Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before in Science and Inquiry

Mar 21, 2017 Tomislav rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, biography

I don’t remember how this book got onto my to-be-read list, but the other day I took my list to the local library and looked up all the books that were actually currently on the shelf, and checked out the few of them. Then I was reading Greg Bear’s Anvil of Stars, and it mentioned the “Captain Cook solution” to fighting a more advanced civilization. Blue Latitudes starts out with a kahuna coming aboard the Resolution to return some of the deboned flesh of Captain Cook’s body. It seems they saved I don’t remember how this book got onto my to-be-read list, but the other day I took my list to the local library and looked up all the books that were actually currently on the shelf, and checked out the few of them. Then I was reading Greg Bear’s Anvil of Stars, and it mentioned the “Captain Cook solution” to fighting a more advanced civilization. Blue Latitudes starts out with a kahuna coming aboard the Resolution to return some of the deboned flesh of Captain Cook’s body. It seems they saved certain bones in order to capture his power. My choice was made.

Tony Horwitz is a former war correspondent, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who in his “retirement” has researched and written several popular travel/history/biography books like Blue Latitudes. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he set out to research the three major exploratory voyages that James Cook undertook for England between the years of 1768 and 1780, and to visit some of the same sites finding out what has become of them in the little over 200 years since. His partner on most of his trips is his hard-drinking and womanizing Australian friend Roger Williamson, whose crude commentary sparks up the narrative.

It’s not the role of a review to re-tell the contents of any book. If you want that, or if you want to select an individual chapter to read, you can refer to my notes below. My overall assessment is that I found this a fascinating read. Horwitz carefully interweaves the stories of Captain Cook with his own, for interesting contrasts. However, I enjoyed the Captain Cook stories more, not actually knowing them before this. I had expected Horwitz to follow Cook’s routes more closely, rather than just drop in at those points he found interesting or pleasant. His and Roger’s disappointments seemed to follow a sameness, relieved by drinking with the locals. This was accompanied by a frank discussion of the drinking at sea, and the sexual activities and consequent spread of venereal diseases by Cook’s crews among local islanders.

Contact with the West (England in this case), trade, colonization, and spread of disease was devastating to indigenous people around the globe. In the end, Horwitz tries to create a positive spin of mutual contact and communication, with damage limited by Cook’s reserved personality and leadership. But it counters the overall tone of the book, and I don’t think it works very well. The best I can say, is that the results were probably inevitable no matter who the leader had been.

There is some serious scholarship behind this book, but it is written in an approachable and entertaining way. Here are my chapter by chapter notes:
1. Pacific Northwest: One Week Before The Mast - Horwitz's first one week experience on the reconstructed Endeavor, comparing to what it was like for Cook, Banks, and their crew. He never gives the date for this, but based on his age at the time and his birth year, it must have been the late 1990s.
2. Tahiti: Sic Transit Venus - Horwitz and his friend fly to Tahiti. They don't so much trace Cook's route, as just drop in on Papeete. We learn a little about the differing character of Cook and Banks. After visiting the Gauguin Museum "It's always the same story, isn't it? You try to escape, to find simplicity, and end up bringing all your baggage with you."
3. To Bora-Bora: Sold A Pup - Cook sailed to Society Islands after Tahiti in order to give the crew time to be treated for venereal disease. Horwitz and his friend rent a yacht and sail to Bora-Bora where they become disillusioned about yet another "paradise.”
4. New Zealand: Warriors, Still - Cook, looking for a fabled southern continent, instead found New Zealand. The Maori are closely related to Tahitians, and the languages are mutually understandable. Horwitz flew to New Zealand, and found a largely antagonistic attitude among the modern descendants of the Maori.
5. Botany Bay: In The Pure State of Nature - Cook first encountered Australia and Aborigines at Botany Bay, then sailed past Port Jackson (now Sydney Harbor). Horwitz visits the environmental degradation of Botany Bay, and the cultural denigration of Cook in modern Australian society. I noticed that "white" and "British" seem to be used as interchangeable terms.
6. The Great Barrier Reef: Wrecked - The Endeavor was damaged on the Great Barrier Reef and nearly sank. They got the ship to shore and spent a month repairing it. The site is now Cooktown in northern Queensland, where Horwitz attends a drunken festival.
7. Homeward Bound: The Hospital Ship - Cook, Banks, and crew reach Batavia (Jakarta) in good health, but after two weeks face an outbreak of malaria. Many died there and on the trip to Cape Town. They return to London and Cook gets approval for a second voyage - this time with two ships. Fortunately, no modern-day Horwitz adventures are interspersed in the narrative.
8. Savage Island: The Hunt for Red Banana. Cook spent years approaching Antarctica and searching for a great southern continent. Horwitz chose not to attempt to reproduce any of that, but rather returned to tropical islands Cook visited briefly. In this chapter, he and Roger spend a week at Niue, a very small and isolated island republic, searching for the red banana plant the islanders used to stain their teeth.
9. Tonga: Where Time Begins, and Goes Back - Cook very much liked Tonga. Possibly it is because the hierarchical society resembled England. Horwitz and Roger visit and find it mostly unfriendly. He finds and interviews a family that claims to be descended from Captain Cook.
10. North Yorkshire: A Plain Zealous Man. Horwitz returns to the birthland of James Cook. There is a lot of marginal memorabilia in the couple of towns, but not much actually of Cook. Quakerism seems to have been a major influence on him.
11. London: Shipping Out Again. Cook tried to settle down as a hospital administrator, but it did not last. He shipped out on his third voyage in less than a year.
12. Alaska: Outside Men. The mission of the third voyage was to find the Northwest Passage. Cook sailed east to Polynesia and north to the Bering Sea. His behavior turned erratic. Horwitz and Roger travel to Unalaska and recount Aleut history and WW2.
13. Hawaii: The Last Island. After Alaska, Cook was given a grand welcome at Hawaii. Sailed away in triumph.
14. Kealakekua Bay: A Bad Day on Black Rock. Needed to return after 3 days. The story of Cook's death at Kealakekua, and several theories about why it happened. The last month of Cook's diary is missing, probably removed by the crew or the admiralty later. An image of Herb Kuwainui Kane’s painting “Moment When Captain James Cook was Killed” can be found from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4996885... .
15. Epilogue: A Period To His Labours - Survivors sail to Kamchatka, and make another run at Alaska and Northwest Passage. Most of the crew go on to other naval adventures and many die at sea. William Bligh and the mutinous Bounty. Elizabeth and Cook's sons. The Endeavor and the Resolution are in Newport Bay, off the coast of Rhode Island. Horwitz finds the arrow reputedly made from Cook's bone. End of text. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2010 Kathy rated it really liked it

Shelves: x-feb-10-thru-jan-11, read-non-fiction

I was delighted with the juxtaposition of Captain Cook's 18th century travels and the very different adventures Horwitz encountered as he followed the explorer's trails in the 21st century. Horwitz is quite serious about the captain and the places and cultures he met. At the same time - sometimes on the same page! - he is amused by his own travels, mishaps, and discoveries. Good writing, some intelligent insight, as to be expected from a man who has written for the Wall Street Journal and the Ne ...more

Like · see review

Jun 26, 2009 Kip rated it really liked it

Shelves: 09summerreading

Pacific setting made for good summer reading. Lots of weird and interesting anecdotes about Cook (his charts of the south island of NZ stood until the early 1990s!) interspersed with mostly amusing modern travelogue. Not too heavy but substantial enough seem good for me. Satisfying.

Like · see review