Captain Cook - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091886597 ISBN 13: 9780091886592

Publisher: Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2002, Guilford, CT, 2002

Synopsis

In three epic journeys, Cook discovered more of the earth's surface than any other man. Not only was he a prolific seaman, but he was also valued as a scientist, cartographer and surveyor, and perhaps the greatest explorer in history. This intimate biography paints a more detailed portrait than ever before of this remarkable man.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In 1768 James Cook, on an epic sea journey that secured his place in history, discovered Australia. One hundred years later, countering cherished legends, George Collingridge dared to claim that the Portuguese had gotten to Australia first. Now Vanessa Collingridge, his distant cousin, unravels the strange tale of history's most fascinating explorer and the man who sought to dethrone him.
Collingridge charts Captain Cook's celebrated voyages: He mapped the Pacific Islands, circumnavigated Antarctica, charted New Zealand, and discovered the New Hebrides and Australia, curing scurvy along the way. He was shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, cruised with sails frozen amid two-hundred-foot-tall icebergs, struggled to keep his crew from losing battles with alcohol and Polynesian women, and somehow managed to stay one step ahead of competing French and Spanish explorers. Over his twenty-one years of adventure-until his murder on a beach in Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii in 1779-Cook changed the Western map of the world.
Or so schoolchildren were taught. In 1883 British aristocrat George Collingridge sailed Down Under in search of adventure-and came across maps of Australia dated 1542 and 1546, drawn in northern France but based on Portuguese originals, suggesting that Cook was not the first to reach Australia. The proposal would prove Collingridge's undoing-and yet it is a controversy that lives on.

About the Author:

Vanessa Collingridge is best known as a presenter and reporter on Tonight with Trevor MacDonald. A first class Geography graduate of Oxford, Vanessa's presenting career has spanned many scientific and historical programmes on both TV and radio. She has also had her own column with the Daily Telegraph.

About this edition

• Publisher: Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2002, Guilford, CT
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0091886597
• ISBN 13: 9780091886592
• Binding: Paperback