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Following in the Wake of Captain James Cook

By Caroline M. Jackson

We have all heard heart-stopping tales of what it is like to be followed by a stranger. However, it is also somewhat disconcerting to find yourself inadvertently following the path of a venerable historical figure. This was my experience while following in the wake of Captain James Cook during visits to England, Queensland and Hawaii.

My first encounter was coming across Captain Cook’s impressive bronze statue on the cliff tops of Whitby, a busy Yorkshire seaport at the mouth of the River Esk on the northeast coast of England. Appropriately the statue commemorating his life (1728-79) overlooks the harbor. Nearby is the famous whalebone arch commemorating the whaling industry which prospered here in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.

This area of Yorkshire from Whitby north to the Tees, and inland to the North York Moors National Park, was the stomping ground of young James. Today the area is referred to as "Captain Cook Country" and boasts several museums and monuments commemorating his accomplishments: He claimed the East coast of Australia for Britain, circumnavigated New Zealand, and discovered several Pacific and Atlantic islands.

The attic of a 17^th-century harbor front house in Grape Lane, Whitby, was home to young Cook during his apprenticeship to a shipping firm. Today it is a museum with period furniture and watercolors by artists who accompanied him on his voyages. Other Captain Cook artifacts can be seen at the Whitby Museum. It was from Whitby that Cook sailed in the Endeavour in 1768. As he left the harbor he must have looked back at the headland which is dominated by the gaunt 13^th- century ruins of Whitby Abbey. Today this foreboding site is still used as a landmark for mariners. This first trip aboard the Endeavour was a long voyage via Cape Horn to Tahiti and the Australian coast.

The next time I picked up the trail of Captain Cook, it was a real surprise. I had been traveling for over 30 hours, weathering an airline strike and inclement weather between Canada and Melbourne, Australia. Trying to clear my head of jetlag, I walked through Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens adjacent to my hotel. I came across Captain Cook’s quaint English cottage which had been built by his parents. For a while I considered how thoughtful it was that his parents had built a house for their son, James.

By the next morning, my mind had caught up with my body and I began reading my press kit. There was no way, Captain Cook’s parents had preceded him to Australia. The reality is that the cottage built in 1755 by Captain James Cook’s parents in Great Ayton, was dismantled brick by brick then transported to Melbourne in 1833. Today visitors can wander through the cottage and gardens. In the cottage, you can buy a postcard and mail it in the Cooks’ Cottage mail box for a special commemorative postmark.

A year later I was to visit the coast of Northern Queensland on Australia’s east coast. While swashbuckling through the tropical forests along the coastline, I came across Cape Tribulation. This was where Cook’s ship The Endeavour was almost shipwrecked after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. The hull sprang a leak and it took two months of repairs before Cook could continue on his voyage back to England. For a little while I stood alone on this desolate beach fringed by bowing palm trees. Overhead the darkening sky threatened another tropical deluge. Fleetingly I wondered how Captain Cook must have felt on the same beach as he was stymied at this location so many years ago.

My last brush with the memory of this extraordinary navigator was on the islands of Hawaii. While visiting the lush island of Kauai, I spent a little time walking round the coastal town of Waimea. It was here on 19^th January, 1778, that Captain Cook made his first Hawaiian landing. A statue in the town center is a replica of the original statue by Sir John Tweed that stands in Whitby. Annually the town of Waimea celebrates a Captain Cook fair at the end of February.

My last encounter with Captain Cook was on the Big Island of Hawaii. One morning I took an organized snorkeling boat trip along the coast from Kona to Kealakekua Bay. It was here that Captain Cook was anchored when there was a skirmish and he met his demise. He died on February 14, 1779 in his 50th year. Hawaiian Princess Likelike gave the small plot of land at Kealakekua Bay to the British Consul in memory of him.