Pioneers of the Pacific Format: Hardcover

Nigel Rigby

ISBN 10: 1889963763 / ISBN 13: 9781889963761

Published by University of Chicago press, 2005

About this Item

Brand New.

Seller Inventory # 9781889963761

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Pioneers of the Pacific Format: Hardcover
• Publisher: University of Chicago press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1889963763
• ISBN 13: 9781889963761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

When Captain Cook died on Hawaii in 1780, Britain was already at war with France and Spain, who had allied themselves with her rebellious American subjects. The new United States secured its independence in 1783 and, as peace resumed, all three rival European powers turned again to considering the opportunities revealed by Cook's work in the Pacific. Further expeditions were soon dispatched: some were successful, some disasterous, and the achievements of some are still too little known.

This book looks at six of Cook's successors and their Pacific voyages: at Arthur Phillip, founder of the first British colony in Australia; the Comte de Laperouse, whose French scientific expedition vanished without a trace; William Bligh, first in the ill-fated Bounty but then successfully in the Providence and in a Spanish expedition forgotten in the oblivion of his later political disgrace; George Vancouver's controversial voyage to northwest America; and Matthew Flinders' charting of Australia and long imprisonment by the French on Mauritius.

About the Authors

Nigel Rigby is head of research at the National Maritime Museum, London. Pieter van der Merwe is the National Maritime Museum's general editor. Glyn Williams is emeritus professor of history, University of London.

Glyn Williams is Professor Emeritus of History at Queen Mary, University of London.