Extra Books Saturday 22 November 1997

6 THE AGE EXTRA BOOKS SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 1997 In the hands of a fledgling historian, Captain Cook's old ship and his historic voyage are given new life He sailed to a land down under By MELISSA FYFE And what a chance it was. In Zealand, becoming the first person August 1768, when HM Bark to thoroughly chart the waters and Endeavour left England, Cook's brief coastline. The crew had several was to explore the South Seas and altercations with the natives. At one confirm the existence of a great point, locals tried to kidnap Tupaia's southern land mass. All he had to do boy servant. on the way was drop into Tahiti so a Having satisfied himself that New group of scientists could witness an Zealand was indeed two islands and astrological event: the planet Venus not the great southern land mass, passing the face of the sun. Cook set sail for home via Tasman's The journey took three years and Van Dieman's Land. Crossing the was the first of three significant Tasman Sea, however, a storm blew exploratory trips Cook captained. them too far north, delivering him Cook was 40 when he was to Botany Bay. Cook originally called the bay Sting iftIM ,! NUM fIlf11 Ray Bay, owing to a proliferation of the winged fish. But the crew's botanists were so excited about the unique specimens of vegetation, the //- r 0 R E - T .S.11 II .5 name was changed. Cook stayed at Botany Bay for a week and then set sail north, charting the east coast of Australia, proving it was not an archipelago but a continuous land mass. RO'. appointed captain Cook named of the Endeavour, This Stradbroke and not bad for some- Keppel Islands. He Main mast: historian Ray Parkin's experience at sea comes to the fore as he challenges the experts in in his study of Cook's Endeavour. one who had been named Cape an apprentice Capricorn, the shopkeeper as a Glass House teenager. Mountains and The Endeavour was an Hervey Bay. lingered in Tahiti The Endeavour for three months, was sailed into the circumnavigating difficult, narrow the island and alarming channel between giving it a proper the mainland and geographic the maze of coral identity. One of and terrible dangers in the Cook's rules during Great Barrier Reef the stay was that system, hitting a expedition Circumstance reef near Cape Cook's Endeavour members must not Tribulation, so trade the ship's iron named by Cook " (including nails and because here begun hinges) for on-shore and all our troubles". sexual favors. Two The ship was years earlier, Captain grounded and Samuel Wallis's ship, threatened started to leak water Dolphin, was faster than the crew scavenged by the could pump it. "This sailors for any iron immediate was an alarming and that could be pried I may say terrible from the ship, Circumstance and resulting in a con- destruction to threatened imme- is born again siderably weakened diate destruction to vessel. us as soon as the Cook and his Ship was afloat," men left Tahiti, us as soon as Cook wrote in his island of Madeira, a Mr Weir's leg was journal scrawl. The H.M. Bark Endeavour: session\ entangled in a rope, while laying out taking a local priest and Augu4.2 Tupaia and a small Endeavour survived, Her Place in an anchor, and he was dragged over- boy Taiata as his the Ship but had to be Australian History Cape York August 2l board and drowned. On the following Returns to coast August 17 servant. Cook was beached on a By Ray Parkin morning, his body was conveyed in a wary about taking Leaves coast through reef. South boat, a yawl, a little way from the was afloat. // Miegunyah Press, Cook's passage August 14 Ame Endeavour, writes Parkin, "and anyone whose $150 Ship repair. 7 weeks at Endeavour River return buried with weighted feet to stand on Cape Tribulation June 10 the bottom like a silent sentinel, as do river shore in order GEOFFREY BLAINEY Cape Grafton June 9 he could not foresee, but the brilliant for crew to repair the damage. all sea-dead thus shrouded". Great Barrier Reef - ' _ When meals were cooked at sea, young botanist Joseph Banks insisted. Having had enough of the reef, Cape Cleveland June 6 Tupaia proved a great asset, Cook sailed beyond it, making the there arose the smell of wood smoke, navigating through local regions and mainland too distant to explore. Cape Conway June 3 the scent differing according to praying for favorable winds. He was Cook named and proclaimed Cape Cape Palmerston June 1 where each load of firewood had also used to communicating with York, then continued on through Cape Townshend May 2S been gathered. The cramped gtilley natives in Australia and New Torres Strait and towards England. was presided over by the one-handed Zealand. Sadly, the two never The Endeavour stopped at the port Cape Capricorn May 25 cook, Thompson. We think that the returned to their island home, dying of Batavia for a major overhaul. The Sandy Cape May 22 old Royal Navy had no place for the of malaria on the way back to three-month stay was rife with disabled, but Cook was told he had to England. sickness and disease. Forty crew were Moreton Bay May 17 find a place for Robertson, because Not finding any land mass south ill and many died of malaria. The no other ship had room for him. to 40 degrees latitude, Cook's path astronomer, the artist, a midshipman, AUSTRALIA Cape Byron May 15 Having spent 14 years at sea sent him west and into the eastern the one-armed cook, 10 sailors, three Parkin respects the practical skills of Smoky Cape May 13 Cook's crew. The ordinary seamen side of the land recorded by Abel marines, and a tough, old sailmaker emerge with credit - some drunken Tasman: New Zealand. Cook spent died from diseases contracted there. loafers on shore, but steadfast all- months sailing around New Port Stephens May 11 rounders at sea. He quotes Charles Broken Bay May 7 Darwin who, spending years watch- Port Jackson May 6 ing such men do daily tasks in the Bay of Islands Botany Bay April 29 course of long global voyages such November 29 - as Cook's, respected their "good- Jervis Bay April 25 December 5 humoured patience, unselfishness" Taut prose: Ray Parkin and contentment. BESTsellers Cape Howe April 20 And there are the sounds: '.'the HIS is a remarkable hearty slap and punch of a boisterous Fiction ii book. How it came sea" and a myriad creaks, swishes, Non-Fcton to be written is also Adnlirality Bay cracks and other noises, for it is well 1. The God of Small Things 1. Midnight in Sicily remarkable. Ray known that ships "talk", as do under- Arundhati Roy Peter Robb Parkin was in the ground mines. There were even the Flamingo $29.95 Duffy & Snellgrove $16.95 Navy throughout the '30s and, after cries of livestock. A footnote tells us 2. A Certain Justice 2. Angela's Ashes 1000 2000 3000 that a goat - a source of fresh milk - P.D. James the sinking of HMAS NEW occupied a tiny pen in the Endeavour. Frank McCourt Perth in the Sunda Strait, was a pris- ZEALAND by Faber $19.95 Flamingo $22.95 oner of the Japanese. Much later, he scale in kilometres Stewart Hand The goat had already travelled around 3. An Instance of the the world with Captain Wallis and cir- 3. Recipes My Mother became curious about Captain cled again with Cook, sailing past Fingerpost Gave Me Cook's Endeavour. lain Pears Stephanie Alexander Cape Horn and Sydney Heads and Research was new to Parkin, but Cape York and Java, finally being " Jonathan Cape $19.95 Viking $29.95 in Melbourne he happened to live 4. Ruth Cracknell: honourably retired to English 4. Memoirs of a Geisha next to that gracious and influential pastures for the rest of her life". One is Arthur Goldon A Biased Memoir historian Max Crawford, who lent Viking $29.95 reminded of Matthew Flinders' Chatto & Windus $16.95 him Cook's journals, a crucial globe-trotting cat, Trim. 5. Are You Somebody photocopy or two and a written weighing a mere 360 tons, began to We can almost smell the ship: the peoples her. It is intriguing to learn 5. Icon Nuala O'Faolain testimonial that gave Parkin access take exact shape. She was the kind of paint, the flax and hemp, and the of so many specialists in disguise. It The book is primarily a narrative Frederick Forsyth was not enough to be a skilled sea- by Parkin followed by a sequence of Sceptre $16.95 to old maritime drawings in, the ship commonly used as a cargo Stockholm tar, which preserved the Corgi $14.95 British Library in London. vessel in the Baltic and North seas. " ropes and cables. The tar was made man. One sailor served also as a excerpts from the journals kept by 6. Road Rage 6. Bodyjamming There were experts who assumed She was built with flat floors" and, from smoked pine pitch and found tailor, while another was a skilled Cook, Joseph Banks and othe4:s Ruth Rendell Jenna Mead when tied up in a port with an its way into the fingernails and butcher. Forby Sutherland was a during the five months when the Vintage $16.95 they knew everything about the Random $19.95 Endeavour, and her masts, ropes and extreme low tide, could stand up palms of the sailors, who handled seaman and poulterer and prepared Endeavour was along the east coast 7.

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