Cook's voyages
The Pacific is charted — and everything living there changes
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Cook's voyages combined astronomy, cartography and natural history in a state-funded research programme. The K1 chronometer, a copy of Harrison's H4, made longitude practical and removed the main cause of shipwreck. He also demonstrated that sauerkraut and fresh food prevented scurvy. The consequences for Oceania were demographic: introduced disease, then whaling, missions and colonisation. Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779. The interpretation of the territorial claims he made on Britain's behalf — in Australia especially — remains a live legal and political question.
For children
James Cook sailed the Pacific three times and drew charts so accurate that some were used for two hundred years. He carried a new clock that finally solved the puzzle of finding longitude at sea. For the peoples already living there, his arrival meant something else entirely.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org