I recently finished a captivating biography of Captain James Cook, who sailed 2 1/2 times around the world (he was killed on the island of Hawaii during his final voyage). Our cruise ship will anchor next year at many of the harbors and in the bays of the Polynesian Islands and New Zealand and Australia which Cook visited.
His voyages took place between 1768 and 1779, all paid for by the British crown. King George III, I can well imagine, had his hands full at that time. The chyrons on CNN would have been busy!
This period was a time of intense technical advancement, economic development, and colonization for Europe. Imagine how Cook and his crew felt as they boated up the East coast of Australia to the Great Barrier Reef. They saw things and charted a coastline that no European had yet set eyes on. At least as far as one knew. The intense competition between countries for resources and colonies meant that all ship’s journals were treated as Top Secret when a ship returned home. Only after careful government review and redaction was anything released publicly.
The more things change, the more things ████ ███ █████.
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