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Captain Cook: The Man Behind the Legend

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In the late 18th century, three great voyages of discovery were made, which

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would push the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the Earth.

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They were led by Captain James Cook.

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In just over a decade, his genius as a navigator

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and chart-maker would add a third to the map of the known world.

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For many, he was the greatest explorer in history.

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For others, a ruthless conqueror.

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While Cook is famous for what he did,

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we know much less about who he really was.

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I'm off on my own voyage of discovery to search for Cook the man.

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Travelling in his footsteps, I want to uncover

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the forces that drove him to success and, ultimately, to his death.

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Between 1768 and 1775, James Cook, the obsessive, discovering genius,

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had crossed oceans, charted new lands and discovered new peoples.

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He had secured his place in history.

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Like many people,

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I'd learnt about James Cook at school.

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At first, I really didn't think he was for me.

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It was just more propaganda for an outmoded empire -

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the noble hero who discovered Australia and New Zealand

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and put a lot of the Pacific on the map.

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But while researching for my book, I learn more about the woman behind

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the imperial icon - his wife, Elizabeth.

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In 16 years of marriage, Elizabeth and James spent

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a total of just four years together.

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They had six children and Elizabeth buried all six alone.

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She survived James by 56 years.

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But, just before she died aged 93, she did something curious.

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She burnt every single letter he'd ever written her.

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The inner world of James Cook went up in smoke.

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A hidden world I wanted to explore.

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My search for James Cook starts here at Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast.

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Here, the 18-year-old former farm boy began his naval career, as an

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apprentice to a Quaker ship owner called John Walker.

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Captain Cook Society's Cliff Thornton is bringing me to John

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Walker's house, now The Cook Museum.

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Here, 18-year-old James undertook "not to play dice,

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"cards, or bowls or commit fornication nor contract matrimony."

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In return, John Walker agreed to "find and provide meat and drink,

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"washing and lodging" and to teach his apprentice

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"the trade, mystery and occupation of a mariner."

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Now, tell me about the Walker family. Who were they?

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Well, first and foremost they were a Quaker family.

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There was quite a large congregation within Whitby at that time. So that

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meant that their approach to life was very sober, very industrious.

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They believed in moderation.

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So, these traits, then, were Quaker traits.

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But, these surely were also the traits that were imbued in James Cook

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during his time here, do you think?

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When many captains were sailing into foreign lands, blasting

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away with the cannons to say, "We are master", Cook was going very

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peaceably and trying to establish friends and trade with the peoples.

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And I think you can trace some of those origins back to his time here.

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James Cook learnt to sail in the North Sea,

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some of the most treacherous waters in the world.

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The ships he learned on were Whitby Cats, the coal tankers of their day.

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He'll eventually take these strong, versatile ships

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to the ends of the Earth.

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In June 1755, after nine years learning his trade,

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Cook joined the Royal Navy.

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Within two years, he was promoted to Ship's Master,

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responsible for navigation.

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So, as Ship's Master in the mid-18th Century,

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what does Cook have to work with?

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Well, maps or charts, for a start.

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But the thing we have to understand is that the maps back then were not

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the more scientific documents we have today. Take a look at this.

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It's a Newfoundland map that was drawn in 1698.

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It looks like an OK map, doesn't it?

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Compare it with a satellite image,

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and you can see it's hopelessly inaccurate.

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But soon accurate maps would be in huge demand.

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In 1756, Britain and France began the Seven Years' War.

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Two years later, 29-year-old Cook was sent to New France as part of

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a combined army and navy force.

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Its goal was to make North America British.

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The French first line of defence was here, at Louisburg Fortress.

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The British made a surprise landing

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on nearby Kennington Beach and won the Battle of Louisburg.

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But, for Cook, the victory was almost a side issue.

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The day after the fortress fell, Cook was walking on this little

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beach where he met a young man named Samuel Holland,

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who was using a strange kind of instrument.

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As it would turn out, it was called a plane table.

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The plane table was a revelation to James Cook.

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He quickly grasped that it could be used to transform

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the accuracy of naval charts.

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Let's suppose we place the plane table here.

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And this is a stone, represents the object we're taking a bearing on.

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Well, if you take a bearing with the plane table on that object, then you

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measure off the known distance here

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and take another bearing on the object. Since you know this distance

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by geometry you can calculate what these two distances are.

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So, Cook, Holland or, in fact, anyone could take what they saw

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before them in the landscape and translate that onto paper.

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In other words, they could make themselves a map

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or an accurate chart.

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James Cook had found his calling.

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Until now, sailors like him had been reliant on local knowledge,

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crude sketches and written lists of sailing directions.

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Now, as a map maker, he would draw scientific charts bringing precision

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where there had been none.

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We can still see the first chart he ever drew.

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It's kept here.

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This is the Hydrographic Office in Taunton in Somerset in England.

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It contains charts for every scrap of coastline on Earth.

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But, more importantly, it contains one of the most significant documents

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for me anywhere in the world.

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It's kept in the protection of the Curator of Maps, Philip Clayton-Gore.

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Right, so, it's in here, is it?

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Wow, isn't that just beautiful?

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It's extraordinary.

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'This is the result of James Cook's meeting with Samuel Holland

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'on that Canadian beach.

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'This is James Cook's first chart.

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'A draft of the bay and harbour at Gaspay

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'on the St Lawrence River, 1758.'

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Cook's maps from Canada were so outstanding that he was appointed

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King's Surveyor of Newfoundland.

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But what I'm beginning to see is how it suited his perfectionist nature

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and his passion for accuracy.

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He stands alone for his thoroughness and for his dedication

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of the application of this emerging science of hydrography.

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He's unremitting in his labour. He's almost verging on the obsessional.

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Now, here's the map Cook

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was given in 1762, the year he started charting the territory.

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If we compare it with the satellite image, it still

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doesn't match up with reality.

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Here's what Cook produced five years later.

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Now, this really is a map.

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Just look at this detail.

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And when you put it up against a modern satellite image,

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you can see just how precise it is.

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So, precise in fact, it was still being used

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well into the 20th century.

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Perhaps as he entered his mid 30s, this down-to-earth Yorkshire farm boy

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had travelled further than the New World.

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His charting ability made him invaluable

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to an ever-expanding empire.

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But it also meant he could start climbing

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Britain's rigid social hierarchy.

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And there's a clue that he knew it. Take a look at his signature.

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It's changing.

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He's adding elaborate flourishes.

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I think it's the signature of a man growing in confidence,

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preparing himself for better things.

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By 1767, James Cook was 39 years old,

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married, with a growing family. His wife Elizabeth was 27.

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Young James - four, Nathaniel - three and little Elizabeth - 18 months.

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Life for the Cooks had settled into a pattern. James spent summers

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surveying Newfoundland, winters back in London finishing his charts.

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Then one day, Cook was called to the Admiralty,

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the headquarters of the Royal Navy.

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The Admiralty wanted Cook to lead

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Britain's first scientific voyage of discovery.

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He was to set sail for the very edge of the known world and then go beyond

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to discover a new and fabled land of riches and claim it for Britain.

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In the 18th century, at least a third of the Earth was still a mystery.

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Nobody in Europe knew what was in the blank space to the south.

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But, there was a legend

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that waiting to be discovered was a great southern continent.

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There was always the hope of finding another America.

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America had made such an impact on European consciousness.

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And there was the hope that it would bring with it the riches

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that America had brought to Europe.

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So, why did the power brokers at the Admiralty chose James Cook,

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who, on paper, was just a Ship's Master?

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Well, it would take a brilliant navigator to find it

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and a superb map-maker to chart it accurately.

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If it existed, they knew

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Cook would bring back the information they needed to claim the prized land.

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The Navy had already chosen his ship.

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Ironically, she was a Whitby Cat, the very type of ship on

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which Cook had learnt his trade.

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Her name was the Earl of Pembroke, but it was changed to...Endeavour.

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If you're looking for James Cook,

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this is probably the best place to find him.

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This is his ship.

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This replica of Endeavour was launched in 1993.

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-Hi, Penny.

-How are you going? Welcome aboard.

-Good, thank you.

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It's a bit of a squeeze, so I'll dump my bag up there.

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'Second officer aboard the Endeavour replica is Penny Keeley.

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'She takes me below decks, to the claustrophobic world

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'of the 18th-century navy.'

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Captain Cook's lobby and his cabin in here.

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I can imagine there's a few banged heads in here.

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James Cook was over six foot tall.

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About six foot two. He had to spend three years cramped in this quarter.

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After months of painstaking preparation,

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everything was finally in place.

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'August 26th, 1768.

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'At 2pm got under sail and put to sea, having on board 94 persons

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'including officers, seamen, gentlemen and their servants.'

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It was the biggest moment of James Cook's life.

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If successful, this voyage would propel him towards naval stardom.

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The day after Endeavour left, Elizabeth gave birth to her

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fourth child, a boy, Joseph.

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But within a month, baby Joseph would be dead.

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It would be three years before James Cook found out.

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After five months at sea, Endeavour rounded the tip of South America,

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and entered the waters that would make Cook famous...

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the vast and mysterious Pacific Ocean.

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Three months later, Cook and his crew arrived at the island of Tahiti.

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Their intention was to observe a rare astronomical event -

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the transit of Venus across the face of the sun.

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But it wasn't this that caught the crew's attention.

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It's heaven on Earth.

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It's the best posting you've ever got in a brutal navy.

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The natives were friendly, the food was good, native women were even

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friendlier than the native men and you could have a night of pleasure

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for the price of an iron nail. So this was just mind-blowing.

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But, for Cook's most eminent travelling companion,

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Tahiti provided something much more significant.

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Joseph Banks is a wealthy aristocrat with a passion for natural history.

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He's paid £10,000 to come on this voyage but he's really entered into

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the spirit of things. He's collected hundreds of natural history specimens

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and now he collects one more - a young Tahitian named Tupaya.

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Tupaya was a Tahitian priest. Banks saw him as an exotic souvenir

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to show off back in London.

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But here, we can get a fascinating insight

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into the way Cook's mind worked.

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Tupaya was a navigator, and Cook wanted to tap into his

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incredible knowledge - knowledge of the mysterious waters of the Pacific.

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Cook respected his geographical knowledge, his navigational skills

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and he was an invaluable translator for them all around Polynesia.

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Cook draws upon local experience whenever he can and I

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think that sets him apart, again, from other officers in the period -

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his willingness to learn

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from local knowledge and to deal with indigenous peoples.

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After leaving Tahiti, Tupaya drew Cook a map.

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Two men - one, guardian of the Polynesian world and its geography,

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the other, an officer in His Majesty's navy -

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and the common language they shared was that of navigation.

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Tupaya's knowledge was that of the amazing Polynesian people,

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the most widely-travelled people on Earth.

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Tupaya's map stretches across some 2,200km of ocean.

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But on it, there was no sign of the great Southern Continent.

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'We cannot find that Tupaya either

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'knows of or has ever heard of a continent or large tract of land.

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'I have no reason to doubt his information.'

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But as instructed, Cook sailed to 40 degrees south and found nothing.

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No sign of the southern land,

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so he went back to his secret orders which said, not having discovered

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the great Southern Continent, you are to proceed to the westward

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until you discover it or fall in with the land discovered by Tasman.

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In 1769, that land looks like this on maps.

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The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had named it Staten Land in 1642.

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It was widely believed to be the west coast of

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the great Southern Continent.

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Land ahoy!

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All Cook knew was that he was

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looking at the east coast of an unidentified land.

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The quickest way to find out if this

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was the Great Continent was to ask the people who clearly lived here,

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people who were about to make a profound impact on James Cook.

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MAORI WELCOMING CHANT

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This mystery coast is in fact the home of Maori.

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They call it Aotearoa,

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the Land Of The Long White Cloud.

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We know it today as New Zealand.

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Endeavour dropped anchor at what's now Gisborne,

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about halfway up the North Island.

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Watching Endeavour arrive was Te Maro.

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Te Maro was leader of the Ngati Oneone tribe. He'd never meet Cook, because

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when a landing party was sent ashore from Endeavour Te Maro was shot dead.

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Hi, Barney. Nice to meet you.

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'Barney Tupara is Te Maro's descendant.'

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Come on inside.

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Thank you very much.

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Barney and the Maori have not forgotten their meeting with Cook.

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The next day, Cook comes ashore and he writes that he saw an assembling

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of natives with flourishing weapons above their heads

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and doing what seemed to be a war dance.

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It wasn't just a war dance. It was a kapa haka.

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Cook was probably the first Englishman to witness a Maori haka.

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The haka that Cook saw would have been an expression of aggression,

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would have been an expression of celebration, but also of prowess and strength.

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Cook had no idea how to respond to this Maori haka.

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But what happened next was remarkable.

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Te Rakau, who was the leader of the kapa haka

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that came down onto the beach that day,

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would have then gone forward

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to meet him.

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What the hongi is - it's the way that we as Maori greet people.

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Irrespective of whether we like them or not.

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It's quite an intimate, but very gentle and friendly way

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way of greeting another person.

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Cook's instinctive response

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brought the dangerous situation under control.

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But that bridging of two diverse cultures

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was all too brief and things soon began to go wrong.

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For a reason unclear, Te Rakau grabbed Cook's sword.

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And then, of course, as we know, he was shot.

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From the British accounts, there is the story that Cook placed

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a red coat from one of the marines over Te Rakau's body.

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Is that something that

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is picked up in your oral history as perhaps a gesture of reconciliation?

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To some extent it's probably fair to say that with the laying of the red

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coat, there was a desire to accept that maybe what

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happened shouldn't have happened, and Cook taking responsibility.

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'I am aware that most humane men who have not experienced things

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'of this nature will censure my conduct in firing upon the people.

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'But I was not to stand still and suffer either myself

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'or those that were with me to be knocked on the head.'

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James Cook knew that his time here had been a disaster.

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He called it Poverty Bay.

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I think he named this place as much for his own sense of failure as for

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any failure in getting provisions.

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Cook sailed north, looking for supplies and safe anchorage.

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He had to find a way to communicate with the inhabitants to get what he

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needed and to find out if this was the great Southern Continent.

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But he knew he must tread carefully. So, next time they went ashore,

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he sent in Tupaya, the Polynesian navigator.

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They set in at a place called Tolaga Bay.

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Endeavour anchored just over there.

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Then Cook rowed around this headland

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and came into this cove here to get wood and water.

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After his disturbing first few days

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in New Zealand, he's learning that respect goes a long way with Maori.

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'During our stay in this bay, we had every day traffic with the natives.

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'I suffered everyone to purchase whatever they pleased without limitation.

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'But by this means, I knew that the natives would not only sell,

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'but also get a good price for everything they brought.'

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We know from his journals that Cook was deeply worried about the

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effects his contact would have on the indigenous people in the Pacific.

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What seems to be happening here is much more

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than just an explorer plotting a stretch of coastline on a map.

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What we're seeing...

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are the moral coordinates in the growing map of Cook the man.

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Cook suspected that this was an island and not the great continent.

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For the next six months, he

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minutely charted what turned out to be the two islands that we now know

0:23:490:23:53

make up New Zealand and he claimed them for Britain.

0:23:530:23:57

His final map is a masterpiece.

0:23:570:24:00

This is just the most brilliant piece of hydrographic work

0:24:040:24:08

ever undertaken. Pioneering, it's on a grander scale,

0:24:080:24:11

it's done in a shorter space of time and it's remarkably accurate.

0:24:110:24:15

Nobody had ever done anything like this before.

0:24:150:24:17

By April 1770, Cook hadn't seen his family in over 18 months.

0:24:190:24:23

He'd missed James's 7th birthday, Nathanial's 6th, and little

0:24:230:24:27

Elizabeth's 3rd.

0:24:270:24:29

He thought he'd missed baby Joseph's first birthday. He had no

0:24:290:24:33

way of knowing that Joseph had died a month after he'd left England

0:24:330:24:37

and it would be another 15 months before he got home and found out.

0:24:370:24:41

For the moment though, James Cook

0:24:460:24:48

had a more immediate family to look after.

0:24:480:24:50

His crew.

0:24:500:24:52

Peppered throughout the journals of James Cook are constant references

0:25:040:25:09

to feeding his men.

0:25:090:25:11

He was obsessive about their diet and small wonder.

0:25:110:25:15

The biggest threat to their health on board was scurvy.

0:25:150:25:18

Scurvy killed more sailors in the 18th century than war, accidents

0:25:180:25:24

and shipwrecks combined.

0:25:240:25:26

Scurvy is a horrible condition caused by lack of Vitamin C.

0:25:300:25:34

Nobody knows this yet, not even James Cook. But he does know

0:25:340:25:38

his men need to eat fresh food, something impossible on long voyages.

0:25:380:25:43

So, instead, he places his faith in a substitute.

0:25:430:25:47

Sauerkraut or pickled cabbage.

0:25:470:25:50

Trouble is, his men refuse to eat it.

0:25:500:25:54

And frankly, I don't blame them.

0:25:540:25:56

It smells disgusting.

0:25:560:25:58

But here, we see something quite remarkable.

0:26:000:26:03

James Cook could order his men to eat it.

0:26:030:26:06

He could threaten to flog them.

0:26:060:26:09

But, instead, he chooses a different tactic.

0:26:090:26:12

Psychology.

0:26:120:26:14

'The sauerkraut, the men, at first, would not eat.

0:26:140:26:18

'Until I put in practice a method I never once knew to fail.

0:26:180:26:22

'This was to have some of it dressed every day for the cabin table.

0:26:220:26:26

'The moment they see their superiors set a value upon it,

0:26:260:26:30

'it becomes the finest stuff in the world.'

0:26:300:26:33

In all his voyages, Cook the humanitarian

0:26:350:26:38

would not lose a single man to scurvy.

0:26:380:26:42

But this voyage wasn't over yet.

0:26:420:26:44

There were more discoveries ahead.

0:26:440:26:46

On April 19th 1770, Cook sighted the land which would

0:26:490:26:54

forge his name in history.

0:26:540:26:56

New Holland.

0:26:560:26:57

He guided Endeavour into a beautiful bay.

0:26:570:27:01

You still arrive in New Holland at that very bay.

0:27:060:27:10

It's the sight of Sydney Airport.

0:27:100:27:12

Today, New Holland is Australia.

0:27:130:27:15

James Cook anchors Endeavour just out there.

0:27:200:27:24

As he's being rowed to shore, he clearly has a sense of occasion.

0:27:240:27:29

He knows the first man to step ashore will be remembered.

0:27:290:27:33

So, he turns to his wife's cousin, 17-year-old midshipman Isaac Smith

0:27:330:27:37

and says Isaac, you shall go first.

0:27:370:27:41

New Holland was mind-blowing for Joseph Banks

0:27:430:27:47

and his fellow naturalist, Doctor Sallander.

0:27:470:27:50

Everything there was so different from any other place on Earth.

0:27:500:27:54

The scientists collected samples of a 130 unknown

0:27:540:27:59

species of plant, including one named after Banks himself, Banksia.

0:27:590:28:04

James Cook had already named this place Sting Ray Harbour

0:28:060:28:09

but he went back to his journal and changed it to one that would become

0:28:090:28:13

the most famous name in the land.

0:28:130:28:15

Botany Bay.

0:28:150:28:17

But one thing mystified Cook.

0:28:180:28:21

There were few signs of the local inhabitants.

0:28:210:28:24

Unlike the Tahitians or Maori, the residents of New Holland

0:28:240:28:28

made it clear they wanted nothing to do with these white visitors.

0:28:280:28:33

They wanted them to go away.

0:28:330:28:36

On May 6th 1770, his work done at Botany Bay,

0:28:510:28:56

Cook began working his way up the east coast of New Holland.

0:28:560:29:00

For three months, he methodically

0:29:000:29:03

and meticulously charted this unknown land.

0:29:030:29:07

Cook had no way of knowing that as he pushed up

0:29:100:29:13

the east coast of New Holland, he was putting the entire voyage at risk.

0:29:130:29:18

He was sailing Endeavour straight into a trap -

0:29:180:29:22

the Great Barrier Reef...

0:29:220:29:24

..a marine mine field

0:29:260:29:28

of treacherous coral outcrops over 1,200 miles long - the same distance

0:29:280:29:34

as London to Moscow.

0:29:340:29:36

James Cook drove his ship onwards.

0:29:420:29:45

On 11 June 1770, Endeavour smashed onto the reef.

0:29:470:29:52

There were 100 men on board Endeavour,

0:29:580:30:01

the charts of New Zealand and the east coast of New Holland.

0:30:010:30:05

This was a priceless treasure ship.

0:30:050:30:08

Water gushed in. The men threw stores,

0:30:080:30:11

cannon overboard, anything to lighten the ship.

0:30:110:30:16

They were 20 miles from land, their lives hanging in the balance.

0:30:160:30:20

SHOUTING AND BELLS RINGING

0:30:200:30:23

After more than 23 terrifying hours,

0:30:270:30:32

they managed to float her off the reef.

0:30:320:30:35

Endeavour limped for three days towards the coastline.

0:30:350:30:39

James Cook watched plumes of smoke rising from the land.

0:30:390:30:43

Smoke meant people.

0:30:430:30:45

People only settled where they could find fresh water.

0:30:450:30:49

James Cook pulled Endeavour in right here.

0:30:520:30:56

By now, the place was deserted.

0:30:560:30:58

Whoever had lit those fires was long gone.

0:30:580:31:00

We know from his records that

0:31:000:31:03

he beached the ship right here, in this exact spot.

0:31:030:31:07

And then pulled her up onto the mud,

0:31:070:31:09

pushed her over to repair the hole in her side.

0:31:090:31:12

Sydney Parkinson, the Ship's Artist,

0:31:120:31:14

then rode out roughly to where those boats are out there,

0:31:140:31:17

turned around and drew the scene.

0:31:170:31:20

What is so surprising about Cook is that he's managed all the rest of

0:31:230:31:27

the voyage without doing this. He's managing to avoid running aground -

0:31:270:31:31

Tahiti, all the way round New Zealand, most of the way up

0:31:310:31:34

the east coast of Australia, in and out of the Barrier Reef. Remarkable.

0:31:340:31:38

He's making the charts as he goes. And he manages to run aground just once.

0:31:380:31:43

That's absolutely stunning.

0:31:430:31:44

After seven weeks, Cook navigated the patched-up Endeavour out through the

0:31:460:31:51

maze of the Great Barrier Reef.

0:31:510:31:53

18 days later, on 22 August 1770, Cook performed one of the most

0:31:530:31:59

controversial acts of the whole voyage.

0:31:590:32:02

He claimed the entire east coast of New Holland for Britain.

0:32:020:32:06

It was an act which even today

0:32:080:32:10

some regard as the illegal theft of a continent from its indigenous people.

0:32:100:32:15

The next day, Cook sailed north into open water and back onto the map.

0:32:230:32:28

Endeavour had finally rejoined the known world and now headed

0:32:320:32:37

for the Dutch port of Batavia, modern Jakarta.

0:32:370:32:40

Endeavour was still in bad need of repair.

0:32:470:32:51

Not long after they arrived, they took on water.

0:32:510:32:54

But that water was infected and disease struck.

0:32:540:32:58

It was James Cook's worst nightmare.

0:32:580:33:01

As they sailed for home, men he'd kept alive

0:33:010:33:04

two and a half years, began to die.

0:33:040:33:06

13 March 1771, South Africa.

0:33:110:33:16

By now, Cook had lost over a third of his men.

0:33:160:33:19

There were barely enough left to sail the ship into port.

0:33:190:33:23

So close to home, having taken his crew around the world without losing

0:33:250:33:30

a single man to disease.

0:33:300:33:32

This was a tragedy for the man who cared so greatly for his men,

0:33:320:33:37

and devastating for someone who needed to be in control.

0:33:370:33:40

12 July 1771, after two years and 11 months at sea, Endeavour sighted the

0:33:460:33:53

White Cliffs of Dover.

0:33:530:33:54

Britain's great scientific voyage of discovery was finally over.

0:33:540:33:59

And it was time for Cook to leave his wooden world on board Endeavour.

0:33:590:34:03

James Cook headed home to Elizabeth and the family.

0:34:080:34:12

He was expecting four children,

0:34:120:34:14

but there were only two - young James and Nathanial.

0:34:140:34:19

Baby Joseph had died while Cook was away,

0:34:190:34:21

and so too had his only daughter.

0:34:210:34:24

I've got children of my own, so the thought of Elizabeth mourning her

0:34:300:34:34

little ones by herself really tugs at my heart.

0:34:340:34:38

She buried two of them here, at St Dunstan's Church, not far from the

0:34:380:34:42

family home at Mile End. Baby Joseph

0:34:420:34:44

and her namesake, the infant Elizabeth.

0:34:440:34:47

Canny and pragmatic, she was raised in an alehouse

0:34:470:34:50

near the Thames, so knew what she was in for marrying a sailor.

0:34:500:34:54

But James Cook was no ordinary sailor.

0:34:540:34:57

In 16 years of marriage, they spent just four years together.

0:34:570:35:02

If James Cook was exceptional, he needed a wife who was every bit

0:35:020:35:07

as tough and determined to hold their family together.

0:35:070:35:11

Theirs really was a partnership, despite the long years of separation.

0:35:110:35:16

In her own way, she was just as remarkable as him.

0:35:160:35:19

On 16 June 1772, Elizabeth gave birth to George, their fifth child.

0:35:240:35:31

Just five days later,

0:35:340:35:36

James Cook said goodbye to Elizabeth and the children.

0:35:360:35:39

He was going to the other side of the world, and he might never return.

0:35:390:35:44

The Admiralty still believed there were huge areas in the Southern Ocean

0:35:500:35:54

where a vast landmass might be found.

0:35:540:35:57

But Cook had a second, personal agenda - to chart the Southern Oceans

0:35:570:36:02

and rid them of uncertainty.

0:36:020:36:04

Now, he's on a voyage that he says will make his previous discoveries

0:36:040:36:09

more perfect and complete.

0:36:090:36:11

"More perfect and complete" -

0:36:110:36:14

that choice of words is really interesting.

0:36:140:36:17

It gives us a valuable insight into his determination and his obsession.

0:36:170:36:22

On 13 July 1772, Cook and his new ship, Resolution, and the Adventure

0:36:240:36:30

sailed from Plymouth.

0:36:300:36:32

It would take over three months to reach Table Bay

0:36:320:36:35

at the southern tip of Africa.

0:36:350:36:36

From here, they headed south, towards Antarctica, where the ships entered a

0:36:400:36:44

strange world of ice.

0:36:440:36:47

'Admiration and horror.

0:36:570:37:00

'The first is occasioned by the beautifulness of the picture.

0:37:000:37:03

'And the latter by the danger.

0:37:030:37:06

'And can only be described by the hand of an able painter.'

0:37:070:37:11

The "able painter" was 29-year-old Ship's Artist, William Hodges.

0:37:130:37:19

He would show the world wonders

0:37:190:37:22

like these - the very first images of the Antarctic.

0:37:220:37:26

'At 14 past 11 o'clock,

0:37:280:37:30

'we passed the Antarctic Circle and are undoubtedly the first and only

0:37:300:37:35

'ship that ever crossed that line.'

0:37:350:37:39

James Cook continued his sweep of the Southern Ocean.

0:37:420:37:46

He'd been at sea for over four months and travelled over 10,000 miles

0:37:460:37:52

without ever sighting land.

0:37:520:37:54

But something was happening to Cook.

0:38:020:38:04

The man who always wanted to be in control, began to show

0:38:040:38:07

glimpses that all wasn't well.

0:38:070:38:11

'He was suffering so greatly from his stomach, that he was in a great

0:38:120:38:16

'sweat and could hardly stand.

0:38:160:38:17

'It was, indeed, hardly remarkable that,

0:38:170:38:20

'after so great a responsibility and so prodigious a strain on his mental

0:38:200:38:24

'and physical capacities, he should be completely exhausted.

0:38:240:38:27

'Anders Sparrman, HMS Resolution.'

0:38:270:38:31

Cook recovered and the vast blank which was the Pacific Ocean was now

0:38:330:38:37

being meticulously filled in by the hand of this master chart-maker.

0:38:370:38:41

Yet the growing sense of order on the chart, contrasted with the growing

0:38:430:38:47

disorder in his temper. Increasingly unpredictable, the new

0:38:470:38:51

Cook was at times a far cry from the controlled man his crew was used to.

0:38:510:38:57

On this voyage, Cook had achieved his

0:38:590:39:02

ambition - to go as far as it was possible for a man to go.

0:39:020:39:07

But had he pushed himself too far?

0:39:070:39:11

Physically and mentally,

0:39:110:39:14

flaws are beginning to show in this discovering genius.

0:39:140:39:18

Flaws that will ultimately lead to his death.

0:39:180:39:21

The summer of 1776 finds James Cook here,

0:39:290:39:33

ensconced at Greenwich Hospital, a retirement home for sailors.

0:39:330:39:38

Cook was bored and restless.

0:39:380:39:40

At 48, he was the most celebrated sailor of his age.

0:39:400:39:44

He'd completely two extraordinary voyages of discovery.

0:39:440:39:47

And he was about to be called out of retirement to start a third.

0:39:470:39:52

Cook had been asked to dinner

0:39:540:39:57

with the three most important men in the British Navy.

0:39:570:39:59

They wanted him to lead one final voyage of exploration.

0:39:590:40:03

They wanted him to find the fabled Northwest Passage.

0:40:030:40:08

And the reason was Britain's love of tea - most of which came from Asia.

0:40:080:40:14

The main trade route to the riches

0:40:160:40:18

of Asia was around the bottom of Africa and across the Indian Ocean.

0:40:180:40:22

But the Portuguese had controlled that for almost 300 years.

0:40:220:40:27

The answer was to go the other way round - over the top of the world.

0:40:270:40:32

A passage north-west from Britain up to the Arctic, down into the Pacific

0:40:320:40:36

and round to China, cutting the distance almost by half.

0:40:360:40:40

Like the great southern unknown, the Northwest Passage

0:40:400:40:44

was one of those great cartographic mysteries.

0:40:440:40:48

What happened to the northern coastline of Canada?

0:40:480:40:51

What was there at the North Pole?

0:40:510:40:52

From the very start of this voyage,

0:40:520:40:55

James Cook was under enormous pressure.

0:40:550:40:58

He only had a few months to prepare.

0:40:580:41:00

He scoured the existing charts and accounts of previous voyages,

0:41:000:41:04

but most of them were useless fantasies.

0:41:040:41:08

Look at the quality of information he has to deal with.

0:41:110:41:14

This Russian map purports to be a very accurate little map.

0:41:140:41:18

But just look here. Alaska is shown as an island.

0:41:180:41:23

This strait doesn't even exist.

0:41:230:41:25

Yet, Cook has been sent north to sail through it

0:41:250:41:28

and find the Northwest Passage.

0:41:280:41:30

But there were other worrying signs that James Cook's third

0:41:330:41:36

great voyage would have its problems.

0:41:360:41:38

One thing he wasn't doing, something he'd always done, was to check

0:41:390:41:44

personally the ship, the supplies and equipment for the voyage.

0:41:440:41:49

He's neglecting the very thing that ensured his success

0:41:490:41:52

on his other voyages.

0:41:520:41:54

He said farewell to Elizabeth.

0:41:560:41:59

She knew she faced years of separation,

0:41:590:42:02

but even she couldn't guess it would be 56 years of being alone.

0:42:020:42:08

They would never see each other again.

0:42:090:42:11

In June 1776, the expedition set sail.

0:42:190:42:24

Cook used two ships - Resolution, which he'd command, and Discovery.

0:42:240:42:30

Once, again he would travel round Africa and enter the Pacific from

0:42:300:42:34

the east, before heading north to the Canadian coast, in his search for

0:42:340:42:39

the Northwest Passage.

0:42:390:42:41

For some of his loyal crew,

0:42:410:42:43

this would be their third voyage with Cook.

0:42:430:42:47

One newcomer is Ship's Master,

0:42:470:42:49

the brilliant, but prickly, William Bligh.

0:42:490:42:52

He'll become notorious for the mutiny on the Bounty.

0:42:520:42:56

But, for now, he wants to sail with Cook, the great navigator.

0:42:560:43:01

But as the voyage progressed, Cook, the cool, humane captain underwent

0:43:020:43:07

a dramatic, disturbing change.

0:43:070:43:09

He loses his temper, he starts to shout and yell at the officers

0:43:090:43:13

and men. He starts to lose control of his emotions.

0:43:130:43:18

And there's a kind of tragic inevitability

0:43:180:43:20

that it's not going to end well.

0:43:200:43:22

If his behaviour was growing erratic towards the end of the second voyage,

0:43:240:43:28

on the third it was getting worse.

0:43:280:43:30

'Heiva, the name of the dances of the southern islanders,

0:43:300:43:34

'which bore so great a resemblance to the violent motions and stampings on

0:43:340:43:39

'the deck of Captain Cook...

0:43:390:43:40

'It was a common saying among both officers and people -

0:43:400:43:45

'the old boy has been tipping a heiva.

0:43:450:43:47

'James Trevenen - Midshipman, HMS Resolution.'

0:43:470:43:51

James Cook did have big problems.

0:43:560:43:58

He was battling the wind, and supplies were stretched to the limit.

0:43:580:44:02

He'd also missed the northern summer, which meant extending the trip

0:44:020:44:06

by another year.

0:44:060:44:07

The Cook of old would have maintained his composure.

0:44:080:44:11

This new Cook has a mean streak, and he takes it out on others.

0:44:110:44:16

The first to feel this was the island of Moorea, near Tahiti.

0:44:180:44:21

When the locals stole the ship's goat, Cook got so angry

0:44:210:44:25

he set fire to their boats and village in revenge.

0:44:250:44:29

'Thus this troublesome and rather unfortunate affair ended -

0:44:290:44:33

'which could not be more regretted on the part of the natives than it

0:44:330:44:37

'was on mine.'

0:44:370:44:39

The once-peaceful James Cook was

0:44:400:44:43

now becoming increasingly ruthless with the indigenous people he met.

0:44:430:44:47

And his crew began to notice the change.

0:44:470:44:50

'Captain Cook punished in a manner rather unbecoming of a European,

0:44:500:44:55

'by cutting off their ears,

0:44:550:44:58

'firing at them with small shot as they were swimming or paddling to shore,

0:44:580:45:02

'beating them with the oars and sticking the boat up into them.

0:45:020:45:06

'George Gilbert - Midshipman, HMS Resolution.'

0:45:060:45:10

Cook was aware of his changing behaviour, but it seems he was

0:45:120:45:15

unable to control it.

0:45:150:45:17

Actually, I sometimes wonder if he just wasn't a little bit depressed,

0:45:200:45:24

because depression wasn't a condition that one admitted

0:45:240:45:27

to or diagnosed back in the 1700s.

0:45:270:45:29

Another more simple explanation

0:45:290:45:31

might be that he just wore the burden of command for too long.

0:45:310:45:34

He was worn down by continual responsibility.

0:45:340:45:38

Cook had been away for over 18 months when he sailed up

0:45:380:45:42

towards the North American continent.

0:45:420:45:45

It was from here, New Albion,

0:45:450:45:47

that he began his search for the Northwest Passage.

0:45:470:45:51

New Albion included what we now call Canada.

0:45:570:46:01

Here, James Cook met the Mowerchat, the people of the deer.

0:46:010:46:05

Cook's crew were the first white men they'd ever seen.

0:46:050:46:09

When James Cook arrived in these waters, it's said that the people who

0:46:180:46:22

came out to meet him directed him to a village, and that's it over there.

0:46:220:46:26

The village of Ukot.

0:46:260:46:28

James Cook's ship Resolution is really falling apart.

0:46:310:46:36

Sloppy defence contractors aren't just a modern problem.

0:46:360:46:39

The shipwrights back home have done a terrible job,

0:46:390:46:42

and he now needs to chop down these trees to replace masts

0:46:420:46:45

and make new timbers - all work that should have been

0:46:450:46:49

overseen by Cook in London, not thousands of kilometres away, here.

0:46:490:46:54

After a month in Nootka, James Cook sailed off

0:46:550:46:59

in search of the Northwest Passage.

0:46:590:47:02

It was the start of his last great quest.

0:47:020:47:05

Cook's ships crawled along the tortuous Alaskan coastline.

0:47:080:47:12

Every bay and inlet was methodically checked.

0:47:120:47:15

Any of them might have revealed the elusive route back to Britain.

0:47:150:47:20

Weeks and months drifted by.

0:47:200:47:22

There was no sign of Cook's prize, no sign of a quick route home.

0:47:220:47:26

Cook should have been in his element.

0:47:320:47:34

On previous journeys, his obsession with meticulous

0:47:340:47:37

charting of unfamiliar coastlines had driven his crew to distraction.

0:47:370:47:42

But now it was doing the same to him.

0:47:420:47:45

One huge bay alone took 16 days to explore to his satisfaction.

0:47:450:47:50

Could it be he was starting to doubt himself?

0:47:500:47:54

What if the Northwest Passage didn't really exist?

0:47:540:47:59

What if this last great voyage was a waste of time?

0:47:590:48:02

In August 1778, Resolution and Discovery entered the Arctic Ocean.

0:48:070:48:13

The two ships beat drums and fired guns to keep track of each other.

0:48:130:48:18

Here, James Cook entered a world shrouded in fog.

0:48:180:48:23

The Russian maps he'd gathered in London were useless.

0:48:240:48:29

'What could induce him to publish so erroneous a map

0:48:300:48:34

'that the most illiterate of his illiterate seafaring men

0:48:340:48:37

'would have been ashamed to put his name to?'

0:48:370:48:40

James Cook's behaviour is beginning to horrify his men.

0:48:440:48:47

He runs with the wind in fog so thick, they can

0:48:470:48:50

barely see the length of the ship.

0:48:500:48:53

Suddenly, he hears the sound of crashing surf

0:48:530:48:55

and orders the ship halted.

0:48:550:48:57

When the frog clears, they realise they've

0:48:570:48:59

hurtled through a gap in the rocks little wider than the ship herself.

0:48:590:49:04

Providence had conducted us through these rocks where I should not have

0:49:060:49:10

ventured on a clear day.

0:49:100:49:11

And to such an anchoring place I could not have chosen better.

0:49:110:49:16

Desperate for fresh meat, James Cook had some walrus butchered

0:49:160:49:21

and ordered his men to eat it.

0:49:210:49:23

They found walrus disgusting and refused.

0:49:230:49:27

In a fit of pique, he cut their rations.

0:49:270:49:29

That's completely out of character for him, and shows

0:49:320:49:36

just how badly he was losing the control, the respect, of his crew.

0:49:360:49:41

That's something that's never happened before.

0:49:410:49:44

They now take the extraordinary step of writing him a letter of complaint.

0:49:440:49:51

'This is a very mutinous proceeding.

0:49:510:49:55

'Every innovation of mine - sauerkraut,

0:49:550:49:58

'all of them - have been designed

0:49:580:49:59

'by me to keep my people free from the dreadful distemper scurvy.'

0:49:590:50:04

James Cook's world was spiralling out of control.

0:50:060:50:09

A ship that was falling apart.

0:50:090:50:12

Maps that were useless fantasies.

0:50:120:50:15

He'd been at sea for a year,

0:50:150:50:17

and after just three weeks in the Arctic Ocean, he'd hit a wall of ice.

0:50:170:50:21

And it was not even winter yet.

0:50:210:50:24

Now, even the world's greatest explorer had to admit defeat.

0:50:240:50:30

James Cook probably would have seen it as a failure of science.

0:50:320:50:36

But, perhaps, it was a failure of the man.

0:50:360:50:39

Perhaps he shouldn't have agreed to lead this voyage. He was almost 50.

0:50:390:50:44

He'd spent most of the last ten years

0:50:440:50:46

at sea, under the sort of pressure that most captains never experience.

0:50:460:50:52

When he was younger, he seemed to thrive on this.

0:50:520:50:55

But now, it was taking its toll.

0:50:550:50:58

Where once he led solely by example,

0:50:580:51:01

now, he would sometimes resort to using fear and threats.

0:51:010:51:05

He was losing the respect

0:51:050:51:07

of his crew and officers, and the people he met in these new lands.

0:51:070:51:12

With the northern winter looming, it would be months before he could

0:51:140:51:17

search again for the Northwest Passage.

0:51:170:51:19

He desperately needed somewhere warm to rest and resupply.

0:51:190:51:23

So, he took his two ships back to the Pacific, to a place that he

0:51:230:51:27

discovered on his journey north - the Sandwich Islands.

0:51:270:51:31

Today, we know them as Hawaii.

0:51:310:51:34

Amazingly, Cook sailed round them for six weeks without landing.

0:51:360:51:42

His crew thought their commander was out of his mind.

0:51:420:51:46

They certainly were - watching the land pass by day after day.

0:51:460:51:51

Cook offered no explanation and they didn't dare ask.

0:51:510:51:55

Finally, Resolution and Discovery entered

0:51:570:52:00

a wide bay and dropped anchor.

0:52:000:52:03

You still enter Kealakekua Bay the way James Cook saw it.

0:52:070:52:11

But the reception he received was astonishing.

0:52:110:52:14

So many people came out and clambered

0:52:140:52:16

aboard Resolution and Discovery that both ships started to list.

0:52:160:52:22

'I had nowhere in the course of my voyages seen so numerous a body of

0:52:220:52:27

'people assembled at one place.

0:52:270:52:30

'Besides those in canoes, all the shore were covered in spectators,

0:52:300:52:33

'and many hundreds were swimming about the ships like fish.'

0:52:330:52:38

After almost three weeks, Resolution and Discovery resupply and leave.

0:52:380:52:44

James Cook is going back

0:52:440:52:46

again to hammer away at the ice at the Northwest Passage.

0:52:460:52:51

But just a few days out of here,

0:52:510:52:53

Resolution breaks a mast.

0:52:530:52:56

It's that shoddy workmanship he

0:52:560:52:58

never oversaw in London coming back to haunt him.

0:52:580:53:02

The ships have to return.

0:53:020:53:03

This time there was no big welcome.

0:53:070:53:09

The Hawaiians had already given James Cook everything they had,

0:53:090:53:12

and were far from happy to see the ships return.

0:53:120:53:17

The Hawaiians make it very plain that their patience has worn thin.

0:53:170:53:21

The level of thefts goes up very considerably,

0:53:210:53:24

and this is a sign that the chiefs no longer are protecting him.

0:53:240:53:29

He'd outstayed his welcome.

0:53:290:53:31

He was no longer an honoured guest.

0:53:310:53:33

He was now a damn nuisance.

0:53:330:53:35

And relations change.

0:53:350:53:39

It's 14th February 1779.

0:53:390:53:42

James Cook awakes to learn that during the night, one of his ship's

0:53:420:53:45

boats has been stolen. The events of the day now move very fast.

0:53:450:53:50

He orders the bay to be blockaded.

0:53:500:53:52

Discovery on that side of the bay sealing it.

0:53:520:53:55

Resolution sealing the other side.

0:53:550:53:57

James Cook has decided to pick a fight.

0:53:570:54:00

James Cook arrives on this beach.

0:54:090:54:11

He's armed and with nine marines.

0:54:110:54:13

They head up towards a large village here called Kaawaloa.

0:54:130:54:16

It's perhaps the most sacred site on the island.

0:54:160:54:21

He marches into this sacred village, goes straight to the chief's house

0:54:210:54:25

and seizes him.

0:54:250:54:27

Cook intends to keep him hostage until he gets his boat back.

0:54:290:54:34

James Cook brings the chief down here

0:54:340:54:36

to the water's edge amid a gathering crowd of Hawaiians.

0:54:360:54:40

Hundreds on this beach and more lining the rocks.

0:54:400:54:43

To their eyes, James Cook's behaviour is a huge insult.

0:54:430:54:48

On the other side of the bay, William Bligh - ever aggressive -

0:54:480:54:51

orders his men to open fire on

0:54:510:54:53

a canoe trying to breach the blockade.

0:54:530:54:55

They kill a high-ranking warrior.

0:54:550:54:59

A tidal wave of anger then sweeps along the shoreline.

0:54:590:55:02

The beach erupts into a volley of stones.

0:55:020:55:05

James Cook himself fires the first shot, killing a man.

0:55:070:55:11

Then the Hawaiians attack.

0:55:110:55:14

James Cook died right here,

0:55:360:55:38

his sailors watching helplessly as his body is hacked to pieces.

0:55:380:55:43

But what actually killed Cook wasn't daggers or stones or drowning -

0:55:430:55:49

it was the belief that he could control every situation.

0:55:490:55:53

That's the tragedy of his death.

0:55:530:55:56

In his three epic voyages, James Cook had proved himself

0:55:560:55:59

one of the greatest explorers this world has ever seen.

0:55:590:56:03

The empire would make him a hero, but the truth about Cook the man

0:56:030:56:08

was washed away.

0:56:080:56:10

I think the real Cook was more complex, more fascinating, and that

0:56:100:56:14

his personal journey was perhaps the most dramatic of them all.

0:56:140:56:19

What I've found is perhaps an unpalatable truth -

0:56:190:56:23

that the ambitious, decent man who saw the human in everyone,

0:56:230:56:27

that man lost himself along the way.

0:56:270:56:30

So - a genius, yes, but a flawed and lonely genius.

0:56:300:56:36

And perhaps that's the real reason why his wife Elizabeth

0:56:360:56:41

burnt those letters - to try to keep Captain Cook the man for herself,

0:56:410:56:48

so that only the legend remained.

0:56:480:56:51

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