0:00:02 > 0:00:07In the late 18th century, three great voyages of discovery were made, which
0:00:07 > 0:00:11would push the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the Earth.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16They were led by Captain James Cook.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20In just over a decade, his genius as a navigator
0:00:20 > 0:00:25and chart-maker would add a third to the map of the known world.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29For many, he was the greatest explorer in history.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33For others, a ruthless conqueror.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36While Cook is famous for what he did,
0:00:36 > 0:00:40we know much less about who he really was.
0:00:40 > 0:00:46I'm off on my own voyage of discovery to search for Cook the man.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Travelling in his footsteps, I want to uncover
0:00:48 > 0:00:53the forces that drove him to success and, ultimately, to his death.
0:01:12 > 0:01:19Between 1768 and 1775, James Cook, the obsessive, discovering genius,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23had crossed oceans, charted new lands and discovered new peoples.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28He had secured his place in history.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33Like many people,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35I'd learnt about James Cook at school.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38At first, I really didn't think he was for me.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41It was just more propaganda for an outmoded empire -
0:01:41 > 0:01:45the noble hero who discovered Australia and New Zealand
0:01:45 > 0:01:47and put a lot of the Pacific on the map.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53But while researching for my book, I learn more about the woman behind
0:01:53 > 0:01:56the imperial icon - his wife, Elizabeth.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00In 16 years of marriage, Elizabeth and James spent
0:02:00 > 0:02:03a total of just four years together.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08They had six children and Elizabeth buried all six alone.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12She survived James by 56 years.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16But, just before she died aged 93, she did something curious.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20She burnt every single letter he'd ever written her.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24The inner world of James Cook went up in smoke.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26A hidden world I wanted to explore.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35My search for James Cook starts here at Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40Here, the 18-year-old former farm boy began his naval career, as an
0:02:40 > 0:02:43apprentice to a Quaker ship owner called John Walker.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Captain Cook Society's Cliff Thornton is bringing me to John
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Walker's house, now The Cook Museum.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56Here, 18-year-old James undertook "not to play dice,
0:02:56 > 0:03:01"cards, or bowls or commit fornication nor contract matrimony."
0:03:01 > 0:03:06In return, John Walker agreed to "find and provide meat and drink,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10"washing and lodging" and to teach his apprentice
0:03:10 > 0:03:14"the trade, mystery and occupation of a mariner."
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Now, tell me about the Walker family. Who were they?
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Well, first and foremost they were a Quaker family.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26There was quite a large congregation within Whitby at that time. So that
0:03:26 > 0:03:30meant that their approach to life was very sober, very industrious.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32They believed in moderation.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36So, these traits, then, were Quaker traits.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41But, these surely were also the traits that were imbued in James Cook
0:03:41 > 0:03:43during his time here, do you think?
0:03:43 > 0:03:46When many captains were sailing into foreign lands, blasting
0:03:46 > 0:03:50away with the cannons to say, "We are master", Cook was going very
0:03:50 > 0:03:54peaceably and trying to establish friends and trade with the peoples.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59And I think you can trace some of those origins back to his time here.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04James Cook learnt to sail in the North Sea,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08some of the most treacherous waters in the world.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13The ships he learned on were Whitby Cats, the coal tankers of their day.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17He'll eventually take these strong, versatile ships
0:04:17 > 0:04:18to the ends of the Earth.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25In June 1755, after nine years learning his trade,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Cook joined the Royal Navy.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33Within two years, he was promoted to Ship's Master,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35responsible for navigation.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42So, as Ship's Master in the mid-18th Century,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45what does Cook have to work with?
0:04:45 > 0:04:46Well, maps or charts, for a start.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50But the thing we have to understand is that the maps back then were not
0:04:50 > 0:04:54the more scientific documents we have today. Take a look at this.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59It's a Newfoundland map that was drawn in 1698.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01It looks like an OK map, doesn't it?
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Compare it with a satellite image,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and you can see it's hopelessly inaccurate.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15But soon accurate maps would be in huge demand.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22In 1756, Britain and France began the Seven Years' War.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Two years later, 29-year-old Cook was sent to New France as part of
0:05:33 > 0:05:36a combined army and navy force.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43Its goal was to make North America British.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55The French first line of defence was here, at Louisburg Fortress.
0:05:55 > 0:05:56The British made a surprise landing
0:05:56 > 0:06:01on nearby Kennington Beach and won the Battle of Louisburg.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04But, for Cook, the victory was almost a side issue.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10The day after the fortress fell, Cook was walking on this little
0:06:10 > 0:06:13beach where he met a young man named Samuel Holland,
0:06:13 > 0:06:15who was using a strange kind of instrument.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22As it would turn out, it was called a plane table.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34The plane table was a revelation to James Cook.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38He quickly grasped that it could be used to transform
0:06:38 > 0:06:40the accuracy of naval charts.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45Let's suppose we place the plane table here.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49And this is a stone, represents the object we're taking a bearing on.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Well, if you take a bearing with the plane table on that object, then you
0:06:54 > 0:06:56measure off the known distance here
0:06:56 > 0:06:59and take another bearing on the object. Since you know this distance
0:06:59 > 0:07:02by geometry you can calculate what these two distances are.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07So, Cook, Holland or, in fact, anyone could take what they saw
0:07:07 > 0:07:11before them in the landscape and translate that onto paper.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14In other words, they could make themselves a map
0:07:14 > 0:07:16or an accurate chart.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19James Cook had found his calling.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24Until now, sailors like him had been reliant on local knowledge,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28crude sketches and written lists of sailing directions.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34Now, as a map maker, he would draw scientific charts bringing precision
0:07:34 > 0:07:36where there had been none.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42We can still see the first chart he ever drew.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44It's kept here.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49This is the Hydrographic Office in Taunton in Somerset in England.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54It contains charts for every scrap of coastline on Earth.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59But, more importantly, it contains one of the most significant documents
0:07:59 > 0:08:02for me anywhere in the world.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07It's kept in the protection of the Curator of Maps, Philip Clayton-Gore.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Right, so, it's in here, is it?
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Wow, isn't that just beautiful?
0:08:14 > 0:08:16It's extraordinary.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20'This is the result of James Cook's meeting with Samuel Holland
0:08:20 > 0:08:22'on that Canadian beach.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25'This is James Cook's first chart.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28'A draft of the bay and harbour at Gaspay
0:08:28 > 0:08:31'on the St Lawrence River, 1758.'
0:08:37 > 0:08:41Cook's maps from Canada were so outstanding that he was appointed
0:08:41 > 0:08:43King's Surveyor of Newfoundland.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47But what I'm beginning to see is how it suited his perfectionist nature
0:08:47 > 0:08:50and his passion for accuracy.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54He stands alone for his thoroughness and for his dedication
0:08:54 > 0:08:58of the application of this emerging science of hydrography.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02He's unremitting in his labour. He's almost verging on the obsessional.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03Now, here's the map Cook
0:09:03 > 0:09:09was given in 1762, the year he started charting the territory.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12If we compare it with the satellite image, it still
0:09:12 > 0:09:15doesn't match up with reality.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Here's what Cook produced five years later.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Now, this really is a map.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28Just look at this detail.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31And when you put it up against a modern satellite image,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34you can see just how precise it is.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39So, precise in fact, it was still being used
0:09:39 > 0:09:42well into the 20th century.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48Perhaps as he entered his mid 30s, this down-to-earth Yorkshire farm boy
0:09:48 > 0:09:51had travelled further than the New World.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54His charting ability made him invaluable
0:09:54 > 0:09:56to an ever-expanding empire.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58But it also meant he could start climbing
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Britain's rigid social hierarchy.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05And there's a clue that he knew it. Take a look at his signature.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07It's changing.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10He's adding elaborate flourishes.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14I think it's the signature of a man growing in confidence,
0:10:14 > 0:10:16preparing himself for better things.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24By 1767, James Cook was 39 years old,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28married, with a growing family. His wife Elizabeth was 27.
0:10:28 > 0:10:34Young James - four, Nathaniel - three and little Elizabeth - 18 months.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Life for the Cooks had settled into a pattern. James spent summers
0:10:41 > 0:10:46surveying Newfoundland, winters back in London finishing his charts.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48Then one day, Cook was called to the Admiralty,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52the headquarters of the Royal Navy.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57The Admiralty wanted Cook to lead
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Britain's first scientific voyage of discovery.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06He was to set sail for the very edge of the known world and then go beyond
0:11:06 > 0:11:12to discover a new and fabled land of riches and claim it for Britain.
0:11:13 > 0:11:19In the 18th century, at least a third of the Earth was still a mystery.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Nobody in Europe knew what was in the blank space to the south.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25But, there was a legend
0:11:25 > 0:11:30that waiting to be discovered was a great southern continent.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33There was always the hope of finding another America.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37America had made such an impact on European consciousness.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40And there was the hope that it would bring with it the riches
0:11:40 > 0:11:42that America had brought to Europe.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47So, why did the power brokers at the Admiralty chose James Cook,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50who, on paper, was just a Ship's Master?
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Well, it would take a brilliant navigator to find it
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and a superb map-maker to chart it accurately.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59If it existed, they knew
0:11:59 > 0:12:04Cook would bring back the information they needed to claim the prized land.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08The Navy had already chosen his ship.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Ironically, she was a Whitby Cat, the very type of ship on
0:12:11 > 0:12:13which Cook had learnt his trade.
0:12:13 > 0:12:19Her name was the Earl of Pembroke, but it was changed to...Endeavour.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24If you're looking for James Cook,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27this is probably the best place to find him.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30This is his ship.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33This replica of Endeavour was launched in 1993.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37- Hi, Penny.- How are you going? Welcome aboard.- Good, thank you.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40It's a bit of a squeeze, so I'll dump my bag up there.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44'Second officer aboard the Endeavour replica is Penny Keeley.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47'She takes me below decks, to the claustrophobic world
0:12:47 > 0:12:50'of the 18th-century navy.'
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Captain Cook's lobby and his cabin in here.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58I can imagine there's a few banged heads in here.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01James Cook was over six foot tall.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06About six foot two. He had to spend three years cramped in this quarter.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12After months of painstaking preparation,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15everything was finally in place.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20'August 26th, 1768.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24'At 2pm got under sail and put to sea, having on board 94 persons
0:13:24 > 0:13:29'including officers, seamen, gentlemen and their servants.'
0:13:30 > 0:13:34It was the biggest moment of James Cook's life.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39If successful, this voyage would propel him towards naval stardom.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46The day after Endeavour left, Elizabeth gave birth to her
0:13:46 > 0:13:48fourth child, a boy, Joseph.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52But within a month, baby Joseph would be dead.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55It would be three years before James Cook found out.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11After five months at sea, Endeavour rounded the tip of South America,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15and entered the waters that would make Cook famous...
0:14:15 > 0:14:19the vast and mysterious Pacific Ocean.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24Three months later, Cook and his crew arrived at the island of Tahiti.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30Their intention was to observe a rare astronomical event -
0:14:30 > 0:14:34the transit of Venus across the face of the sun.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37But it wasn't this that caught the crew's attention.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41It's heaven on Earth.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45It's the best posting you've ever got in a brutal navy.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49The natives were friendly, the food was good, native women were even
0:14:49 > 0:14:53friendlier than the native men and you could have a night of pleasure
0:14:53 > 0:14:57for the price of an iron nail. So this was just mind-blowing.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00But, for Cook's most eminent travelling companion,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Tahiti provided something much more significant.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Joseph Banks is a wealthy aristocrat with a passion for natural history.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16He's paid £10,000 to come on this voyage but he's really entered into
0:15:16 > 0:15:21the spirit of things. He's collected hundreds of natural history specimens
0:15:21 > 0:15:26and now he collects one more - a young Tahitian named Tupaya.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32Tupaya was a Tahitian priest. Banks saw him as an exotic souvenir
0:15:32 > 0:15:34to show off back in London.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38But here, we can get a fascinating insight
0:15:38 > 0:15:40into the way Cook's mind worked.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46Tupaya was a navigator, and Cook wanted to tap into his
0:15:46 > 0:15:51incredible knowledge - knowledge of the mysterious waters of the Pacific.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Cook respected his geographical knowledge, his navigational skills
0:16:01 > 0:16:05and he was an invaluable translator for them all around Polynesia.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Cook draws upon local experience whenever he can and I
0:16:08 > 0:16:12think that sets him apart, again, from other officers in the period -
0:16:12 > 0:16:14his willingness to learn
0:16:14 > 0:16:18from local knowledge and to deal with indigenous peoples.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22After leaving Tahiti, Tupaya drew Cook a map.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26Two men - one, guardian of the Polynesian world and its geography,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29the other, an officer in His Majesty's navy -
0:16:29 > 0:16:33and the common language they shared was that of navigation.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Tupaya's knowledge was that of the amazing Polynesian people,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40the most widely-travelled people on Earth.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Tupaya's map stretches across some 2,200km of ocean.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51But on it, there was no sign of the great Southern Continent.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53'We cannot find that Tupaya either
0:16:53 > 0:16:58'knows of or has ever heard of a continent or large tract of land.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01'I have no reason to doubt his information.'
0:17:04 > 0:17:09But as instructed, Cook sailed to 40 degrees south and found nothing.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12No sign of the southern land,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16so he went back to his secret orders which said, not having discovered
0:17:16 > 0:17:21the great Southern Continent, you are to proceed to the westward
0:17:21 > 0:17:25until you discover it or fall in with the land discovered by Tasman.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35In 1769, that land looks like this on maps.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had named it Staten Land in 1642.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43It was widely believed to be the west coast of
0:17:43 > 0:17:45the great Southern Continent.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Land ahoy!
0:17:53 > 0:17:55All Cook knew was that he was
0:17:55 > 0:17:59looking at the east coast of an unidentified land.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01The quickest way to find out if this
0:18:01 > 0:18:06was the Great Continent was to ask the people who clearly lived here,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10people who were about to make a profound impact on James Cook.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16MAORI WELCOMING CHANT
0:18:20 > 0:18:24This mystery coast is in fact the home of Maori.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26They call it Aotearoa,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28the Land Of The Long White Cloud.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32We know it today as New Zealand.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37Endeavour dropped anchor at what's now Gisborne,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39about halfway up the North Island.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Watching Endeavour arrive was Te Maro.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51Te Maro was leader of the Ngati Oneone tribe. He'd never meet Cook, because
0:18:51 > 0:18:56when a landing party was sent ashore from Endeavour Te Maro was shot dead.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Hi, Barney. Nice to meet you.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06'Barney Tupara is Te Maro's descendant.'
0:19:07 > 0:19:09Come on inside.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Thank you very much.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Barney and the Maori have not forgotten their meeting with Cook.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22The next day, Cook comes ashore and he writes that he saw an assembling
0:19:22 > 0:19:25of natives with flourishing weapons above their heads
0:19:25 > 0:19:27and doing what seemed to be a war dance.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31It wasn't just a war dance. It was a kapa haka.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Cook was probably the first Englishman to witness a Maori haka.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The haka that Cook saw would have been an expression of aggression,
0:19:43 > 0:19:48would have been an expression of celebration, but also of prowess and strength.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Cook had no idea how to respond to this Maori haka.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01But what happened next was remarkable.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Te Rakau, who was the leader of the kapa haka
0:20:05 > 0:20:07that came down onto the beach that day,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10would have then gone forward
0:20:10 > 0:20:11to meet him.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23What the hongi is - it's the way that we as Maori greet people.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Irrespective of whether we like them or not.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30It's quite an intimate, but very gentle and friendly way
0:20:30 > 0:20:31way of greeting another person.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Cook's instinctive response
0:20:36 > 0:20:39brought the dangerous situation under control.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41But that bridging of two diverse cultures
0:20:41 > 0:20:45was all too brief and things soon began to go wrong.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49For a reason unclear, Te Rakau grabbed Cook's sword.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55And then, of course, as we know, he was shot.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04From the British accounts, there is the story that Cook placed
0:21:04 > 0:21:09a red coat from one of the marines over Te Rakau's body.
0:21:09 > 0:21:10Is that something that
0:21:10 > 0:21:15is picked up in your oral history as perhaps a gesture of reconciliation?
0:21:15 > 0:21:19To some extent it's probably fair to say that with the laying of the red
0:21:19 > 0:21:23coat, there was a desire to accept that maybe what
0:21:23 > 0:21:27happened shouldn't have happened, and Cook taking responsibility.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35'I am aware that most humane men who have not experienced things
0:21:35 > 0:21:40'of this nature will censure my conduct in firing upon the people.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43'But I was not to stand still and suffer either myself
0:21:43 > 0:21:46'or those that were with me to be knocked on the head.'
0:21:49 > 0:21:54James Cook knew that his time here had been a disaster.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57He called it Poverty Bay.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03I think he named this place as much for his own sense of failure as for
0:22:03 > 0:22:06any failure in getting provisions.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Cook sailed north, looking for supplies and safe anchorage.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19He had to find a way to communicate with the inhabitants to get what he
0:22:19 > 0:22:24needed and to find out if this was the great Southern Continent.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28But he knew he must tread carefully. So, next time they went ashore,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32he sent in Tupaya, the Polynesian navigator.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37They set in at a place called Tolaga Bay.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Endeavour anchored just over there.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Then Cook rowed around this headland
0:22:46 > 0:22:49and came into this cove here to get wood and water.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52After his disturbing first few days
0:22:52 > 0:22:57in New Zealand, he's learning that respect goes a long way with Maori.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06'During our stay in this bay, we had every day traffic with the natives.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10'I suffered everyone to purchase whatever they pleased without limitation.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13'But by this means, I knew that the natives would not only sell,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17'but also get a good price for everything they brought.'
0:23:17 > 0:23:21We know from his journals that Cook was deeply worried about the
0:23:21 > 0:23:25effects his contact would have on the indigenous people in the Pacific.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29What seems to be happening here is much more
0:23:29 > 0:23:33than just an explorer plotting a stretch of coastline on a map.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35What we're seeing...
0:23:35 > 0:23:40are the moral coordinates in the growing map of Cook the man.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Cook suspected that this was an island and not the great continent.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49For the next six months, he
0:23:49 > 0:23:53minutely charted what turned out to be the two islands that we now know
0:23:53 > 0:23:57make up New Zealand and he claimed them for Britain.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00His final map is a masterpiece.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08This is just the most brilliant piece of hydrographic work
0:24:08 > 0:24:11ever undertaken. Pioneering, it's on a grander scale,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15it's done in a shorter space of time and it's remarkably accurate.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17Nobody had ever done anything like this before.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23By April 1770, Cook hadn't seen his family in over 18 months.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27He'd missed James's 7th birthday, Nathanial's 6th, and little
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Elizabeth's 3rd.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33He thought he'd missed baby Joseph's first birthday. He had no
0:24:33 > 0:24:37way of knowing that Joseph had died a month after he'd left England
0:24:37 > 0:24:41and it would be another 15 months before he got home and found out.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48For the moment though, James Cook
0:24:48 > 0:24:50had a more immediate family to look after.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52His crew.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09Peppered throughout the journals of James Cook are constant references
0:25:09 > 0:25:11to feeding his men.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15He was obsessive about their diet and small wonder.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18The biggest threat to their health on board was scurvy.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24Scurvy killed more sailors in the 18th century than war, accidents
0:25:24 > 0:25:26and shipwrecks combined.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34Scurvy is a horrible condition caused by lack of Vitamin C.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Nobody knows this yet, not even James Cook. But he does know
0:25:38 > 0:25:43his men need to eat fresh food, something impossible on long voyages.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47So, instead, he places his faith in a substitute.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50Sauerkraut or pickled cabbage.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Trouble is, his men refuse to eat it.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56And frankly, I don't blame them.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58It smells disgusting.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03But here, we see something quite remarkable.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06James Cook could order his men to eat it.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09He could threaten to flog them.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12But, instead, he chooses a different tactic.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Psychology.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18'The sauerkraut, the men, at first, would not eat.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22'Until I put in practice a method I never once knew to fail.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26'This was to have some of it dressed every day for the cabin table.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30'The moment they see their superiors set a value upon it,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33'it becomes the finest stuff in the world.'
0:26:35 > 0:26:38In all his voyages, Cook the humanitarian
0:26:38 > 0:26:42would not lose a single man to scurvy.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44But this voyage wasn't over yet.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46There were more discoveries ahead.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54On April 19th 1770, Cook sighted the land which would
0:26:54 > 0:26:56forge his name in history.
0:26:56 > 0:26:57New Holland.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01He guided Endeavour into a beautiful bay.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10You still arrive in New Holland at that very bay.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12It's the sight of Sydney Airport.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Today, New Holland is Australia.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24James Cook anchors Endeavour just out there.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29As he's being rowed to shore, he clearly has a sense of occasion.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33He knows the first man to step ashore will be remembered.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37So, he turns to his wife's cousin, 17-year-old midshipman Isaac Smith
0:27:37 > 0:27:41and says Isaac, you shall go first.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47New Holland was mind-blowing for Joseph Banks
0:27:47 > 0:27:50and his fellow naturalist, Doctor Sallander.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Everything there was so different from any other place on Earth.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59The scientists collected samples of a 130 unknown
0:27:59 > 0:28:04species of plant, including one named after Banks himself, Banksia.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09James Cook had already named this place Sting Ray Harbour
0:28:09 > 0:28:13but he went back to his journal and changed it to one that would become
0:28:13 > 0:28:15the most famous name in the land.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17Botany Bay.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21But one thing mystified Cook.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24There were few signs of the local inhabitants.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Unlike the Tahitians or Maori, the residents of New Holland
0:28:28 > 0:28:33made it clear they wanted nothing to do with these white visitors.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36They wanted them to go away.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56On May 6th 1770, his work done at Botany Bay,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00Cook began working his way up the east coast of New Holland.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03For three months, he methodically
0:29:03 > 0:29:07and meticulously charted this unknown land.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13Cook had no way of knowing that as he pushed up
0:29:13 > 0:29:18the east coast of New Holland, he was putting the entire voyage at risk.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22He was sailing Endeavour straight into a trap -
0:29:22 > 0:29:24the Great Barrier Reef...
0:29:26 > 0:29:28..a marine mine field
0:29:28 > 0:29:34of treacherous coral outcrops over 1,200 miles long - the same distance
0:29:34 > 0:29:36as London to Moscow.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45James Cook drove his ship onwards.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52On 11 June 1770, Endeavour smashed onto the reef.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01There were 100 men on board Endeavour,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05the charts of New Zealand and the east coast of New Holland.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08This was a priceless treasure ship.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11Water gushed in. The men threw stores,
0:30:11 > 0:30:16cannon overboard, anything to lighten the ship.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20They were 20 miles from land, their lives hanging in the balance.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23SHOUTING AND BELLS RINGING
0:30:27 > 0:30:32After more than 23 terrifying hours,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35they managed to float her off the reef.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Endeavour limped for three days towards the coastline.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43James Cook watched plumes of smoke rising from the land.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45Smoke meant people.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49People only settled where they could find fresh water.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56James Cook pulled Endeavour in right here.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58By now, the place was deserted.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00Whoever had lit those fires was long gone.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03We know from his records that
0:31:03 > 0:31:07he beached the ship right here, in this exact spot.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09And then pulled her up onto the mud,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12pushed her over to repair the hole in her side.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Sydney Parkinson, the Ship's Artist,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17then rode out roughly to where those boats are out there,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20turned around and drew the scene.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27What is so surprising about Cook is that he's managed all the rest of
0:31:27 > 0:31:31the voyage without doing this. He's managing to avoid running aground -
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Tahiti, all the way round New Zealand, most of the way up
0:31:34 > 0:31:38the east coast of Australia, in and out of the Barrier Reef. Remarkable.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43He's making the charts as he goes. And he manages to run aground just once.
0:31:43 > 0:31:44That's absolutely stunning.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51After seven weeks, Cook navigated the patched-up Endeavour out through the
0:31:51 > 0:31:53maze of the Great Barrier Reef.
0:31:53 > 0:31:5918 days later, on 22 August 1770, Cook performed one of the most
0:31:59 > 0:32:02controversial acts of the whole voyage.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06He claimed the entire east coast of New Holland for Britain.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10It was an act which even today
0:32:10 > 0:32:15some regard as the illegal theft of a continent from its indigenous people.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28The next day, Cook sailed north into open water and back onto the map.
0:32:32 > 0:32:37Endeavour had finally rejoined the known world and now headed
0:32:37 > 0:32:40for the Dutch port of Batavia, modern Jakarta.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51Endeavour was still in bad need of repair.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54Not long after they arrived, they took on water.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58But that water was infected and disease struck.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01It was James Cook's worst nightmare.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04As they sailed for home, men he'd kept alive
0:33:04 > 0:33:06two and a half years, began to die.
0:33:11 > 0:33:1613 March 1771, South Africa.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19By now, Cook had lost over a third of his men.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23There were barely enough left to sail the ship into port.
0:33:25 > 0:33:30So close to home, having taken his crew around the world without losing
0:33:30 > 0:33:32a single man to disease.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37This was a tragedy for the man who cared so greatly for his men,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40and devastating for someone who needed to be in control.
0:33:46 > 0:33:5312 July 1771, after two years and 11 months at sea, Endeavour sighted the
0:33:53 > 0:33:54White Cliffs of Dover.
0:33:54 > 0:33:59Britain's great scientific voyage of discovery was finally over.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03And it was time for Cook to leave his wooden world on board Endeavour.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12James Cook headed home to Elizabeth and the family.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14He was expecting four children,
0:34:14 > 0:34:19but there were only two - young James and Nathanial.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21Baby Joseph had died while Cook was away,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24and so too had his only daughter.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34I've got children of my own, so the thought of Elizabeth mourning her
0:34:34 > 0:34:38little ones by herself really tugs at my heart.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42She buried two of them here, at St Dunstan's Church, not far from the
0:34:42 > 0:34:44family home at Mile End. Baby Joseph
0:34:44 > 0:34:47and her namesake, the infant Elizabeth.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Canny and pragmatic, she was raised in an alehouse
0:34:50 > 0:34:54near the Thames, so knew what she was in for marrying a sailor.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57But James Cook was no ordinary sailor.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02In 16 years of marriage, they spent just four years together.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07If James Cook was exceptional, he needed a wife who was every bit
0:35:07 > 0:35:11as tough and determined to hold their family together.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16Theirs really was a partnership, despite the long years of separation.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19In her own way, she was just as remarkable as him.
0:35:24 > 0:35:31On 16 June 1772, Elizabeth gave birth to George, their fifth child.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Just five days later,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39James Cook said goodbye to Elizabeth and the children.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44He was going to the other side of the world, and he might never return.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54The Admiralty still believed there were huge areas in the Southern Ocean
0:35:54 > 0:35:57where a vast landmass might be found.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02But Cook had a second, personal agenda - to chart the Southern Oceans
0:36:02 > 0:36:04and rid them of uncertainty.
0:36:04 > 0:36:09Now, he's on a voyage that he says will make his previous discoveries
0:36:09 > 0:36:11more perfect and complete.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14"More perfect and complete" -
0:36:14 > 0:36:17that choice of words is really interesting.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22It gives us a valuable insight into his determination and his obsession.
0:36:24 > 0:36:30On 13 July 1772, Cook and his new ship, Resolution, and the Adventure
0:36:30 > 0:36:32sailed from Plymouth.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35It would take over three months to reach Table Bay
0:36:35 > 0:36:36at the southern tip of Africa.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44From here, they headed south, towards Antarctica, where the ships entered a
0:36:44 > 0:36:47strange world of ice.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00'Admiration and horror.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03'The first is occasioned by the beautifulness of the picture.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06'And the latter by the danger.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11'And can only be described by the hand of an able painter.'
0:37:13 > 0:37:19The "able painter" was 29-year-old Ship's Artist, William Hodges.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22He would show the world wonders
0:37:22 > 0:37:26like these - the very first images of the Antarctic.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30'At 14 past 11 o'clock,
0:37:30 > 0:37:35'we passed the Antarctic Circle and are undoubtedly the first and only
0:37:35 > 0:37:39'ship that ever crossed that line.'
0:37:42 > 0:37:46James Cook continued his sweep of the Southern Ocean.
0:37:46 > 0:37:52He'd been at sea for over four months and travelled over 10,000 miles
0:37:52 > 0:37:54without ever sighting land.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04But something was happening to Cook.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07The man who always wanted to be in control, began to show
0:38:07 > 0:38:11glimpses that all wasn't well.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16'He was suffering so greatly from his stomach, that he was in a great
0:38:16 > 0:38:17'sweat and could hardly stand.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20'It was, indeed, hardly remarkable that,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24'after so great a responsibility and so prodigious a strain on his mental
0:38:24 > 0:38:27'and physical capacities, he should be completely exhausted.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31'Anders Sparrman, HMS Resolution.'
0:38:33 > 0:38:37Cook recovered and the vast blank which was the Pacific Ocean was now
0:38:37 > 0:38:41being meticulously filled in by the hand of this master chart-maker.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Yet the growing sense of order on the chart, contrasted with the growing
0:38:47 > 0:38:51disorder in his temper. Increasingly unpredictable, the new
0:38:51 > 0:38:57Cook was at times a far cry from the controlled man his crew was used to.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02On this voyage, Cook had achieved his
0:39:02 > 0:39:07ambition - to go as far as it was possible for a man to go.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11But had he pushed himself too far?
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Physically and mentally,
0:39:14 > 0:39:18flaws are beginning to show in this discovering genius.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Flaws that will ultimately lead to his death.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33The summer of 1776 finds James Cook here,
0:39:33 > 0:39:38ensconced at Greenwich Hospital, a retirement home for sailors.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40Cook was bored and restless.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44At 48, he was the most celebrated sailor of his age.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47He'd completely two extraordinary voyages of discovery.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52And he was about to be called out of retirement to start a third.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57Cook had been asked to dinner
0:39:57 > 0:39:59with the three most important men in the British Navy.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03They wanted him to lead one final voyage of exploration.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08They wanted him to find the fabled Northwest Passage.
0:40:08 > 0:40:14And the reason was Britain's love of tea - most of which came from Asia.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18The main trade route to the riches
0:40:18 > 0:40:22of Asia was around the bottom of Africa and across the Indian Ocean.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27But the Portuguese had controlled that for almost 300 years.
0:40:27 > 0:40:32The answer was to go the other way round - over the top of the world.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36A passage north-west from Britain up to the Arctic, down into the Pacific
0:40:36 > 0:40:40and round to China, cutting the distance almost by half.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44Like the great southern unknown, the Northwest Passage
0:40:44 > 0:40:48was one of those great cartographic mysteries.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51What happened to the northern coastline of Canada?
0:40:51 > 0:40:52What was there at the North Pole?
0:40:52 > 0:40:55From the very start of this voyage,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58James Cook was under enormous pressure.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00He only had a few months to prepare.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04He scoured the existing charts and accounts of previous voyages,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08but most of them were useless fantasies.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Look at the quality of information he has to deal with.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18This Russian map purports to be a very accurate little map.
0:41:18 > 0:41:23But just look here. Alaska is shown as an island.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25This strait doesn't even exist.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28Yet, Cook has been sent north to sail through it
0:41:28 > 0:41:30and find the Northwest Passage.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36But there were other worrying signs that James Cook's third
0:41:36 > 0:41:38great voyage would have its problems.
0:41:39 > 0:41:44One thing he wasn't doing, something he'd always done, was to check
0:41:44 > 0:41:49personally the ship, the supplies and equipment for the voyage.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52He's neglecting the very thing that ensured his success
0:41:52 > 0:41:54on his other voyages.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59He said farewell to Elizabeth.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02She knew she faced years of separation,
0:42:02 > 0:42:08but even she couldn't guess it would be 56 years of being alone.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11They would never see each other again.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24In June 1776, the expedition set sail.
0:42:24 > 0:42:30Cook used two ships - Resolution, which he'd command, and Discovery.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Once, again he would travel round Africa and enter the Pacific from
0:42:34 > 0:42:39the east, before heading north to the Canadian coast, in his search for
0:42:39 > 0:42:41the Northwest Passage.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43For some of his loyal crew,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47this would be their third voyage with Cook.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49One newcomer is Ship's Master,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52the brilliant, but prickly, William Bligh.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56He'll become notorious for the mutiny on the Bounty.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01But, for now, he wants to sail with Cook, the great navigator.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07But as the voyage progressed, Cook, the cool, humane captain underwent
0:43:07 > 0:43:09a dramatic, disturbing change.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13He loses his temper, he starts to shout and yell at the officers
0:43:13 > 0:43:18and men. He starts to lose control of his emotions.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20And there's a kind of tragic inevitability
0:43:20 > 0:43:22that it's not going to end well.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28If his behaviour was growing erratic towards the end of the second voyage,
0:43:28 > 0:43:30on the third it was getting worse.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34'Heiva, the name of the dances of the southern islanders,
0:43:34 > 0:43:39'which bore so great a resemblance to the violent motions and stampings on
0:43:39 > 0:43:40'the deck of Captain Cook...
0:43:40 > 0:43:45'It was a common saying among both officers and people -
0:43:45 > 0:43:47'the old boy has been tipping a heiva.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51'James Trevenen - Midshipman, HMS Resolution.'
0:43:56 > 0:43:58James Cook did have big problems.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02He was battling the wind, and supplies were stretched to the limit.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06He'd also missed the northern summer, which meant extending the trip
0:44:06 > 0:44:07by another year.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11The Cook of old would have maintained his composure.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16This new Cook has a mean streak, and he takes it out on others.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21The first to feel this was the island of Moorea, near Tahiti.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25When the locals stole the ship's goat, Cook got so angry
0:44:25 > 0:44:29he set fire to their boats and village in revenge.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33'Thus this troublesome and rather unfortunate affair ended -
0:44:33 > 0:44:37'which could not be more regretted on the part of the natives than it
0:44:37 > 0:44:39'was on mine.'
0:44:40 > 0:44:43The once-peaceful James Cook was
0:44:43 > 0:44:47now becoming increasingly ruthless with the indigenous people he met.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50And his crew began to notice the change.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55'Captain Cook punished in a manner rather unbecoming of a European,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58'by cutting off their ears,
0:44:58 > 0:45:02'firing at them with small shot as they were swimming or paddling to shore,
0:45:02 > 0:45:06'beating them with the oars and sticking the boat up into them.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10'George Gilbert - Midshipman, HMS Resolution.'
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Cook was aware of his changing behaviour, but it seems he was
0:45:15 > 0:45:17unable to control it.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24Actually, I sometimes wonder if he just wasn't a little bit depressed,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27because depression wasn't a condition that one admitted
0:45:27 > 0:45:29to or diagnosed back in the 1700s.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31Another more simple explanation
0:45:31 > 0:45:34might be that he just wore the burden of command for too long.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38He was worn down by continual responsibility.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Cook had been away for over 18 months when he sailed up
0:45:42 > 0:45:45towards the North American continent.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47It was from here, New Albion,
0:45:47 > 0:45:51that he began his search for the Northwest Passage.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01New Albion included what we now call Canada.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05Here, James Cook met the Mowerchat, the people of the deer.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Cook's crew were the first white men they'd ever seen.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22When James Cook arrived in these waters, it's said that the people who
0:46:22 > 0:46:26came out to meet him directed him to a village, and that's it over there.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28The village of Ukot.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36James Cook's ship Resolution is really falling apart.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39Sloppy defence contractors aren't just a modern problem.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42The shipwrights back home have done a terrible job,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45and he now needs to chop down these trees to replace masts
0:46:45 > 0:46:49and make new timbers - all work that should have been
0:46:49 > 0:46:54overseen by Cook in London, not thousands of kilometres away, here.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59After a month in Nootka, James Cook sailed off
0:46:59 > 0:47:02in search of the Northwest Passage.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05It was the start of his last great quest.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12Cook's ships crawled along the tortuous Alaskan coastline.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Every bay and inlet was methodically checked.
0:47:15 > 0:47:20Any of them might have revealed the elusive route back to Britain.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Weeks and months drifted by.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26There was no sign of Cook's prize, no sign of a quick route home.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34Cook should have been in his element.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37On previous journeys, his obsession with meticulous
0:47:37 > 0:47:42charting of unfamiliar coastlines had driven his crew to distraction.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45But now it was doing the same to him.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50One huge bay alone took 16 days to explore to his satisfaction.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54Could it be he was starting to doubt himself?
0:47:54 > 0:47:59What if the Northwest Passage didn't really exist?
0:47:59 > 0:48:02What if this last great voyage was a waste of time?
0:48:07 > 0:48:13In August 1778, Resolution and Discovery entered the Arctic Ocean.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18The two ships beat drums and fired guns to keep track of each other.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23Here, James Cook entered a world shrouded in fog.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29The Russian maps he'd gathered in London were useless.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34'What could induce him to publish so erroneous a map
0:48:34 > 0:48:37'that the most illiterate of his illiterate seafaring men
0:48:37 > 0:48:40'would have been ashamed to put his name to?'
0:48:44 > 0:48:47James Cook's behaviour is beginning to horrify his men.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50He runs with the wind in fog so thick, they can
0:48:50 > 0:48:53barely see the length of the ship.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55Suddenly, he hears the sound of crashing surf
0:48:55 > 0:48:57and orders the ship halted.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59When the frog clears, they realise they've
0:48:59 > 0:49:04hurtled through a gap in the rocks little wider than the ship herself.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Providence had conducted us through these rocks where I should not have
0:49:10 > 0:49:11ventured on a clear day.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16And to such an anchoring place I could not have chosen better.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21Desperate for fresh meat, James Cook had some walrus butchered
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and ordered his men to eat it.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27They found walrus disgusting and refused.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29In a fit of pique, he cut their rations.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36That's completely out of character for him, and shows
0:49:36 > 0:49:41just how badly he was losing the control, the respect, of his crew.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44That's something that's never happened before.
0:49:44 > 0:49:51They now take the extraordinary step of writing him a letter of complaint.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55'This is a very mutinous proceeding.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58'Every innovation of mine - sauerkraut,
0:49:58 > 0:49:59'all of them - have been designed
0:49:59 > 0:50:04'by me to keep my people free from the dreadful distemper scurvy.'
0:50:06 > 0:50:09James Cook's world was spiralling out of control.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12A ship that was falling apart.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Maps that were useless fantasies.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17He'd been at sea for a year,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21and after just three weeks in the Arctic Ocean, he'd hit a wall of ice.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24And it was not even winter yet.
0:50:24 > 0:50:30Now, even the world's greatest explorer had to admit defeat.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36James Cook probably would have seen it as a failure of science.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39But, perhaps, it was a failure of the man.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44Perhaps he shouldn't have agreed to lead this voyage. He was almost 50.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46He'd spent most of the last ten years
0:50:46 > 0:50:52at sea, under the sort of pressure that most captains never experience.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55When he was younger, he seemed to thrive on this.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58But now, it was taking its toll.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Where once he led solely by example,
0:51:01 > 0:51:05now, he would sometimes resort to using fear and threats.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07He was losing the respect
0:51:07 > 0:51:12of his crew and officers, and the people he met in these new lands.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17With the northern winter looming, it would be months before he could
0:51:17 > 0:51:19search again for the Northwest Passage.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23He desperately needed somewhere warm to rest and resupply.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27So, he took his two ships back to the Pacific, to a place that he
0:51:27 > 0:51:31discovered on his journey north - the Sandwich Islands.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34Today, we know them as Hawaii.
0:51:36 > 0:51:42Amazingly, Cook sailed round them for six weeks without landing.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46His crew thought their commander was out of his mind.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51They certainly were - watching the land pass by day after day.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Cook offered no explanation and they didn't dare ask.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Finally, Resolution and Discovery entered
0:52:00 > 0:52:03a wide bay and dropped anchor.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11You still enter Kealakekua Bay the way James Cook saw it.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14But the reception he received was astonishing.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16So many people came out and clambered
0:52:16 > 0:52:22aboard Resolution and Discovery that both ships started to list.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27'I had nowhere in the course of my voyages seen so numerous a body of
0:52:27 > 0:52:30'people assembled at one place.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33'Besides those in canoes, all the shore were covered in spectators,
0:52:33 > 0:52:38'and many hundreds were swimming about the ships like fish.'
0:52:38 > 0:52:44After almost three weeks, Resolution and Discovery resupply and leave.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46James Cook is going back
0:52:46 > 0:52:51again to hammer away at the ice at the Northwest Passage.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53But just a few days out of here,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56Resolution breaks a mast.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58It's that shoddy workmanship he
0:52:58 > 0:53:02never oversaw in London coming back to haunt him.
0:53:02 > 0:53:03The ships have to return.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09This time there was no big welcome.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12The Hawaiians had already given James Cook everything they had,
0:53:12 > 0:53:17and were far from happy to see the ships return.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21The Hawaiians make it very plain that their patience has worn thin.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24The level of thefts goes up very considerably,
0:53:24 > 0:53:29and this is a sign that the chiefs no longer are protecting him.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31He'd outstayed his welcome.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33He was no longer an honoured guest.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35He was now a damn nuisance.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39And relations change.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42It's 14th February 1779.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45James Cook awakes to learn that during the night, one of his ship's
0:53:45 > 0:53:50boats has been stolen. The events of the day now move very fast.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52He orders the bay to be blockaded.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Discovery on that side of the bay sealing it.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57Resolution sealing the other side.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00James Cook has decided to pick a fight.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11James Cook arrives on this beach.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13He's armed and with nine marines.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16They head up towards a large village here called Kaawaloa.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21It's perhaps the most sacred site on the island.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25He marches into this sacred village, goes straight to the chief's house
0:54:25 > 0:54:27and seizes him.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34Cook intends to keep him hostage until he gets his boat back.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36James Cook brings the chief down here
0:54:36 > 0:54:40to the water's edge amid a gathering crowd of Hawaiians.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Hundreds on this beach and more lining the rocks.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48To their eyes, James Cook's behaviour is a huge insult.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51On the other side of the bay, William Bligh - ever aggressive -
0:54:51 > 0:54:53orders his men to open fire on
0:54:53 > 0:54:55a canoe trying to breach the blockade.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59They kill a high-ranking warrior.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02A tidal wave of anger then sweeps along the shoreline.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05The beach erupts into a volley of stones.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11James Cook himself fires the first shot, killing a man.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Then the Hawaiians attack.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38James Cook died right here,
0:55:38 > 0:55:43his sailors watching helplessly as his body is hacked to pieces.
0:55:43 > 0:55:49But what actually killed Cook wasn't daggers or stones or drowning -
0:55:49 > 0:55:53it was the belief that he could control every situation.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56That's the tragedy of his death.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59In his three epic voyages, James Cook had proved himself
0:55:59 > 0:56:03one of the greatest explorers this world has ever seen.
0:56:03 > 0:56:08The empire would make him a hero, but the truth about Cook the man
0:56:08 > 0:56:10was washed away.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14I think the real Cook was more complex, more fascinating, and that
0:56:14 > 0:56:19his personal journey was perhaps the most dramatic of them all.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23What I've found is perhaps an unpalatable truth -
0:56:23 > 0:56:27that the ambitious, decent man who saw the human in everyone,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30that man lost himself along the way.
0:56:30 > 0:56:36So - a genius, yes, but a flawed and lonely genius.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41And perhaps that's the real reason why his wife Elizabeth
0:56:41 > 0:56:48burnt those letters - to try to keep Captain Cook the man for herself,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51so that only the legend remained.