Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before | Tony Horwitz

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before | Tony Horwitz | A wondrous journey!

books:

Blue Latitudes: Bo...

	Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before Tony Horwitz, 2002 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 93 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Cook and the New World

This is a book that could start the curious reader on a search of their own for the elusive Captain Cook. What is so good about this book is that Horwitz has been honest about his successes and failures in following in the footsteps of the great explorer. There are plenty of laugh out loud passages as Roger, his fellow traveller, and he confront the realities of travelling in places both isolated and altered since the days of Cook. Yet the book is far more than a merely amusing travelogue.
Horwitz manages to twine together his own travels and those of Cook in a manner that makes the reader realise how the world, and its people, have changed since the latter half of the eighteenth century. He clearly admires Cook, and most of his fellow sailors, whilst at the same time drawing attention to how their missions of exploration on behalf of what would become the British Empire altered the world for ever. One of the best aspects of the book is that he does not bludgeon the past into a politically correct framework but instead offers the reader insights into a past that many readers will find fascinating. The fact that Horwitz allows the reader to compare his abilities to cope with disappointments and difficulties to those of Cook makes the book more enjoyable.
A lengthy read but well worth the time.

for more information click here

A wondrous journey!

I had little idea of Captain Cook's comings and goings until a friend recommended this book to me. Coincidentally, I began reading it while on a trip that included Hawai'i -- and found myself on Big Island on the anniversary of the great captain's death (which I celebrated with a bird's eye view of the monument in his honor and a toast). The book makes fascinating and constantly entertaining and informative reading, and I liked Horwitz's idea of retracing Cook's steps, trying to balance what he came across with how things have changed (usually for the worse) in the past 230+ years. Cook's views on scurvy -- way beyond his years --, his normally open and respectful attitude towards native peoples, his huge talent for navigating and mapping what he encountered and his courage in the face of great peril and adversity have made me admire him a lot. It is interesting to note that most native peoples regard Cook as a bane, the man who brought so-called civilization to their previously untouched existences. I really do think Cook was the smaller of evils...

for more information click here

Good Read, a little long near the end...

I am big fan of Tony Horwitz, and this was a very good book and a lot of great information on Captain Cook. My only complaint was that the book gets a little long near the end. Roger, Tony's accomplice throughout the journey is a real character and was enjoyable throughout.

Hit and miss

I really enjoyed Horwitz's CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC, so I thought I'd try his Captain Cook travelogue, BLUE LATITUDES. My reaction was mixed. I loved the stuff about Captain Cook, but was less enthusiastic about Horwitz's attempt to follow Cook's explorations.

Cook set out on three explorations, essentially looking for the Southern Continent. As a result Horwitz starts with the South Pacific islands, New Zealand, and Australia. The most interesting segment of this account for me was Cook's contact with the Australian aborigines who wanted nothing to do with Cook and told him, in their own language, to "Go Away." Later on Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef and came close to being shipwrecked.

In my mind Horwitz spends too much time on trivial matters. For instance, when Cook tried to land in modern Niue (Savage Island) the natives chased him away. He mistook them for cannibals since they had painted their teeth with red banana juice. Horwitz spends an inordinate amount of time looking for red bananas. In another instance, he travels the globe looking for an arrow supposedly made out of Cook's shin bone.

In some ways BLUE LATITUDES is inspirational. For one thing, Cook was born of poor parents in Yorkshire, England. He worked his way up from clerk, to sailor on a coal barge, to captain in the Royal Navy in a much more hierarchal society. He also went where "no man had been before." If that sounds familiar it's no accident. James T. Kirk was modeled after Captain Cook.

Captain Cook himself was a rather dour sort of person, but some of his shipmates had eccentric personalities. Joseph Banks, the botanist on board The Endeavor, was a nobleman who sailed with Cook rather than go on a grand tour. His journal entries can be poetic at times. David Samwell, surgeon's mate on board the Resolution, spent most of his time "admiring `Fair Damsels' and `nymphs' and calculating how to bed them." Cook, himself, comes alive when he philosophizes about the harm he may be doing to native cultures. Although he was ready with the musket when natives crossed him, he showed his human side when he tried not to expose the Hawaiians to venereal disease.

On the modern side, we visit Cooktown in northern Australia, where Horwitz and his pal Roger Williamson spend most of their time drinking, and the Aleutian Islands where Horwitz and his buddy Roger board a ferry that endures hurricane force winds resulting in almost terminal seasickness. Roger grates on your nerves after a while; he seems to have a one-track mind; he never goes anywhere without a ready supply of alcohol.

Whenever the book rotates back to the Cook biography, interest picks up. The most riveting part of the book is when Cook lands in Kealakekua Bay, for the second time, and you know that this is where he met his death. Horwitz also spends some time analyzing Cook's mental pathology. He seemed to suffering from "burn-out" on his third exploration. He flogged his crewman more than he ever had before, he forced them to eat walrus meat, he gave in to his temper, and he treated the natives inconsistently, which ultimately led to his death.

for more information click here

entertaining (3-1/2 stars)

This account of Captain James Cook's three voyages is juxtaposed with accounts of what the author encountered two and a half centuries later at venues on Cook's itinerary. The reader switches between Cook's history (upbringing, family, strengths, faults, patrons) and the author's humorous travel impressions.

The result is a eclectic blend of history and travel journalism. Though it might alienate purists, this work is a colorful, entertaining narrative.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

products you might be interested in