James Cook seems largely to be forgotten to history. Yet, his was probably the most incredible voyage of discovery. Just the story of how Cook came to be a navigator is a fascinating one. In a day where the children of laborers did not receive an education, a mentor took notice of Cook and paid for four years of school. Cook was ambitious and worked hard to fill in the gaps in his education. As a teen, he moved from a store clerk to working on a coal ship to finally joining the Royal Navy, where he rose very rapidly through the ranks.
The tales of Cook's three voyages to the Pacific are an unbelievable story. This man of humble beginnings became one of the world's greatest explorers. In the course of 10 years, his Pacific travels covered over 200,000 miles at a time when one third of the world was unknown and unmapped. He traveled "140 of the earth's 180 degrees latitude, as well as its entire longitude." He probably named more places (rivers, islands, points, bays, bluffs, etc.) than any other man, before or since. He was a shrewd handler of men--both those above and below him in rank. He was a prolific writer of journals and logs, which are still read today. Cook was also a brilliant surveyor and chart maker, and his map of New Zealand was used up until the 1990's (when it was finally replaced by satellite images). His voyages also led to the discovery of thousands of new plants and animals, and his claiming land for Britain helped to eventually lead Britain in becoming a major empire that spanned 11 thousand miles.
But what makes Blue Latitudes a true delight is Horwitz's travelogue. In his attempt to follow in Cook's footsteps and see locations as Cook might have seen them, Horwitz travels to Canada, Tahiti, Bora-Bora, New Zealand, Australia, Niue, Tonga, England, Alaska and Hawaii. With his sidekick Roger, his travels are often hysterical. His week spent on a replica of the Endeavour (complete with 14 inches of hammock space) is especially a hoot. But it is also depressing to discover that the European explorers (not just Cook) changed the way of life on these islands. Many brought with them disease, STD's, materialism and religion. They also tried to eradicate the native culture and native populations. Horwitz also discovered that while Cook is revered in England, he is pretty much reviled among the Pacific nations he visited. Yet ironically, journals, diaries, logs and sketches from Cook's travels are in some cases the only record of these native cultures. It was also distressing to Horwitz was to discover that very little actually exists from Cook's time. Places he lived, worshipped and worked are pretty much gone. The sites he visited are also much changed. Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society told Horwitz that "the best you can do is catch an echo of the man. You can almost never reach out and touch him."
The only thing lacking from this almost perfect book is pictures. There are plenty of maps and a painting of Cook. It would have been fascinating to see photos of the many places Horwitz traveled. I don't expect to be traveling to Bora-Bora, Tonga, Niue, Tahiti, or the other locations mentioned any time soon. Still, Blue Latitudes is a wonderful book and even those not much interested in history will find a fascinating story here.
Such is the contemporary description in BLUE LATITUDES of the over-developed Bora-Bora lagoon, one of Captain James Cook's Polynesian landfalls in the summer of 1769.
During the period 1768 to 1779 at the behest of the British Admiralty, Cook of the Royal Navy captained three 3-year voyages to the Pacific Ocean in attempts to discover either the continent rumored to be at the bottom of the world, or the much-sought Northwest Passage to Asia. Cook found neither, but he was the first European to see and chart many of the islands and landmass margins in that vast watery expanse. In BLUE LATITUDES, author Tony Horwitz follows in Cook's wake to the most celebrated of the latter's landfalls, both north and south: Tahiti, Bora-Bora, New Zealand, Botany Bay (Australia), the Great Barrier Reef, Niue, Tonga, Unalaska (in the Aleutians), and Hawaii.
To my tastes, this book is a near-perfect travel essay. Not only are Cook's experiences described from the author's study of the great explorer's journals, but Horwitz paints a present-day picture of places that I'll likely never visit except in my mind's eye. And he writes with humor and perception. So, I'm both educated and entertained; it doesn't get better than that. The only thing lacking is a photo section - something illogically missing from too many travel narratives on the bookshelves. (Why most travel writers neglect to provide visual reinforcement remains a mystery to me.)
Tony begins his book with a nice touch - his personal agony during five days as a volunteer sailor aboard a full-scale reconstruction of Cook's first ship, The Endeavor, as it sailed from Gig Harbor, WA, to Vancouver, BC. At the end of his short voyage, Horwitz and the reader marvel at the endurance of the 19th century swabbie during literally years at sea because, as the author describes himself:
"My hands were so swollen and raw that I couldn't make a fist or do the buttons on my shirt. Every limb throbbed. My eyes twitched and blurred from fatigue ... (I had) tar stuck in my hair (and) grime embedded in every inch of exposed skin."
Two-thirds of the way through the volume, in order to discover something of the inner Cook, Horwitz takes us to North Yorkshire, England, where the explorer was born in 1728, and where he took to sea from the Whitby docks in 1746 as a coal ship's apprentice. In the following chapter, it's on to London, where Cook lived with his wife between his celebrated voyages. Sadly, there are few genuine traces of the intrepid captain remaining on his home island.
Admittedly, the modern world has taken cruel toll on the exotic places that so captivated Cook and his crews. For example, Horwitz describes Papeete, Tahiti as an overpriced, congested mass of billboards, car fumes, crumbling sidewalks, litter, and ferroconcrete. Even the monument on the Hawaiian beach commemorating the spot of Cook's death at the hands of the natives is marred with graffiti and surrounded by trash.
Cook has been blamed by some as being the point man for West's destruction of Paradise. But, at the end of BLUE LATITUDES, this reader, at least, stands in awe of the man.
Tony Horwitz' book, Blue Latitude, is part travelogue, and part history book. The author writes about his tales retracing the three voyages that Captain Cook took to the Pacific Ocean around 1770-1780. Horwitz' retracing is not exact nor the site visitations in chronological order with Cook's visits. This is mainly due to the logistics of travel.
If memory serves me correctly, Horwitz visits the North west coast of America, then swings south to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, back up to Cook islands, England, the island of Tonga, the Unalaska Alaskan Islands (you read that right) and onto Hawaii.
The cultural and environmental demise of most of these islands is much the same. Materialism, missionaries, and venereal diseases would devastate each island, destroying much of the culture. Many would despise Cook's journey, but ironically, it would be Cook and his crew's journals that would help these islands reconstruct the traditions of their ancestors.
Horwitz covers a lot of ground. From what it was like living on a ship, to the hardships of living in England, to the customs of Pacific culture. His manner is that of a well informed friend. There were times where you were pressing to know more, but overall, I was happy he gave perhaps a slightly more than cursory treatment of the various topics. Since I'm not a history buff, nor a serious traveler, but rather part of the "masses" on this subject, anything more than what Horwitz presents would have been nauseating details.
Let me list some of the best parts of the book. The opening chapters describing Horwitz experience on replica of the Endeavor, the boat used by Cook on his first journey, really conveys to the reader the danger, and the toil that sea travel was back in the 18th century. That chapter was the most memorable, and it's lessons of hardship provides a good background for the rest of the book. Of course, that doesn't meant the rest of the book is all down hill. The Epicurean tastes of his best science officer, Banks who was a party animal, when contrasted against the hard life of the rest of Cook's crew was funny in a rather dark way. Perhaps the most intriguing story was the circumstances of Cook's death in Hawaii, and it is here I really wish Horwitz had gone into more detail.
The modern day travels were also amusing. These include a traditional, drunken party in Australia celebrating Cook's discovery of Australia which to some degree reminds me of a crude Mardi Gras-like celebration in New Orleans. The quest for the Red banana on the island of Tonga, a traditional fruit believed to be forever lost. The brutally cold visits to the Unalaska islands of Alaska make you marvel at the temerity of Cook and his crew. And of course, there was Horwitz funny, drunk and quick-witted friend from Australia, Roger who would travel with Horwitz for most of the itinerary.
Perhaps the most serious thing lacking in this book are the pictures. It would be great to see the ship that Cook sailed on. It would have been informative to see the before and after pictures of the various islands overrun by western culture.
This book is neither a boring nor exciting. Think of this book as sitting down with a good friend and having him tell you his vacation stories. It's a pleasant experience, but since this is a book not a friend, you can't ask any questions and `direct' the conversation. In that sense the book can be frustrating. The friend-conversation analogy is apt. Just like friends, at times I wanted to know about Tony Horwitz, and not so much about his adventures. Horwitz came off as more a reporter, and I think his book could have benefited from telling us what exactly he was thinking at the time. Is it possible to think of Cook, every thought throughout the several months? Probably not.
To that end, books similar to Blue Latitudes but where the authors have no problem telling you exactly what they were thinking, I recommend the following:
Travels by Michael CrichtonPrimate's Memoirs by Robert Sapolsky
The first is about the spiritual awakenings of the author. The latter is about the author's adventures in Africa as a grad student studying primates.
So in summary, Blue Latitude is a decent read filled with amusing anecdotes of history and of the author's travels. It's a light book, and because of that, you may not come away with any sort of wisdom. But for those who may be wondering what it would be like to adventure or vacation on the "high seas", then this book can provide you insight, and for some, it might just be the vacation they need.
