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