James Cook set out on his third major voyage on July 12, 1776 with the HMS Resolution, which would be his last. While the War of Independence rages in the American colonies, the British Admiralty has officially sent Cook on a scientific mission. But actually it’s about geopolitical interests: Cook is supposed to search for the Northwest Passage from the Pacific side – and this is a secret mission. It’s a mission with fatal consequences.
Sides skillfully describes the explorer’s last journey not only as a mere sequence of historical events, but also develops in detail and vividly a complex network of the spirit of discovery, political calculation, human ability and failure. It is not a biography or a thrilling adventure story, but a panorama in which different perspectives intertwine. Sides integrates indigenous lore and the writings of Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau. There is also the figure of a Polynesian nobleman traveling with him – different perspectives become tangible. The descriptions of the encounters between European sailors and indigenous cultures are nuanced and sensitive, without sugarcoating the conflicts. Different ideas about property, honor and ritual cause both sides to misinterpret each other’s actions.
James Cook appears as an ambivalent figure: a brilliant navigator and at the same time an increasingly exhausted leader marked by setbacks and becoming increasingly brutal. Especially the last chapters, which lead to his death, condense into a tragedy, an unstoppable violent end. That’s why you can read this book as a quiet commentary on the consequences of globalization and its excesses, long before this term even existed.
Review: Barbara Ritzert
Hampton Sides
Cook’s last voyage – The fatal consequences of a secret mission
mareverlag, 512 pages, € 32,–
ISBN 978-3-86648-756-7