes our modern world.
If you do follow Cook's voyage, please familiarise yourself with longitude and how to measure it along with other sailing-age navigation terms. Figure out how to enter latitude and longitude coordinates on Google Maps if you don't know how already. Almost every entry includes this navigation information. In Cook's time, it saved lives. He was known as a meticulous navigator.
Besides logging latitude and longitude, weather, and sea depth, Cook wrote about the people he met, from the distrusting Portuguese in Brazil to alcoholic sailors aboard his own ship, to the friendly Pacific Islanders, violent Maoris, and the shy Aborigines of Australia. He even describes the Kangaroo for the first time.
History buffs, those who like biography, and armchair travelers will enjoy Cook's Journal. There may be some easier-to-read, newer versions of it. Ask your local librarian if you want help choosing the best version for you. I got mine from Project Gutenberg. It is not well-adapted to either the modern reader or the Kindle.
Read
December 14, 2023I started reading this more or less by accident and it turned out to be a fantastic read! If you’re like me you will just skip the pages where it’s like ‘light breezes from the south east, variation of the azimuth was found to be 3 degrees by observations of the sun and moon’ or whatever… but when they are near land it is a ripping yarn. The journey took them to Rio, then Tierra del Fuego, through the pacific to New Zealand, then on to ‘discover’ the east coast of Australia, then Jakarta and around South Africa back to England in the years 1768-1771. Cook is a very enlightened and perceptive man and descriptions of life on the ship, and interactions with the local people they encounter on a voyage around the world are fascinating. The journal was written during the voyage , but incuded in this particular kindle version were notes written seemingly 120 years later around the 1890s that tragically illustrate the differences of mindset between the enlightened Cook and the revoltingly racist mindset of one colonial mind in a later age regarding indigenous Australians. It’s not a major feature of the book but a very revealing ‘extra’.
March 8, 2023
Insight into the great man
Cook and other explorers have become devils in the eyes of many in the modern world. This journal shares a real insight into many first encounters. Not all go well but for an 18th century man, Cook is pragmatic and open minded.
Only tedious parts are the pages of the days when nothing happens.
Cook and other explorers have become devils in the eyes of many in the modern world. This journal shares a real insight into many first encounters. Not all go well but for an 18th century man, Cook is pragmatic and open minded.
Only tedious parts are the pages of the days when nothing happens.
July 14, 2024
I was very excited to read this book, because who wouldn't want a firsthand account of a circumnavigation of the globe? What I was not prepared for was how abysmally dull it was, including entry after entry giving nothing but longitude and latitude coordinates. Even history buffs will have trouble with this one.
August 28, 2021
This is a great journal, an amazing man who achieved greatness from a poor upbringing. Every time I drive through the village where he was born, it seems almost incredulous that he could have ventured so far around the uncharted seas. He kept everything ship shaped and at no point did any of his crew get scurvy. A true legend.
August 3, 2014
Long but very interesting!
June 21, 2017
I read this book for research in a book that I was writing. What an amazing tale.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews