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The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2024)From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?
Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science-–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.
Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.
At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?
Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science-–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.
Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.
At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.
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First published April 9, 2024
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June 14, 2024
“It should have been obvious to [Captain James] Cook and [Molesworth] Phillips that they should retreat to the pinnace immediately. Their lives depended on it. But Cook wouldn’t budge. Perhaps he didn’t want to lose face, didn’t want to appear undignified or cowardly. Perhaps, from all his years spent among the Polynesians, he thought he understood their tides of emotion, their body language, their mentality. Or perhaps, for the first time in his life, he genuinely didn’t have a clue what to do. He had drifted into another world that left him insensible to the dangers pressing in on him. But a warrior broke forward and pulled Cook from his reverie. The man charged at him and raised his pahoa into the air…”
- Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Like many other historical figures, Captain James Cook has had a complex afterlife. In his day – and for years thereafter – he was honored as a great explorer and “discoverer” of lands unknown to the wider world. As time progressed – and as historians finally began accounting for differing perspectives – Cook’s legacy changed. For example, it has been rightly noted that many of the places Cook “discovered” were inhabited islands that had already been found by the people who lived there. Today, Cook has become a symbol of imperialism, a man who – wittingly or not – sailed at the vanguard of colonialism, and all the exploitation that entailed.
In The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides attempts to place Captain Cook into a more nuanced context, somewhere in between flawless adventurer on the one hand, and deliverer of all evils on the other. He also – it should be added – delivers one hell of a tale.
***
The Wide Wide Sea is not a biography of James Cook. Rather, it focuses on his final voyage, which began in Plymouth, England, in July 1776, and ended – poorly – on Hawaii’s Kona Coast in January 1779. During the interim, Captain Cook visited places as different as Cape Town in Africa, Tahiti in the South Pacific, the western coast of what became the United States, and the Bering Strait. The extremes are pretty remarkable, as Cook’s two ships – the Discovery and Resolution – ping-ponged between tropical paradises and the massive ice flows that blocked the much-sought Northwest Passage.
***
As with all of Sides’s books, The Wide Wide Sea benefits from remarkably deep research that is delivered to the reader in readable, often evocative prose. Sides puts you on the quarterdeck with Cook, and on the sun-drenched isles of the vast Pacific, and in the frigid winds off Alaska. His descriptions of the various locales are worthy of a travelogue. Thanks to the incessant demands of my children to be fed and clothed and entertained by Apple products, I have not traveled in a long, long time. So, this aspect was nice.
Beyond the sights, Sides is a wonderful storyteller, with a keen ability to weave fascinating details into the proceedings without slowing its pace. He knows how to deliver a set piece, especially when it comes to Captain Cook’s furious final acts.
That said, this is not a pure narrative. To the contrary, Sides often cuts away for side-discussions about various topics. For example, he spends a couple pages describing the K1 sea clock, which allowed seafarers to determine their longitude with accuracy. At another point, he touches on the ancient Polynesian navigators who managed to reach Hawaii around the year 300, centuries before the invention of global positioning systems or even – for that matter – the K1 clock.
On occasion, Sides also pauses his forward momentum to weigh bits of evidence, and even to referee a fight between two warring anthropologists engaging in one of the vicious nothing-fights that fuels academia. Somehow, he does all this seamlessly.
***
In an “Author’s Note,” Sides promises at the outset to provide a fuller picture of Cook’s expedition, one that moves beyond the observations, declarations, and issue-framing of the white European sailors. This is a promise that Sides fulfills as best he can, given the obvious limitation in documentary evidence.
Whenever Cook drops anchor, Sides is quick to describe the place he landed, and the men and women who were already there. This includes the Palawa of Tasmania, the Māori of New Zealand, and the Tahitians of Tahiti. When necessary, he adjusts or corrects the European version of events by relying on anthropological evidence and oral histories.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing Sides does is to intercut Captain Cook’s arc with that of Mai, a man from the volcanic island of Raiatea. Mai traveled to England, garnered fame, fortune, and mistresses, and then attempted to return home, with unfortunate results. Mai’s journey is every bit as memorable, powerful, and tragic as that of Cook’s, and is a resonant illustration of the possibilities and pitfalls that accompany the meeting of distinct cultures.
***
Unsurprisingly, Captain Cook is the central character of The Wide Wide Sea. Though this is not a traditional biography, Sides does his usual skillful work divining his character. The Cook on these pages has lost a bit of his edge, and perhaps more than a bit of his mental faculties. For whatever reason – and Sides goes through several of them – Captain Cook made a string of dubious decisions, for which he eventually paid a high price.
As noted up top, Sides also attempts to define Captain Cook’s proper place in the historical firmament. Even if Cook was not the first to find the places he is credited with finding, he put them into a global context, which is its own accomplishment. However, as Sides notes, “[i]n Cook’s long wake came the occupiers, the guns, the pathogens, the alcohol, the problem of money, the whalers, the furriers, the seal hunters, the plantation owners, the missionaries.”
Sides can be scathing – and rightfully so – about the actions of Cook and his men. Yet he does this without engaging in self-righteous moralizing, which can get very tedious. Sides suggests that it goes too far to blame all the ills of empire on a single man, especially one whose business was mapmaking, not conquering. Still, he understands that this is a contested view, especially if you are descended from people harmed by Cook’s arrival, and its long, ugly aftermath.
In short, this isn’t a polemic for or against James Cook, though those certainly exist. It is a book that treats complicated matters – such as cross-cultural sexual relationships – as complicated matters.
***
Ultimately, there is no final word on Captain James Cook, and Sides does not bother to try. Perhaps all that can be said of him – without it being contested – is that he was a good sailor. In that, he shared much with the Polynesians before him, who shoved off into the infinities of the seas with little more than a gut feeling that land existed somewhere over the horizon, beyond all that heaving, depthless water.
- Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Like many other historical figures, Captain James Cook has had a complex afterlife. In his day – and for years thereafter – he was honored as a great explorer and “discoverer” of lands unknown to the wider world. As time progressed – and as historians finally began accounting for differing perspectives – Cook’s legacy changed. For example, it has been rightly noted that many of the places Cook “discovered” were inhabited islands that had already been found by the people who lived there. Today, Cook has become a symbol of imperialism, a man who – wittingly or not – sailed at the vanguard of colonialism, and all the exploitation that entailed.
In The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides attempts to place Captain Cook into a more nuanced context, somewhere in between flawless adventurer on the one hand, and deliverer of all evils on the other. He also – it should be added – delivers one hell of a tale.
***
The Wide Wide Sea is not a biography of James Cook. Rather, it focuses on his final voyage, which began in Plymouth, England, in July 1776, and ended – poorly – on Hawaii’s Kona Coast in January 1779. During the interim, Captain Cook visited places as different as Cape Town in Africa, Tahiti in the South Pacific, the western coast of what became the United States, and the Bering Strait. The extremes are pretty remarkable, as Cook’s two ships – the Discovery and Resolution – ping-ponged between tropical paradises and the massive ice flows that blocked the much-sought Northwest Passage.
***
As with all of Sides’s books, The Wide Wide Sea benefits from remarkably deep research that is delivered to the reader in readable, often evocative prose. Sides puts you on the quarterdeck with Cook, and on the sun-drenched isles of the vast Pacific, and in the frigid winds off Alaska. His descriptions of the various locales are worthy of a travelogue. Thanks to the incessant demands of my children to be fed and clothed and entertained by Apple products, I have not traveled in a long, long time. So, this aspect was nice.
Beyond the sights, Sides is a wonderful storyteller, with a keen ability to weave fascinating details into the proceedings without slowing its pace. He knows how to deliver a set piece, especially when it comes to Captain Cook’s furious final acts.
That said, this is not a pure narrative. To the contrary, Sides often cuts away for side-discussions about various topics. For example, he spends a couple pages describing the K1 sea clock, which allowed seafarers to determine their longitude with accuracy. At another point, he touches on the ancient Polynesian navigators who managed to reach Hawaii around the year 300, centuries before the invention of global positioning systems or even – for that matter – the K1 clock.
On occasion, Sides also pauses his forward momentum to weigh bits of evidence, and even to referee a fight between two warring anthropologists engaging in one of the vicious nothing-fights that fuels academia. Somehow, he does all this seamlessly.
***
In an “Author’s Note,” Sides promises at the outset to provide a fuller picture of Cook’s expedition, one that moves beyond the observations, declarations, and issue-framing of the white European sailors. This is a promise that Sides fulfills as best he can, given the obvious limitation in documentary evidence.
Whenever Cook drops anchor, Sides is quick to describe the place he landed, and the men and women who were already there. This includes the Palawa of Tasmania, the Māori of New Zealand, and the Tahitians of Tahiti. When necessary, he adjusts or corrects the European version of events by relying on anthropological evidence and oral histories.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing Sides does is to intercut Captain Cook’s arc with that of Mai, a man from the volcanic island of Raiatea. Mai traveled to England, garnered fame, fortune, and mistresses, and then attempted to return home, with unfortunate results. Mai’s journey is every bit as memorable, powerful, and tragic as that of Cook’s, and is a resonant illustration of the possibilities and pitfalls that accompany the meeting of distinct cultures.
***
Unsurprisingly, Captain Cook is the central character of The Wide Wide Sea. Though this is not a traditional biography, Sides does his usual skillful work divining his character. The Cook on these pages has lost a bit of his edge, and perhaps more than a bit of his mental faculties. For whatever reason – and Sides goes through several of them – Captain Cook made a string of dubious decisions, for which he eventually paid a high price.
As noted up top, Sides also attempts to define Captain Cook’s proper place in the historical firmament. Even if Cook was not the first to find the places he is credited with finding, he put them into a global context, which is its own accomplishment. However, as Sides notes, “[i]n Cook’s long wake came the occupiers, the guns, the pathogens, the alcohol, the problem of money, the whalers, the furriers, the seal hunters, the plantation owners, the missionaries.”
Sides can be scathing – and rightfully so – about the actions of Cook and his men. Yet he does this without engaging in self-righteous moralizing, which can get very tedious. Sides suggests that it goes too far to blame all the ills of empire on a single man, especially one whose business was mapmaking, not conquering. Still, he understands that this is a contested view, especially if you are descended from people harmed by Cook’s arrival, and its long, ugly aftermath.
In short, this isn’t a polemic for or against James Cook, though those certainly exist. It is a book that treats complicated matters – such as cross-cultural sexual relationships – as complicated matters.
***
Ultimately, there is no final word on Captain James Cook, and Sides does not bother to try. Perhaps all that can be said of him – without it being contested – is that he was a good sailor. In that, he shared much with the Polynesians before him, who shoved off into the infinities of the seas with little more than a gut feeling that land existed somewhere over the horizon, beyond all that heaving, depthless water.
March 30, 2024
My thanks to Doubleday books, Hampton Sides and Netgalley.
I love this author when it involves the sea. I don't want to read anything about landlocked anything. For me? It's Mr. Sides and the sea!
And boy howdy, does he know how to make a reader wish for a front row seat! Hampton puts a reader right smack dab in the middle! I love his writing and research.
So. Captain Cook. I can't hate in the man. He did what most any one of us would have at that time. He just freaking explored. Give me a ship and some funds? Hell yes, I'd have been exploring.
Yes, I know it was so much more than that to others, but let's be real.
I'm not going to get into the past or current politics of this. Rest assured, that I think it's all idiotic. That was the past.
Australia was the main country that I'd always wanted to visit, then I heard that it was a 20 hour flight. W.T.F? No. Nope. Hell to the cuss word, and more cuss words and yes, a few more! Whew! I feel better now! So, maybe a ship? Actually, I would love to be in a few weeks voyage to see Australia. Could you imagine? I'd love to swim, and scuba off the western coast. Yes, I know..sharks and crocs. It's a choice I suppose. I'll choose that. That's funny! I'll take the sharks and crocs over a 20 hour flight? Hmm. 😒 Sounds about right!
It's Hampton Sides for fish sakes. Read it!
All the stars!😜
I love this author when it involves the sea. I don't want to read anything about landlocked anything. For me? It's Mr. Sides and the sea!
And boy howdy, does he know how to make a reader wish for a front row seat! Hampton puts a reader right smack dab in the middle! I love his writing and research.
So. Captain Cook. I can't hate in the man. He did what most any one of us would have at that time. He just freaking explored. Give me a ship and some funds? Hell yes, I'd have been exploring.
Yes, I know it was so much more than that to others, but let's be real.
I'm not going to get into the past or current politics of this. Rest assured, that I think it's all idiotic. That was the past.
Australia was the main country that I'd always wanted to visit, then I heard that it was a 20 hour flight. W.T.F? No. Nope. Hell to the cuss word, and more cuss words and yes, a few more! Whew! I feel better now! So, maybe a ship? Actually, I would love to be in a few weeks voyage to see Australia. Could you imagine? I'd love to swim, and scuba off the western coast. Yes, I know..sharks and crocs. It's a choice I suppose. I'll choose that. That's funny! I'll take the sharks and crocs over a 20 hour flight? Hmm. 😒 Sounds about right!
It's Hampton Sides for fish sakes. Read it!
All the stars!😜
April 20, 2024
As I look back to the two other books I've read from Sides, I notice they were both 5 star reads from me. He has this penchant for knowing the narrative style his readers want and crave. He's one of the best out there, so it's interesting to see what topic he's writing about.
His recent foray into exploration writing brings him to the third and final voyage of Captain James Cook. Sides tells you at the beginning that he's not being biased by any means. He is taking written accounts from the western world and combining them with the written histories from local Hawaiian historians and oral histories from the Natives in an attempt to tell the story in the most effective and truthful way possible.
As I remember with In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, Sides treats his true characters like a novel -- not only does the main characters have his or her say, but some of the others are outspoken and described very thoroughly. Sides knows how to tell a story and leaves no stone unturned.
Sides's conclusion brings in hypotheses from historians over the years, but I am left satisfied what he determines as I agree with why Cook was murdered, but will leave the reader of this review to determine it themselves.
Recommended for his on-going fans and new ones alike.
His recent foray into exploration writing brings him to the third and final voyage of Captain James Cook. Sides tells you at the beginning that he's not being biased by any means. He is taking written accounts from the western world and combining them with the written histories from local Hawaiian historians and oral histories from the Natives in an attempt to tell the story in the most effective and truthful way possible.
As I remember with In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, Sides treats his true characters like a novel -- not only does the main characters have his or her say, but some of the others are outspoken and described very thoroughly. Sides knows how to tell a story and leaves no stone unturned.
Sides's conclusion brings in hypotheses from historians over the years, but I am left satisfied what he determines as I agree with why Cook was murdered, but will leave the reader of this review to determine it themselves.
Recommended for his on-going fans and new ones alike.
July 14, 2025
3/13/25 In the light of the return of good old fashioned imperialism--Canada as 51st state, Greenland as 52nd? Ukraine raided for its valuable minerals in extortion for peace agreement--I offer this great book that takes a look at some nineteenth-century imperialism in the guise of the much revered "world explorer" Captain James Cook.
Original review:
“Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony”― Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
“The horror! The Horror!”--Kurtz, in Jospeh Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness.
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) is my first book from Hampton Sides, who has--I learn--built a best-selling readership of thrilling non-fiction adventure stories. As Sides himself admits, many many books, several of them serious historical studies, have been written about Cook, so he makes clear this is written about the most sensational and confrontational third journey, on which Cook (and some of his crew) were killed. Sides does a decent job--I think, as I am not a historian, and this is the first historical book I have read about him and his exploits--of lionizing him for what he did as a explorer, but also identifying some mistakes he seemed to make for the first time on this his third journey. And he tries to lay out possible reasons for those mistakes.
In that sense it is a kind of mystery, an attempt to explore (not given a definitive answer) to the question of why things seemed to fall apart. And to his credit, Sides gives you a bunch of information so you can make up your own mind. But he admits he is working with documents 250 years old, and missing sufficient indigenous perspectives. Many of the crew, especially the scientists on board, and Cook himself, kept daily journals of the journey, and there are no such journals from natives of Tahiti, Bora Bora, or Hawaii. Still, I think, given the times, and given the almost unquestioned imperialist/colonialist assumptions of the time, Cook in general seemed, at least initially--compared to other such explorers, including others on his own crew--both interested in and respectful of the cultures they encountered.
So: Captain James Cook (born October 27, 1728, Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England—died February 14, 1779, Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii), on July 12th, 1776), already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. He had several tasks; one was to return a native from Tahiti, Ma’i, who had visited England as a kind of anthropological curiosity for a couple years, treated somewhat like a sort of curious non-human savage pet; this story establishes some of the colonialist underpinnings of at least some aspects of the journeys. Then Cook on all three journies was supposed to map the world, and did map an impressive score of the Pacifica, among other places. He was also misdirected by intellectuals/scientists of the time to discover a Northwest Passage, led to believe there was an ice-free area in the Arctic. Oops.
Mark Twain in 1857 was to bluntly add his few drops of ink to the “gallons” written about the last days of Cook: “Justifiable homicide.” Cook was like all of us flawed, but Sides helped me see both the flaws and the brilliance. But I tend to side with Twain here on Cook's increasingly aggressive approach that led him to make fatal mistakes.
I thought the Ma’i sections went on too long, but after that, the pace really picks up as the wind gets in the sails. Over all I thought it was great, really holding my attention. I read it because 1) I had been in New Zeeland, hiking around Mt. Cook and reading about him before and during my trip; 2) I had been to Hawaii and saw a sign discussing how he had been killed there, looking into that death from local and other perspectives, 3) I had read a short book by Mark Twain on his visits to Hawaii.
The last section of Sides's book, about the crazy last time in Hawaii, after many natives had taken Cook to be the god Lono and began worshipping him, and then stopped worshipping him, leading up to the massacre, reminded me of the story of Captain Kurz of The Heart of Darkness, a tale especially ready-made for Werner Herzog to make into a movie (though we already have Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now as one model). There’s enough crazy (and Sides seems to suggest largely consensual) sex, spreading of disease (including venereal disease), cannibalism, ritual sacrifice, sea storms, on-board whip-lashings, and so on to make several films. I'd recommend it! I listened to it, a 400 page book, and now own it, and someone else in the house is reading it.
Interesting tidbits:
*Cook was crippled for a time with what may have been sciatica, but several women in Tahiti gave him an oil-based massage--the first any of them had encountered--that he claimed cured him.
*Sides shares excerpts from a crewman’s diary describing what is thought to be the first descriptions in prose of Hawaiian surfing. Gnarly!
*Each first encounter of indigenous peoples in the Pacific seems to illustrate mostly happy and healthy people being visited/invaded by people intent on spreading a western way of life that mainly led to tragedy. Cook and others admitted that the islanders all had healthier diets than the British crew members, but they nevertheless brought--like Noah and his ark--pairs of animals and non-native plants to develop inappropriate English gardens, and so on.
*A sliver from Cook’s ship Resolution went to the moon! When I read that I seemed to recall that detail.
For some reason Great Britain insisted a large obelisk be erected in honor of Cook in Hawaii, an icon I saw there that regularly gets defaced, no surprise to me:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/c...
Original review:
“Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony”― Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
“The horror! The Horror!”--Kurtz, in Jospeh Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness.
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) is my first book from Hampton Sides, who has--I learn--built a best-selling readership of thrilling non-fiction adventure stories. As Sides himself admits, many many books, several of them serious historical studies, have been written about Cook, so he makes clear this is written about the most sensational and confrontational third journey, on which Cook (and some of his crew) were killed. Sides does a decent job--I think, as I am not a historian, and this is the first historical book I have read about him and his exploits--of lionizing him for what he did as a explorer, but also identifying some mistakes he seemed to make for the first time on this his third journey. And he tries to lay out possible reasons for those mistakes.
In that sense it is a kind of mystery, an attempt to explore (not given a definitive answer) to the question of why things seemed to fall apart. And to his credit, Sides gives you a bunch of information so you can make up your own mind. But he admits he is working with documents 250 years old, and missing sufficient indigenous perspectives. Many of the crew, especially the scientists on board, and Cook himself, kept daily journals of the journey, and there are no such journals from natives of Tahiti, Bora Bora, or Hawaii. Still, I think, given the times, and given the almost unquestioned imperialist/colonialist assumptions of the time, Cook in general seemed, at least initially--compared to other such explorers, including others on his own crew--both interested in and respectful of the cultures they encountered.
So: Captain James Cook (born October 27, 1728, Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England—died February 14, 1779, Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii), on July 12th, 1776), already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. He had several tasks; one was to return a native from Tahiti, Ma’i, who had visited England as a kind of anthropological curiosity for a couple years, treated somewhat like a sort of curious non-human savage pet; this story establishes some of the colonialist underpinnings of at least some aspects of the journeys. Then Cook on all three journies was supposed to map the world, and did map an impressive score of the Pacifica, among other places. He was also misdirected by intellectuals/scientists of the time to discover a Northwest Passage, led to believe there was an ice-free area in the Arctic. Oops.
Mark Twain in 1857 was to bluntly add his few drops of ink to the “gallons” written about the last days of Cook: “Justifiable homicide.” Cook was like all of us flawed, but Sides helped me see both the flaws and the brilliance. But I tend to side with Twain here on Cook's increasingly aggressive approach that led him to make fatal mistakes.
I thought the Ma’i sections went on too long, but after that, the pace really picks up as the wind gets in the sails. Over all I thought it was great, really holding my attention. I read it because 1) I had been in New Zeeland, hiking around Mt. Cook and reading about him before and during my trip; 2) I had been to Hawaii and saw a sign discussing how he had been killed there, looking into that death from local and other perspectives, 3) I had read a short book by Mark Twain on his visits to Hawaii.
The last section of Sides's book, about the crazy last time in Hawaii, after many natives had taken Cook to be the god Lono and began worshipping him, and then stopped worshipping him, leading up to the massacre, reminded me of the story of Captain Kurz of The Heart of Darkness, a tale especially ready-made for Werner Herzog to make into a movie (though we already have Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now as one model). There’s enough crazy (and Sides seems to suggest largely consensual) sex, spreading of disease (including venereal disease), cannibalism, ritual sacrifice, sea storms, on-board whip-lashings, and so on to make several films. I'd recommend it! I listened to it, a 400 page book, and now own it, and someone else in the house is reading it.
Interesting tidbits:
*Cook was crippled for a time with what may have been sciatica, but several women in Tahiti gave him an oil-based massage--the first any of them had encountered--that he claimed cured him.
*Sides shares excerpts from a crewman’s diary describing what is thought to be the first descriptions in prose of Hawaiian surfing. Gnarly!
*Each first encounter of indigenous peoples in the Pacific seems to illustrate mostly happy and healthy people being visited/invaded by people intent on spreading a western way of life that mainly led to tragedy. Cook and others admitted that the islanders all had healthier diets than the British crew members, but they nevertheless brought--like Noah and his ark--pairs of animals and non-native plants to develop inappropriate English gardens, and so on.
*A sliver from Cook’s ship Resolution went to the moon! When I read that I seemed to recall that detail.
For some reason Great Britain insisted a large obelisk be erected in honor of Cook in Hawaii, an icon I saw there that regularly gets defaced, no surprise to me:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/c...
March 13, 2025
What an adventure! We sail along with Captain Cook on his third and final voyage to the Pacific in 1776, blissfully unaware of the Revolution in the American colonies. We visit one exotic place after another: Tahiti and the Society Islands; Hawaii; the Oregon, Canadian and Alaskan coasts and much more. We meet many different indigenous peoples, some experiencing their first contacts with Europeans. Sides writing is superb. It flows and is compelling. The descriptions of life aboard ship, the peoples encountered, the flora and fauna draw you in as does Sides portrayal of Captain Cook. Sides depicts Cook as a skilled mariner, explorer, and remarkably open minded (for that time period) emissary to indigenous peoples, a larger-than-life figure who tempted fate one too many times. We also meet other notable figures including a young William Bligh who will be tested two decades later as captain of the Bounty. Then there is Mai whose Joshua Reynolds portrait I have seen in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Captain Cook had brought him voluntarily to London from Tahiti where he became a pet and celebrity. On this third voyage Cook was returning him to his native Islands. Mai adds a human-interest story line embedded in the main story. I felt I had to read this book given all the great reviews and I am so happy I did. Five stars all the way.
February 29, 2024
The chances of me not loving The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides were admittedly nil. I rank Sides as one of the best best non-fiction writers today. You also add in the fact he is writing about my favorite explorer of all time in Captain James Cook. Sides looks specifically at Cook's final journey around the world which, if you know nothing about it, is epic. Last year, in 2023, a lot of people who don't usually read non-fiction took a chance on David Grann's The Wager and loved it. Well, it is not an insult to either book to say that The Wide Wide Sea is this year's The Wager. It's only February but this book will be in my Top 5 of the year when it is all said and done without question.
Sides has a gift for taking big stories and making them feel small and intimate. I also already knew he can write an exceptional book about ocean voyages (if you haven't read In the Kingdom of Ice yet, you should rectify that as soon as possible). He added another wrinkle with this book. Before it begins, Sides states that he is going to look at this story with recognition of how some of these actions look to us today. Before you write this book off, this doesn't mean Sides took today's politics and painted everyone as an evil imperialist. Instead, what he provides is context. Sure, a lot of things you will read about would be abhorrent to most people today, but Sides places them in their time and calls out double standards when he sees them.
What I didn't expect was that Sides willingness to look back at Captain Cook with a contemporary lens makes him even more interesting. Cook was (for his time, let's not overstate this) a more compassionate explorer than most. If you put Hernán Cortés on the inhumane side of the scale, Cook is on the other end. That is, until this final voyage. Cook's third voyage shows cracks in his armor and it leads to ruin. I knew how it ended and I was still riveted because Sides is just that good. Make sure you read this book.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Doubleday Books.)
Sides has a gift for taking big stories and making them feel small and intimate. I also already knew he can write an exceptional book about ocean voyages (if you haven't read In the Kingdom of Ice yet, you should rectify that as soon as possible). He added another wrinkle with this book. Before it begins, Sides states that he is going to look at this story with recognition of how some of these actions look to us today. Before you write this book off, this doesn't mean Sides took today's politics and painted everyone as an evil imperialist. Instead, what he provides is context. Sure, a lot of things you will read about would be abhorrent to most people today, but Sides places them in their time and calls out double standards when he sees them.
What I didn't expect was that Sides willingness to look back at Captain Cook with a contemporary lens makes him even more interesting. Cook was (for his time, let's not overstate this) a more compassionate explorer than most. If you put Hernán Cortés on the inhumane side of the scale, Cook is on the other end. That is, until this final voyage. Cook's third voyage shows cracks in his armor and it leads to ruin. I knew how it ended and I was still riveted because Sides is just that good. Make sure you read this book.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Doubleday Books.)
January 23, 2025
The Wide, Wide Sea is the second book I’ve read by Hampton Sides. Based on this, I’ll be adding him to my list of “not to miss” nonfiction authors such as David Gann, Erik Larson and Candice Millard. This well done narrative nonfiction accounts for Captain James Cook’s last voyage to the Pacific Islands and up to Alaska in a search for the Northwest Passage.
The book begins with Cook’s second trip to the South Seas. While in Tahiti, he met Mai, a young native man who returned with him to England. Mai became quite the curiosity in England, the “toast of London”. Four years later, when it is time for Mai to return to Tahiti, King George sends him with a menagerie of livestock and plant life of all sorts. Cook is enticed to captain the voyage which had an alternative objective, to later head north and search for the Northwest Passage.
But unlike on his prior voyages, Cook’s personality has become mercurial and often violent. Previously quite the statesman when dealing with indigenous people, on this trip he frequently turned on them, meting out harsh punishments. I became quite curious about what could have been behind this extreme personality change. But flip side, it was interesting to see what care he took to try and prevent his sailors from passing on venereal diseases to the different native communities.
Sides does an excellent job of giving the reader a complete feel for the various locations and people encountered. I was thrilled to learn all sorts of interesting facts - from the composition of grog to how rats came to infest Moorea.
I enjoyed Sides’ writing style, which provides meticulously researched facts in an engaging storyline. I felt I truly got a feel for the various individuals on the ships.
In a bit of serendipity, I was listening to this while reading The Map Thief by Michael Blanding. The two books together complimented my understanding of surveying and map making.
Peter Noble narrated this and did an excellent job. I sometimes struggle to listen to nonfiction, but this worked well as an audio experience.
The book begins with Cook’s second trip to the South Seas. While in Tahiti, he met Mai, a young native man who returned with him to England. Mai became quite the curiosity in England, the “toast of London”. Four years later, when it is time for Mai to return to Tahiti, King George sends him with a menagerie of livestock and plant life of all sorts. Cook is enticed to captain the voyage which had an alternative objective, to later head north and search for the Northwest Passage.
But unlike on his prior voyages, Cook’s personality has become mercurial and often violent. Previously quite the statesman when dealing with indigenous people, on this trip he frequently turned on them, meting out harsh punishments. I became quite curious about what could have been behind this extreme personality change. But flip side, it was interesting to see what care he took to try and prevent his sailors from passing on venereal diseases to the different native communities.
Sides does an excellent job of giving the reader a complete feel for the various locations and people encountered. I was thrilled to learn all sorts of interesting facts - from the composition of grog to how rats came to infest Moorea.
I enjoyed Sides’ writing style, which provides meticulously researched facts in an engaging storyline. I felt I truly got a feel for the various individuals on the ships.
In a bit of serendipity, I was listening to this while reading The Map Thief by Michael Blanding. The two books together complimented my understanding of surveying and map making.
Peter Noble narrated this and did an excellent job. I sometimes struggle to listen to nonfiction, but this worked well as an audio experience.
July 8, 2024
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook is the latest book by Hampton Sides with a powerful historical narrative as one is transported to one the most thrilling eras of exploration in the eighteenth century. The book is a deeply researched history relying, not only on the words of Captain Cook’s own men, but on the oral traditions of the indigenous people from his encounters with the people of the Pacific and Northwest America.
After two previous expeditions and reputed to be one of the greatest explorers in British history, Captain James Cook set off on his third voyage on July 12, 1776 on his ship the HMS Resolution with his crew sailing for on an around the world adventure in uncharted waters with only what they had on board to survive. Because King George III was preoccupied with the Revolutionary War in the colonies, the HMS Resolution was sent on its expedition with many glaring deficits, including that the ship itself leaked like a sieve forcing the crew to make many repairs underway. Captain James Cook, being first an explorer and mapmaker, was interested in locating the famed Northwest Passage. This is a tale of fearless exploration which greatly expanded our understanding of the world’s geography. The mystery that remains is how did Captain James Cook come to be killed by the indigenous people in Hawaii. And it is towards that end we accompany the HMS Resolution on its exploration.
After two previous expeditions and reputed to be one of the greatest explorers in British history, Captain James Cook set off on his third voyage on July 12, 1776 on his ship the HMS Resolution with his crew sailing for on an around the world adventure in uncharted waters with only what they had on board to survive. Because King George III was preoccupied with the Revolutionary War in the colonies, the HMS Resolution was sent on its expedition with many glaring deficits, including that the ship itself leaked like a sieve forcing the crew to make many repairs underway. Captain James Cook, being first an explorer and mapmaker, was interested in locating the famed Northwest Passage. This is a tale of fearless exploration which greatly expanded our understanding of the world’s geography. The mystery that remains is how did Captain James Cook come to be killed by the indigenous people in Hawaii. And it is towards that end we accompany the HMS Resolution on its exploration.
“Cook had entered a vast space where no European explorer, not even Bering, had been. What’s more, Cook had become history’s uncontested master of the Pacific: He had ventured farther to its south than any know navigator before him and now he had crossed that ocean’s northernmost limits into unknown waters. He was the first captain—and the Resolution the first vessel—to cross both the Antarctic and the Arctic Circles. Something marvelous appeared to be happening for him. The stars were aligning, the landforms relenting, the waters inviting him onward. All the signs were auspicious. For Cook and his men, the puzzle seemed to be coming together just as the Admiralty had hoped that it would. ‘It was as if they had threaded together the whole world,’ wrote British maritime historian Richard Hough, and it seemed ‘that the secret of the earth’s geography had been revealed to them in this one magic moment of suspension between the continents.’”
May 5, 2024
There is a growing tendency today to classify works such as this as "popular history". These are works that aim to capture a wider reading audience, rather than works of true scholarly or historical analysis. This classification is accurate for many historical books being published today. Hampton Sides does not quite fit neatly into that category. His books are structured and written in a way to capture a wider audience, yes, but Sides also takes great pains to critique individuals and historical events from a multitude of angles.
In the case of James Cook, Sides considers the natives' perspectives and rationale behind their actions. This is a difficult task given that the Polynesian and Hawaiian historical records have been passed down orally over the generations. Sides is clearly appreciative of Cooks' accomplishments, but this is an objective work.
Sides is also one of the best historians working today in terms of constructing a narrative and telling an incredible story. This is the "pop history" aspect of his work. But it does not cheapen the scholarly quality of this new book either. It's a wonderful work and perhaps Sides' best book to date. If you are new to Sides, this is a great one to start with. Another personal favorite is 'Blood and Thunder'. Easy five stars.
In the case of James Cook, Sides considers the natives' perspectives and rationale behind their actions. This is a difficult task given that the Polynesian and Hawaiian historical records have been passed down orally over the generations. Sides is clearly appreciative of Cooks' accomplishments, but this is an objective work.
Sides is also one of the best historians working today in terms of constructing a narrative and telling an incredible story. This is the "pop history" aspect of his work. But it does not cheapen the scholarly quality of this new book either. It's a wonderful work and perhaps Sides' best book to date. If you are new to Sides, this is a great one to start with. Another personal favorite is 'Blood and Thunder'. Easy five stars.
June 17, 2024
This is my first Sides book and will not be my last. I'm a life-long land lubber and intend to stay that way. However, I'm drawn to books about sailing, the sea, explorations, and island life.
After reading Grann's The Wager, Sides' book seemed a natural step in my reading plans and it was a good decision. I knew nothing about Captain James Cook and not much of the facts of his explorations. In the age of survey and British imperialism, Cook on his last journey encountered the Hawaiian islands and its native peoples while on a search for the Northwest Passage. Along the way he is responsible for reuniting a native Tahitian named Mai with his homeland. Those are but a couple of riveting details of the events that occur in Sides' narrative.
I found the most interesting points about Cook to be about his cartography and navigation skills.
After reading Grann's The Wager, Sides' book seemed a natural step in my reading plans and it was a good decision. I knew nothing about Captain James Cook and not much of the facts of his explorations. In the age of survey and British imperialism, Cook on his last journey encountered the Hawaiian islands and its native peoples while on a search for the Northwest Passage. Along the way he is responsible for reuniting a native Tahitian named Mai with his homeland. Those are but a couple of riveting details of the events that occur in Sides' narrative.
I found the most interesting points about Cook to be about his cartography and navigation skills.
May 15, 2025
I first learned of the voyages of Captain Cook while still in grade school, however it was not until reading this book that I noticed the similarities between the expeditions of Captain James Cook and those of Captain James Kirk. Both were tasked by their employers with exploring areas unknown to their societies and with making contact with life forms which they might encounter. Also, I am sure that both were accompanied by at least one junior officer who spoke with a thick Scottish accent.
Although Hampton Sides does not delve into these similarities, he does give a fairly complete description of Cook's third and final voyage into the Pacific Ocean. He bases his narrative on Cook's own log, as well as the accounts provided by several others who were with him. To my knowledge there has not been a major docudrama based on Cook's voyages, but there is certainly enough sex and violence in Sides' book to attract a large audience. I'm seeing Liam Neeson as Cook, but, as yet, his agent has not returned my calls.
Although Hampton Sides does not delve into these similarities, he does give a fairly complete description of Cook's third and final voyage into the Pacific Ocean. He bases his narrative on Cook's own log, as well as the accounts provided by several others who were with him. To my knowledge there has not been a major docudrama based on Cook's voyages, but there is certainly enough sex and violence in Sides' book to attract a large audience. I'm seeing Liam Neeson as Cook, but, as yet, his agent has not returned my calls.
January 27, 2025
Hampton Sides' account of the third and final voyage of Captain James Cook in the Pacific ocean.
Cook's reputation is somewhat dimmed as the fallout of his stumbling on Hawaii and its inhabitants becomes more widely known and fully understood. But at the time he was a British rock star in Europe, especially his home country of England. He had circumnavigated the globe three times, mapped both islands of New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia, proved the theory of a massive southern continent incorrect, mapped and charted much in the Pacific Northwest, from the Oregon/California border, up past what is now British Columbia, through the Bering Sea to almost 70` north latitude. He was the first European to chart the Hawaiian islands (where he met his end) and searched for the fabled Northwest Passage.
A natural leader Cook was loved, for the most part, by his crews. He was one of the English Navy captain who actively worked to conquer scurvy. An excellent navigator teaching both future captains Bligh (of "The Mutiny on the Bounty" fame) and Vancouver (yes, THAT Vancouver) the fine art so well they became famous navigators themselves.
Sides does an excellent job bringing the reader aboard Cook's ships. The trails of life at sea and the touch and go nature of their undertaking. His descriptions of life in Polynesia for both the natives and the English sailors and marines make for lush reading. His portrayal of life confined to a small ship in the Arctic's bitter cold makes for edge-of-your-seat tension worthy of any work of fiction.
A great read for anyone interested in the Age of Discovery or the history of Hawaii or of the Pacific Northwest.
Cook's reputation is somewhat dimmed as the fallout of his stumbling on Hawaii and its inhabitants becomes more widely known and fully understood. But at the time he was a British rock star in Europe, especially his home country of England. He had circumnavigated the globe three times, mapped both islands of New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia, proved the theory of a massive southern continent incorrect, mapped and charted much in the Pacific Northwest, from the Oregon/California border, up past what is now British Columbia, through the Bering Sea to almost 70` north latitude. He was the first European to chart the Hawaiian islands (where he met his end) and searched for the fabled Northwest Passage.
A natural leader Cook was loved, for the most part, by his crews. He was one of the English Navy captain who actively worked to conquer scurvy. An excellent navigator teaching both future captains Bligh (of "The Mutiny on the Bounty" fame) and Vancouver (yes, THAT Vancouver) the fine art so well they became famous navigators themselves.
Sides does an excellent job bringing the reader aboard Cook's ships. The trails of life at sea and the touch and go nature of their undertaking. His descriptions of life in Polynesia for both the natives and the English sailors and marines make for lush reading. His portrayal of life confined to a small ship in the Arctic's bitter cold makes for edge-of-your-seat tension worthy of any work of fiction.
A great read for anyone interested in the Age of Discovery or the history of Hawaii or of the Pacific Northwest.
August 12, 2024
The front cover of my audiobook is the much more attractive one (beautiful blue sea) than the one shown!
This is a magnificent book, I learned so much, and enjoyed every minute.
I knew what happened at the end, but that did not matter, except that I approached the ending with trepidation.
I felt a lot of emotion at times where beautiful, happy islands were encroached upon, particularly when illnesses were transmitted to the islanders, for which they had no protection as they had never before come into contact with them.
A highly readable book, which I wholeheartedly recommend.
This is a magnificent book, I learned so much, and enjoyed every minute.
I knew what happened at the end, but that did not matter, except that I approached the ending with trepidation.
I felt a lot of emotion at times where beautiful, happy islands were encroached upon, particularly when illnesses were transmitted to the islanders, for which they had no protection as they had never before come into contact with them.
A highly readable book, which I wholeheartedly recommend.
Read
August 11, 2025It's always interesting to read about life at sea, especially in the context of the past where sailors faced greater odds and dangers from disease and hardship than they do today. Perseverance, luck, skill, derring-do, and all that.
But more interesting to me still is how a ship is a metaphor with sails. Put enough men on board and you have a microcosm for humanity. Some incredibly intelligent, curious, and noble men. And some incredibly stupid, hateful, and racist men. Big hearts. Imperialists. Sixth senses. Closed minds.
Surely you get it here in James Cook's third and final voyage, where he meets the same end as Magellan did (only on a different island). Like many great men, Cook was lucky as a nine-lived cat -- until he wasn't. While looking for the fabled Northwest Passage, his men were treated to the beauties and abundances of the future Alaska. On the way, they were spoiled by the tropical delights of Polynesia and the Sandwich (Lord of) Islands, now known as Hawaii.
The debacle between cultures in these mid-Pacific paradises is instructive. Cook's instincts served him well, but like all of us, he had his Achille's heel that would prove his undoing. And while matters could and did turn ugly and deadly, there were amusing moments along the way. For instance, author Sides mentions the Pacific cultures' much more permissive attitude towards sex. The seafaring Englishmen were amazed at the Pacific women's sexual mores and physical skills in the arts of love. They marveled at it, enjoyed it, wrote about it. And yet nothing has come down through the oral traditions of Polynesia or Hawaii about the erotic skills of the British.
Snicker.
OK, but seriously, it's a bit of a page turner we have here because it can't help but be if you're interested in history, exploration, and most importantly human nature. East is East and West is West and boy howdy to these otter pelts from the Pacific Northwest bring down huge prices in China on the way home. Let's turn back and turn rich! (Thoughts of mutiny can sometimes amount to "follow the money.")
Cook was gone for years and, eventually, eternity, but it should take you only days. That is, if you have a thing for history. Hampton Sides wisely doesn't take sides. Instead, like Judy Collins (or was it Joni Mitchell?), he looks at life from both sides now.
But more interesting to me still is how a ship is a metaphor with sails. Put enough men on board and you have a microcosm for humanity. Some incredibly intelligent, curious, and noble men. And some incredibly stupid, hateful, and racist men. Big hearts. Imperialists. Sixth senses. Closed minds.
Surely you get it here in James Cook's third and final voyage, where he meets the same end as Magellan did (only on a different island). Like many great men, Cook was lucky as a nine-lived cat -- until he wasn't. While looking for the fabled Northwest Passage, his men were treated to the beauties and abundances of the future Alaska. On the way, they were spoiled by the tropical delights of Polynesia and the Sandwich (Lord of) Islands, now known as Hawaii.
The debacle between cultures in these mid-Pacific paradises is instructive. Cook's instincts served him well, but like all of us, he had his Achille's heel that would prove his undoing. And while matters could and did turn ugly and deadly, there were amusing moments along the way. For instance, author Sides mentions the Pacific cultures' much more permissive attitude towards sex. The seafaring Englishmen were amazed at the Pacific women's sexual mores and physical skills in the arts of love. They marveled at it, enjoyed it, wrote about it. And yet nothing has come down through the oral traditions of Polynesia or Hawaii about the erotic skills of the British.
Snicker.
OK, but seriously, it's a bit of a page turner we have here because it can't help but be if you're interested in history, exploration, and most importantly human nature. East is East and West is West and boy howdy to these otter pelts from the Pacific Northwest bring down huge prices in China on the way home. Let's turn back and turn rich! (Thoughts of mutiny can sometimes amount to "follow the money.")
Cook was gone for years and, eventually, eternity, but it should take you only days. That is, if you have a thing for history. Hampton Sides wisely doesn't take sides. Instead, like Judy Collins (or was it Joni Mitchell?), he looks at life from both sides now.
September 13, 2024
Lots to say. Review will most definitely follow very soon.
May 2, 2024
So I finished my fifth book by Hampton Sides and now must endure a two year or more wait for his next book (?) As my favorite writer of historical non-fiction that’s what I immediately came away with upon completing the last page.
Mr. Sides, is the consummate researcher and writer, he really makes historical events come alive. Between his acumen and erudition as an author, the subject matter concerning itself with 18th century maritime exploration, for me, well, it’s as though I can literally FEEL the salt spray, queasiness of endless days at sea and the aching muscles associated with being a crewman at the height of the age of sail. There are several bittersweet moments in the book, such as the the transformation of a Tahitian native, brought to England, becoming something of a bon vivant, educated and indoctrinated into “polite society” only to in the end witness him becoming a “man without a country”. Tribal societies, too, forever relinquishing a “loss of innocence” owing to the inevitable encroachment of civilization into their lives makes for food for thought as to whether Captain James Cook should shine for fostering an age of life enlightenment or should he vilified for aiding the colonization cause. The reader will have to decide.
Mr. Sides, is the consummate researcher and writer, he really makes historical events come alive. Between his acumen and erudition as an author, the subject matter concerning itself with 18th century maritime exploration, for me, well, it’s as though I can literally FEEL the salt spray, queasiness of endless days at sea and the aching muscles associated with being a crewman at the height of the age of sail. There are several bittersweet moments in the book, such as the the transformation of a Tahitian native, brought to England, becoming something of a bon vivant, educated and indoctrinated into “polite society” only to in the end witness him becoming a “man without a country”. Tribal societies, too, forever relinquishing a “loss of innocence” owing to the inevitable encroachment of civilization into their lives makes for food for thought as to whether Captain James Cook should shine for fostering an age of life enlightenment or should he vilified for aiding the colonization cause. The reader will have to decide.
May 8, 2024
I've known Hampton Sides to be a splendid author of narrative nonfiction, and this is no exception. On the face of it, this book recounts the "discovery" of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain James Cook during his third voyage to the Pacific. In reality, it is about Cook; about how his behaviors on this trip differed from those that distinguished his efforts on his earlier explorations.
Sides had choices as to how to approach this material. Much ink has been spilled, as they say, by scholars debating the possible explanations. It would have been easy, and perhaps typical, for Sides to tell the tale and then conclude with an analysis of the various interpretations of Cook's behaviors.
That's not what he's done. He's quietly dropped suggestions as the story unfolds and left it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. I seem to have a fondness for tales, whether fiction or nonfiction, that require that I stretch my imagination and understanding, and I would say this falls into that category.
Cook was a brilliant navigator, an even more gifted cartographer, and something of an instinctive anthropologist. He seemed to have a sixth sense for locating remote islands and for identifying safe havens for his ships to moor, and he was known for his efforts to leave the native cultures he encountered undisturbed.
He was also appreciated as a fair captain who prioritized the needs of his crew and used the lash sparingly. Although he didn't understand the biochemistry of scurvy, he intuitively stocked his ships with foods that countered the outbreak of the disease that was responsible for a 50% death rate on ships with other captains. Cook's men survived.
His achievements in exploration and mapmaking were so highly valued that after his second voyage he was offered a cushy retirement at Greenwich. But when he learned of plans for a voyage with the objective of searching for a Northwest Passage starting from the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic, he insisted on being put at the helm.
He was also charged with the responsibility of returning Ma'i, a young man who had talked his way onto a British ship and spent two years in England, back to his home in the Society Islands. Ma'i's issues become part of this story, and my one criticism of the book is that Sides devotes unnecessary attention to them.
On this voyage Cook was demonstrably less patient with infractions by his crew and dispensed lashings much more freely. His attitudes toward the Pacific Island native populations, once known for their patience and understanding, now tended to be erratic. Minor offenses such as thefts of inconsequential items could trigger a violent temper in Cook and result in destructive acts of revenge.
We can never have a absolute explanation for these changes. Perhaps the circumstances of the voyage - the ship was in poor repair, and he was forced to bring along, and care for, native British plants and animals to "improve" conditions for the islanders - took the edge off his normal adventurous spirit and left him irritable.
Tribes he had encountered previously showed evidence of his visits - their bargaining skills had improved, and venereal diseases had been transmitted from the sailors to local women (and thus the rest of the population). It could be that this disheartened Cook and his volatile behaviors reflected this.
It is certainly possible (and IMO this is the most likely explanation) that his physical or mental health was poor. Although Cook kept extensive journals, they include no reflections on his interior life or his health, and Sides does not attempt to invent any. Cook was buried at sea, leaving no possibility that his remains might be examined for clues.
Sides' description of the events leading up to Cook's death struck just the right tone for me. Not sensationalized, matter of fact, but still communicating a sense of mystery regarding Cook's decisions. These images stayed with me, and I found myself thinking about it well after I'd finished the book.
Were it not for the lengthy descriptions of Ma'i's time in England this would have been an easy 5 stars. Many thanks to Brendan for calling the book to my attention!
Sides had choices as to how to approach this material. Much ink has been spilled, as they say, by scholars debating the possible explanations. It would have been easy, and perhaps typical, for Sides to tell the tale and then conclude with an analysis of the various interpretations of Cook's behaviors.
That's not what he's done. He's quietly dropped suggestions as the story unfolds and left it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. I seem to have a fondness for tales, whether fiction or nonfiction, that require that I stretch my imagination and understanding, and I would say this falls into that category.
Cook was a brilliant navigator, an even more gifted cartographer, and something of an instinctive anthropologist. He seemed to have a sixth sense for locating remote islands and for identifying safe havens for his ships to moor, and he was known for his efforts to leave the native cultures he encountered undisturbed.
He was also appreciated as a fair captain who prioritized the needs of his crew and used the lash sparingly. Although he didn't understand the biochemistry of scurvy, he intuitively stocked his ships with foods that countered the outbreak of the disease that was responsible for a 50% death rate on ships with other captains. Cook's men survived.
His achievements in exploration and mapmaking were so highly valued that after his second voyage he was offered a cushy retirement at Greenwich. But when he learned of plans for a voyage with the objective of searching for a Northwest Passage starting from the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic, he insisted on being put at the helm.
He was also charged with the responsibility of returning Ma'i, a young man who had talked his way onto a British ship and spent two years in England, back to his home in the Society Islands. Ma'i's issues become part of this story, and my one criticism of the book is that Sides devotes unnecessary attention to them.
On this voyage Cook was demonstrably less patient with infractions by his crew and dispensed lashings much more freely. His attitudes toward the Pacific Island native populations, once known for their patience and understanding, now tended to be erratic. Minor offenses such as thefts of inconsequential items could trigger a violent temper in Cook and result in destructive acts of revenge.
We can never have a absolute explanation for these changes. Perhaps the circumstances of the voyage - the ship was in poor repair, and he was forced to bring along, and care for, native British plants and animals to "improve" conditions for the islanders - took the edge off his normal adventurous spirit and left him irritable.
Tribes he had encountered previously showed evidence of his visits - their bargaining skills had improved, and venereal diseases had been transmitted from the sailors to local women (and thus the rest of the population). It could be that this disheartened Cook and his volatile behaviors reflected this.
It is certainly possible (and IMO this is the most likely explanation) that his physical or mental health was poor. Although Cook kept extensive journals, they include no reflections on his interior life or his health, and Sides does not attempt to invent any. Cook was buried at sea, leaving no possibility that his remains might be examined for clues.
Sides' description of the events leading up to Cook's death struck just the right tone for me. Not sensationalized, matter of fact, but still communicating a sense of mystery regarding Cook's decisions. These images stayed with me, and I found myself thinking about it well after I'd finished the book.
Were it not for the lengthy descriptions of Ma'i's time in England this would have been an easy 5 stars. Many thanks to Brendan for calling the book to my attention!
August 25, 2024
Shame on me for not knowing much about Captain James Cook. Oh I had heard of him, of course. But could I name any of his accomplishments? Not without consulting Wikipedia. Another more enjoyable alternative however would be to read "The Wide Wide Sea" by the always reliable Hampton Sides. Cook was arguably the most famous explorer of the 18th century. He was a noted cartographer whose efforts mapping the entrance to the St Lawrence River during the Seven Years War (AKA, the French and Indian War in America) were rewarded with the commission to explore and map the Pacific Ocean. This he did through three voyages on the ship, HMS Endeavour. During the first two he was able to reach the eastern coast of Australia and to map New Zealand and many smaller islands.
Intending to retire and complete his memoirs once he ended his second voyage it didn't take much arm twisting for him to pursue a third. This was to be his crowning achievement: to locate a Northwest passage to link up the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic, the Lost Ark for 18th century explorers. But his crew noticed a change in him on this voyage, a change to the darker side. He took many unusual and dangerous chances with his vessel and he was unnecessarily harsh on the men. The first assignment was to deliver a young man, Mai, who was brought to London from Tahiti back to his native land. Bearing gifts he had been given while in London as well as a menagerie of animals from King George himself, Mai got off to a bad start with the Tahitians who thought he was putting on airs in front of a pretty leaned-back population.
With that out of the way the Endeavour, and its companion ship Resolution, left tropical Tahiti headed north to colder climes to find a Northwest passage. On the way Cook stumbles on the Hawaiian Islands which had heretofore been uncharted. What a find! The crew spends many days there enjoying the scenery, the food, and the girls. With great reluctance on the part of the crew, but not Cook, the Endeavour continued its journey to Alaska and points north. After many false starts, cul-de-sacs, and dead ends the ships make the long trek back to Hawaii to make repairs, get supplies, and get some R & R before taking one last stab for the Northwest Passage. But like Benjamin Franklin's saying that "guests, like fish begin to smell after three days" it isn't long before the crew wears out its welcome in Hawaii and Cook's temper gets the better of him. Don't forget that the book's title lets the cat out of the bag by indicating that this is the "Fateful Final Voyage of Captain Cook". Cook's voyage ends in tragedy but you're in for a terrific voyage if you read "The Wide Wide Sea'.
Intending to retire and complete his memoirs once he ended his second voyage it didn't take much arm twisting for him to pursue a third. This was to be his crowning achievement: to locate a Northwest passage to link up the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic, the Lost Ark for 18th century explorers. But his crew noticed a change in him on this voyage, a change to the darker side. He took many unusual and dangerous chances with his vessel and he was unnecessarily harsh on the men. The first assignment was to deliver a young man, Mai, who was brought to London from Tahiti back to his native land. Bearing gifts he had been given while in London as well as a menagerie of animals from King George himself, Mai got off to a bad start with the Tahitians who thought he was putting on airs in front of a pretty leaned-back population.
With that out of the way the Endeavour, and its companion ship Resolution, left tropical Tahiti headed north to colder climes to find a Northwest passage. On the way Cook stumbles on the Hawaiian Islands which had heretofore been uncharted. What a find! The crew spends many days there enjoying the scenery, the food, and the girls. With great reluctance on the part of the crew, but not Cook, the Endeavour continued its journey to Alaska and points north. After many false starts, cul-de-sacs, and dead ends the ships make the long trek back to Hawaii to make repairs, get supplies, and get some R & R before taking one last stab for the Northwest Passage. But like Benjamin Franklin's saying that "guests, like fish begin to smell after three days" it isn't long before the crew wears out its welcome in Hawaii and Cook's temper gets the better of him. Don't forget that the book's title lets the cat out of the bag by indicating that this is the "Fateful Final Voyage of Captain Cook". Cook's voyage ends in tragedy but you're in for a terrific voyage if you read "The Wide Wide Sea'.
November 23, 2025
This was a fascinating and exciting history book, a wonderful swashbuckling adventure story. Hampton Sides has a knack for bringing history alive in a way that feels both personal and expansive, and he didn't disappoint with this dive into Captain James Cook's third and final voyage.
First off, what I really enjoyed about this book was how Sides humanizes Cook. We all know the name from history class - he’s always portrayed as either a heroic explorer or a villainous symbol of colonialism. But Sides cuts through all that oversimplification, showing us a Cook who is profoundly human. He’s skilled, ambitious, sometimes compassionate, but also flawed, occasionally misguided, and in the end, tragically out of his depth. Seeing Cook as a complex figure rather than a textbook caricature was a major highlight for me.
Sides is particularly good at putting you right on deck with Cook and his crew. When they battled brutal Arctic ice or navigated tricky interactions with the Pacific Islanders, I felt like I was right there, experiencing every moment. His descriptions of the ship’s trials and tribulations - the storms, the diseases, and the endless uncertainty - made the whole journey vividly real. And, honestly, it made me incredibly grateful for modern comforts. Imagine being stuck on a wooden ship for months, braving storms, rotten food, & seasickness. Goodness, these were tough men.
Another strong point is how Sides handled the clash of cultures. He didn't shy away from the complexities of Cook's encounters with Indigenous peoples. He shows respect and gives voice to the locals, who often get lost or misrepresented in history books. It’s clear he did extensive research here, presenting an authentic perspective that respects both sides of these tense encounters.
I appreciated Sides’ balanced approach to Cook’s legacy. He doesn’t vilify Cook, but he doesn’t put him on a pedestal either. Instead, he presents Cook as a complicated figure, one who advanced our knowledge of the world while also inadvertently paving the way for colonization and exploitation. This balanced portrayal felt fair and necessary, especially in our modern conversations about historical figures and their legacies.
The ending was particularly gripping. Even though you might already know how Cook’s story ends (spoiler alert: not happily), Sides manages to create genuine suspense and drama. The final chapters in Hawaii were especially engaging - tense, tragic, and powerfully told.
All in all, this book is a fantastic read for anyone interested in exploration, maritime history, or the complexities of cultural interactions during the Age of Exploration. It’s a thoughtful book, beautifully written, and impressively thorough. Hampton Sides continues to impress with his ability to humanize historical events, making the past feel urgent and alive.
So, if you’re up for an immersive journey through one of history’s most fascinating and tragic voyages, I’d definitely recommend picking this up. Keep a warm cup of coffee handy - you’ll be sailing through some pretty rough seas, and it's an adventure you won’t soon forget.
First off, what I really enjoyed about this book was how Sides humanizes Cook. We all know the name from history class - he’s always portrayed as either a heroic explorer or a villainous symbol of colonialism. But Sides cuts through all that oversimplification, showing us a Cook who is profoundly human. He’s skilled, ambitious, sometimes compassionate, but also flawed, occasionally misguided, and in the end, tragically out of his depth. Seeing Cook as a complex figure rather than a textbook caricature was a major highlight for me.
Sides is particularly good at putting you right on deck with Cook and his crew. When they battled brutal Arctic ice or navigated tricky interactions with the Pacific Islanders, I felt like I was right there, experiencing every moment. His descriptions of the ship’s trials and tribulations - the storms, the diseases, and the endless uncertainty - made the whole journey vividly real. And, honestly, it made me incredibly grateful for modern comforts. Imagine being stuck on a wooden ship for months, braving storms, rotten food, & seasickness. Goodness, these were tough men.
Another strong point is how Sides handled the clash of cultures. He didn't shy away from the complexities of Cook's encounters with Indigenous peoples. He shows respect and gives voice to the locals, who often get lost or misrepresented in history books. It’s clear he did extensive research here, presenting an authentic perspective that respects both sides of these tense encounters.
I appreciated Sides’ balanced approach to Cook’s legacy. He doesn’t vilify Cook, but he doesn’t put him on a pedestal either. Instead, he presents Cook as a complicated figure, one who advanced our knowledge of the world while also inadvertently paving the way for colonization and exploitation. This balanced portrayal felt fair and necessary, especially in our modern conversations about historical figures and their legacies.
The ending was particularly gripping. Even though you might already know how Cook’s story ends (spoiler alert: not happily), Sides manages to create genuine suspense and drama. The final chapters in Hawaii were especially engaging - tense, tragic, and powerfully told.
All in all, this book is a fantastic read for anyone interested in exploration, maritime history, or the complexities of cultural interactions during the Age of Exploration. It’s a thoughtful book, beautifully written, and impressively thorough. Hampton Sides continues to impress with his ability to humanize historical events, making the past feel urgent and alive.
So, if you’re up for an immersive journey through one of history’s most fascinating and tragic voyages, I’d definitely recommend picking this up. Keep a warm cup of coffee handy - you’ll be sailing through some pretty rough seas, and it's an adventure you won’t soon forget.
November 26, 2024
My favorite book so far by Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea is a riveting account of Captain James Cook's last voyage. Cook was a wonder in his time, a real self-made man, who personified the enlightenment in his fair treatment of his men and the natives of the countries that he sailed to. He was a natural at sailing and seemingly did effortlessly what other men would never even attempt. He was admired and beloved by the men who sailed with him, as well as the rich politicians who sponsored his trips.
This last adventure became a bridge too far in that Cook seemed to have lost the equanimity that had stood him in such good stead up to this time. He became cruel and despotic and unreasonable. This lead to the misunderstanding that ended his life and several of his men. We will never know what caused his breakdown but Hampton Sides gives a balanced account of what occurred and considers reasons for it. It's a strange end for a celebrated and talented man.
This last adventure became a bridge too far in that Cook seemed to have lost the equanimity that had stood him in such good stead up to this time. He became cruel and despotic and unreasonable. This lead to the misunderstanding that ended his life and several of his men. We will never know what caused his breakdown but Hampton Sides gives a balanced account of what occurred and considers reasons for it. It's a strange end for a celebrated and talented man.
May 5, 2024
Review to come. Got to think a bit first.
Having thought, and having looked over my highlights, then --
As Sides says in his Author's Note at the beginning, "In Cook’s long wake came the occupiers, the guns, the pathogens, the alcohol, the problem of money, the whalers, the furriers, the seal hunters, the plantation owners, the missionaries."
So, no hagiography here; "The Wide Wide Sea" isn't the adult version of the morally and politically vacuous Europeans Discovered Things and Established Colonies narrative I daresay most of us in the global North heard in grade school (and probably high school as well). But of course none of the European explorers, even those consciously in the service of empire, could know the future, and they would have had to be extraordinarily perceptive to, for example, observe human sacrifice in Polynesia and recognize a kinship with capital punishment as practiced by their own governments. (And so on, with respect to everything from clothing to food to religious belief. Do the Natives prostrate themselves before their chiefs? Well, how about the way servants are supposed to turn their faces to the wall when the master of the house passes by?)
Anyway, it's easy to vilify the European explorers en masse, but if you can't see the future then how much responsibility do you appropriately bear for the consequences that flow, a hundred or two hundred years later, from your acts? I thought about this frequently as I read "The Wide Wide Sea," and came to no conclusion.
Remember how much heat Bill Maher took for pointing out that whatever you might say about the 9/11 hijackers, it made no sense to call them cowards, the way a chorus of establishment voices did? Same here. Sides vividly evokes the precarity and the terror of sea voyages over thousands of miles in tiny, often leaky ships with maggoty food, scummy water, and, especially, raging storms. Whatever we think of them, the explorer-captains had to be brave. Their crews had to be braver.
And, on the other hand. Mostly the European explorers approached Native peoples with contempt. Often they killed people. They brought rats and disease. And in their wake, as the quotation above points out, events that for many peoples and cultures amounted to the end of the world.
Sides makes some attempt to describe how Native peoples might have experienced their first encounters with Europeans, sometimes extrapolating from what human beings in general are like, sometimes quoting from Native oral histories that have been recorded. What, frustratingly, he doesn't much do is offer a critical perspective on his European sources themselves. He gives us their narrative of events, and in the absence of Native accounts, those narratives and perceptions are left to stand. The lack of Native accounts is of course not Sides's fault, but I do wish he had read his sources more critically.
An aspect of this book that I found heartbreaking: the abundant and (in the case of uninhabited islands) often fearless wildlife the explorers encountered. This richness, like so much human richness, has been devastated.
"The Wide Wide Sea" is always fascinating, often frustrating, and well worth the time spent reading. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.
Having thought, and having looked over my highlights, then --
As Sides says in his Author's Note at the beginning, "In Cook’s long wake came the occupiers, the guns, the pathogens, the alcohol, the problem of money, the whalers, the furriers, the seal hunters, the plantation owners, the missionaries."
So, no hagiography here; "The Wide Wide Sea" isn't the adult version of the morally and politically vacuous Europeans Discovered Things and Established Colonies narrative I daresay most of us in the global North heard in grade school (and probably high school as well). But of course none of the European explorers, even those consciously in the service of empire, could know the future, and they would have had to be extraordinarily perceptive to, for example, observe human sacrifice in Polynesia and recognize a kinship with capital punishment as practiced by their own governments. (And so on, with respect to everything from clothing to food to religious belief. Do the Natives prostrate themselves before their chiefs? Well, how about the way servants are supposed to turn their faces to the wall when the master of the house passes by?)
Anyway, it's easy to vilify the European explorers en masse, but if you can't see the future then how much responsibility do you appropriately bear for the consequences that flow, a hundred or two hundred years later, from your acts? I thought about this frequently as I read "The Wide Wide Sea," and came to no conclusion.
Remember how much heat Bill Maher took for pointing out that whatever you might say about the 9/11 hijackers, it made no sense to call them cowards, the way a chorus of establishment voices did? Same here. Sides vividly evokes the precarity and the terror of sea voyages over thousands of miles in tiny, often leaky ships with maggoty food, scummy water, and, especially, raging storms. Whatever we think of them, the explorer-captains had to be brave. Their crews had to be braver.
And, on the other hand. Mostly the European explorers approached Native peoples with contempt. Often they killed people. They brought rats and disease. And in their wake, as the quotation above points out, events that for many peoples and cultures amounted to the end of the world.
Sides makes some attempt to describe how Native peoples might have experienced their first encounters with Europeans, sometimes extrapolating from what human beings in general are like, sometimes quoting from Native oral histories that have been recorded. What, frustratingly, he doesn't much do is offer a critical perspective on his European sources themselves. He gives us their narrative of events, and in the absence of Native accounts, those narratives and perceptions are left to stand. The lack of Native accounts is of course not Sides's fault, but I do wish he had read his sources more critically.
An aspect of this book that I found heartbreaking: the abundant and (in the case of uninhabited islands) often fearless wildlife the explorers encountered. This richness, like so much human richness, has been devastated.
"The Wide Wide Sea" is always fascinating, often frustrating, and well worth the time spent reading. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.
March 20, 2025
4.5 stars I am in awe of the breadth and scope of Hampton Sides' work covering the final voyage of Captain Cook. This explorer visited just about every country and island that touched the Pacific Ocean in the 1770s. It isn't nonfiction that sounds like a history book, although there are meticulous details and facts interspersed throughout. It is written with the care of a gifted storyteller. I was mesmerized throughout and fascinated by the descriptions of all of the explorations that Cook and his crew go on. If you love nonfiction and want to learn about adventure on the high seas, this is a gem.
October 2, 2024
Hampton Sides has done it again! I have been a fan of his writing since reading The Ghost Soldiers. The Wide Wide Sea is an account of Captain Cook's final voyage to the Pacific. It describes his visits to New Zealand and Polynesia, his visit to Hawaii, his exploration of Vancouver and Alaska culminating with his controversial death on his return to Hawaii. The book gives us a view of the culture of these areas and the impact that Cook, and others had on the native population. The depiction of Mai, the Polynesian that Cook returned to his home shows the tragedy of excess wealth. I agree that the death of Cook is reminiscent of the death of Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines. I do not agree with the assertion that gadfly and author Mark Twain made about it being a "justifiable homicide".
This is a very good book. It is one of the best that I have read all year. I highly recommend this.
This is a very good book. It is one of the best that I have read all year. I highly recommend this.
January 27, 2024
I'm not really a history buff so when an author can engage me in a historical tale, I tip my hat. Hampton Sides does just that in this narrative of James Cook last sea voyage. I really didn't know anything about Cook going into this read, but his character is slowly revealed as we follow his attempt to find a northwest passage around the American continent. The crux of the book focuses on Cook's interactions with various indigenous peoples he meets on the lands he explores. Let's just say, some of these interactions went a lot better than others. Sides does a good job of giving the reader of how hard these voyages really were and how Cook needed to be a leader, a diplomat, a problem solver, - all while remaining calm, cool, and collected. This book was my second that I've tried from this author, and it definitely won't be my last.
April 22, 2024
This is a six star book by Hampton Sides about the incomparable Captain James Cook, an exceptional man of the Enlightenment age.
His third and final sea voyage extends so far on the globe from south to north that he held the record for coverage of territory at the time.
Highly recommended!
His third and final sea voyage extends so far on the globe from south to north that he held the record for coverage of territory at the time.
Highly recommended!
June 29, 2025
Excellent read. Highly recommended.
October 22, 2025
so. cook wasn't eaten after all. the lies we've been told all this time?!
za man himself - fingering australia.
anyway, cool book. it was fun to have google maps open while reading it to follow the ships through the many islands they visited.
although i kinda wanna read a booksie about his previous voyages where he was at his best - by voyage numero tre, he was loosing his marbles a little which is, like, girl, no shame, we are all loosing it nowadays and some of us are not even 50. too bad he died the way he did but then i feel like dying from old age would have been even worse for him. james cook just wasn't made for retirement.
also, his widow outlived him by 56 years!!! and all of their children too. one sturdy lady if i can say so me-self.
ps this book really needs better cover.
za man himself - fingering australia.
anyway, cool book. it was fun to have google maps open while reading it to follow the ships through the many islands they visited.
although i kinda wanna read a booksie about his previous voyages where he was at his best - by voyage numero tre, he was loosing his marbles a little which is, like, girl, no shame, we are all loosing it nowadays and some of us are not even 50. too bad he died the way he did but then i feel like dying from old age would have been even worse for him. james cook just wasn't made for retirement.
also, his widow outlived him by 56 years!!! and all of their children too. one sturdy lady if i can say so me-self.
ps this book really needs better cover.
July 28, 2024
A first-rate historical account of Captain James Cook’s last voyage, and his tragic death in Hawaii in 1779. Cook was Britain’s most celebrated explorer and map-maker of that era, and Sides is one of our very best writers of popular history.
Cook is best known for his three long voyages in the Pacific between 1768 and 1779. While Sides book focuses on his third voyage, he also reprises the earlier voyages. I recommend spending a few minutes reading the lede to the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook for an outline of his career.
Cook was nudged or pushed into taking command of the third expedition by the Earl of Sandwich, after a brief retirement. In truth, it didn’t take much pushing. Sadly, Cook didn’t get involved early enough to discover the shoddy work being done to overhaul his flagship — which consequently leaked badly for the entire trip.
Captain Cook has become something of a controversial figure, some 250 years after his voyages of exploration. Sides treats Cook and his Native opponents fairly. He is neutral on the merits of the criticisms, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.
Cook was a remarkable explorer, but he was also a man of his time. As were the Native people he encountered. I was struck by Sides’ account of the Hawaiian chiefs burials at Kealakekua Bay (where Cook met his death). Their bones were placed in secret alcoves in the cliff-face by a commoner lowered on ropes. Once the bones and relics were well-hidden, the poor burial-servant was dropped to his death on the rocks below!
I enjoyed the book for the most part, as I expected to. The long sections on the Society Islands (Tahiti et al.) got a bit tedious, especially the machinations related to Mai, the young Tahitian being returned from his sojourn in England. But this is a minor criticism. For me, the book gets back into high gear in the Alaskan section, where Cook was charged with looking for the mythical Northwest Passage from the western end. As he rather expected, this was a fool’s errand, but he carefully checked all reasonable leads.
For me this was a strong 4-star read, and I recommend the book. Good stuff.
Cook is believed to have been the inspiration for Capt. James Kirk of the original Star Trek series.
Cook is best known for his three long voyages in the Pacific between 1768 and 1779. While Sides book focuses on his third voyage, he also reprises the earlier voyages. I recommend spending a few minutes reading the lede to the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook for an outline of his career.
Cook was nudged or pushed into taking command of the third expedition by the Earl of Sandwich, after a brief retirement. In truth, it didn’t take much pushing. Sadly, Cook didn’t get involved early enough to discover the shoddy work being done to overhaul his flagship — which consequently leaked badly for the entire trip.
Captain Cook has become something of a controversial figure, some 250 years after his voyages of exploration. Sides treats Cook and his Native opponents fairly. He is neutral on the merits of the criticisms, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.
Cook was a remarkable explorer, but he was also a man of his time. As were the Native people he encountered. I was struck by Sides’ account of the Hawaiian chiefs burials at Kealakekua Bay (where Cook met his death). Their bones were placed in secret alcoves in the cliff-face by a commoner lowered on ropes. Once the bones and relics were well-hidden, the poor burial-servant was dropped to his death on the rocks below!
I enjoyed the book for the most part, as I expected to. The long sections on the Society Islands (Tahiti et al.) got a bit tedious, especially the machinations related to Mai, the young Tahitian being returned from his sojourn in England. But this is a minor criticism. For me, the book gets back into high gear in the Alaskan section, where Cook was charged with looking for the mythical Northwest Passage from the western end. As he rather expected, this was a fool’s errand, but he carefully checked all reasonable leads.
For me this was a strong 4-star read, and I recommend the book. Good stuff.
Cook is believed to have been the inspiration for Capt. James Kirk of the original Star Trek series.
May 31, 2024
Exceptional account of an explorer who mapped the Pacific coast of Alaska, many South Sea Islands, and was the first European to set foot on the Hawaiian Islands, which did not even appear on maps. He was apparently an outstanding and brave captain who navigated ships through treacherous season and weather. His descriptions of the native people, their appearance, clothing, boats, and customs are fascinating. Very readable and very interesting. Highly recommend.
January 27, 2025
Narrative non-fiction that documents the final voyage of Captain James Cook and the crews of the ships Resolution and the Discovery. The goals of this journey included cartographic mapping, scientific observation, returning a native person (Mai) to his home island, and investigating the Northwest Passage. Sides is mindful of the controversies regarding Cook’s journeys, which often resulted in devastating consequences for the native populations, and he takes an approach that includes both the voluminous documentation from the English perspective and the oral histories of the indigenous peoples.
I was amazed at how many places Cook’s expedition visited. They traveled from England to Cape Town, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Friendly Islands (now Tonga), Tahiti, the Christmas Islands (now Kiribati), and other Pacific Islands. They encountered Hawaii’s inhabitants for the first time. On the way to attempt to find the Northwest Passage, they navigated the coastline of North America from Oregon Territory to Alaska, and northward as far as possible before encountering the ice pack. They returned to Hawaii (with tragic results), before sailing back to England via Macau and Kamchatka.
Sides does a great job of storytelling and pacing. This book is well-researched, well-written, and engrossing. It kept my interest from beginning to end. It does not glorify Cook nor denigrate him, but attempts to capture him as a person, with his strengths and flaws. Hampton Sides is one of my favorite non-fiction writers, and this book is one of his best. Highly recommended to those interested in maritime journeys and history.
I was amazed at how many places Cook’s expedition visited. They traveled from England to Cape Town, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Friendly Islands (now Tonga), Tahiti, the Christmas Islands (now Kiribati), and other Pacific Islands. They encountered Hawaii’s inhabitants for the first time. On the way to attempt to find the Northwest Passage, they navigated the coastline of North America from Oregon Territory to Alaska, and northward as far as possible before encountering the ice pack. They returned to Hawaii (with tragic results), before sailing back to England via Macau and Kamchatka.
Sides does a great job of storytelling and pacing. This book is well-researched, well-written, and engrossing. It kept my interest from beginning to end. It does not glorify Cook nor denigrate him, but attempts to capture him as a person, with his strengths and flaws. Hampton Sides is one of my favorite non-fiction writers, and this book is one of his best. Highly recommended to those interested in maritime journeys and history.
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