Product Description
The life of the British navigator and explorer whose three famous voyages resulted in the accurate mapping of much of the South Pacific. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: James Cook, George Vancouver, David Thompson, José María Narváez, James Colnett, Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, Juan Francisco de La Bodega Y Quadra, Vancouver Expedition, Pedro de Alberni, Manuel Quimper, Frank Swannell, Simon Fraser, Francisco de Eliza, Juan Carrasco, John Meares, George Dixon, James Hector, James Mcmillan, Salvador Fidalgo, Juan de Fuca, Samuel Black, Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, Charles William Barkley, Robert Brown, Zachary Mudge, Peter Fidler, Richard Charles Mayne, Peter Skene Ogden, Robert Burnaby, Ignacio de Arteaga Y Bazán, Jacinto Caamaño, J. Norman Collie, John Gore, Juan José Pérez Hernández, William Robert Broughton, Henry Spencer Palmer, José Cardero, Adam Grant Horne, Francisco Antonio Mourelle, A. B. Rogers, John Mcleod, James Mcdougall, Gonzalo López de Haro, John Finlay, Esteban José Martínez Fernández Y Martínez de La Sierra, John Stuart, George Henry Richards, William Downie, Walter Wilcox, Arthur Reid Lempriere, Alexander Caulfield Anderson, Robert Campbell. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 269. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Captain James Cook FRS RN (7 November 1728 14 February 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This allowed General Wolfe to ma...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=15630 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Explorers Eye
The book was purchased as a gift for someone else so I cannot comment on the content.
I can say, however, that it arrived promptly and in good condition. I was very happy with the service provided.

Judith Erskine ... Read more

Product Description
This meticulous narrative captures an age of discovery and establishes Cook as a link between the vague scientific speculations of the 18th century and the industrial revolution to come. Includes an interesting new element is medical evidence that may explain Cook's strange behavior on his final voyage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Dear Oh Dear!
I ordered this book over a month ago from Canada.I paid $16.00 for shipping charges, and it still hasn't arrived.
In the meantime this is the second request you sent for an appraisal of the material.I wish I had it.
Steve

Captain James Cook:A Biography by Richard Hough
I bought this for a gift for my son stationed in Hawai'i (where Capt. Cook was killed), so have not read it but based my selection on reviews in several places which, in my opinion, ranked this one #1 among the many biographies about Cook.

One of Maritime Exploration's Finest
Captain James Cook was a most amazing British Naval Officer. During the Seven Years' War, he served in North America. He showed a talent for surveying and cartography and was responsible for mapping much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec, allowing General Wolfe to make his famous attack on the Plains of Abraham. His surveying skills were put to good use in the 1760s, mapping the jagged coast of Newfoundland. Cook's five seasons in Newfoundland gave him a mastery of practical surveying and brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society, then directing British overseas discovery. He was about to embark on three markedly different voyages to the Pacific Ocean at their direction.

One of the first navigators of the scientific era, Cook's expeditions made him the most famous naval explorer since Ferdinand Magellan. His voyages to the eastern and western seaboards of North America, the North and South Pacific, the Arctic and Antarctica brought a new understanding to the world's geography and of the people, flora and fauna of the lands he discovered.

You will like Richard Hough's Cook. His is the story of a pioneering innovator whose new medical, nutritional and navigation techniques changed maritime history forever.

The Explorations of Captain james Cook in the Pacific
What is a hero? Captain James Cook certainly seems to qualify in many ways. A fearless explorer of the Pacific Ocean's many islands and the first to discover and circumnavigate the continent of Antarctica, Cook's greatest achievement may well have been his devotion to curing sailors of the dreaded affliction of scurvy through tireless (and often thankless) efforts to feed the crew a healthy diet on long ocean voyages. Thoroughness was his byword always, and Cook was truly a man to admire in everything he did. This biography features excellent visual aids as well as eyewitness accounts of his untimely death at the hands of the native Hawaiians. Excellent.

Not prosaic
Don't have much to add to the other four star reviews of this excellent book--it's very readable, and has a lot of interesting detailed information about James Cook.A couple quibbles: the map in the front shows all three voyages.But it's almost impossible to discern, it's so small and they are not well differentiated, often criss-crossing.Larger maps, one of each voyage would have been a great addition. As for the other maps they are equally amateurish, with hand drawn arrows and dashes.Ironic considering the author's admiration for good draftsmanship.The illustrations are not well reproduced, all in BW and don't add much to the book.The author loves the word "prosaic", and is correct in describing Cook's ability to give interesting and original names to geographic features.It would have been elevating for Hough to have occasionally added some larger historic bits to his narrative, say about British history.So, it's a fine book, but seems somewhat unimaginative in its goals, and execution. ... Read more

Product Description
Except some discoveries on the western and northern coasts of New Holland no important voyage to the Pacific Ocean was undertaken till 1642. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nice journal
This is Captain Cook's journal of his expedition beginning in 1772 to discover if there is a continent at the south pole. I did lots of skimming because he just doesn't have much to say on an average day at sea- latitude and longitude, wind direction, ice islands (evidently the word "iceberg" hadn't been invented yet) and whether he saw any penguins, whales or birds. Things are much more interesting when he gets on land at New Zealand and many islands in the South Pacific, even Easter Island with its statues. He goes into detail about native peoples, flora and fauna, topography, the location of bays, etc. I liked how he was aware that he had to bring along certain foods to prevent scurvy, but some of his men wouldn't eat those foods until after they had gotten symptoms. Then Cook was surprised when the sheep and goats which they had on the ship for food also showed symptoms of scurvy. This book is Volume 1 and he doesn't discover Antarctica in it, so that must happen in Volume 2.

Addendum: Oops!! Greg, who wrote the comment, is right- Antarctica wasn't discovered until 1820. Edward Bransfield is credited with being the first to see the peninsula. I should have done a little research first. ... Read more

Product Description
A new one-volume abridged edition of Cook's famous journals--"a majestic story of epic proportions"(Philip Edwards in the Introduction)
Captain Cook's Journals provide his vivid first-hand account of three extraordinary expeditions between 1768 and 1779. These charted the entire coast of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia and brought back detailed descriptions of Tahiti, Tonga, and a host of previously unknown islands in the Pacific including the Hawaiian Islands. The journals amply reveal the determination, courage, and skill that enabled Cook to wrestle with the continuous dangers of uncharted seas and the problems of achieving a relationship with the peoples whose unannounced guest he became. This edition, abridged from the definitive four-volume Hakluyt Society edition, makes Cook's inimitable personal account of his years of voyaging widely accessible for the first time and includes an Introduction to each voyage, a Glossary of unusual words, indexes of people and places, and a Postscript assessing the controversy surrounding Cook's death.

Selected and Edited with Introductions by Philip Edwards ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A dry tedious read
I wanted to like this book.I really did.When I saw it online, I thought that it looked interesting.The few reviews were favorable.I enjoy maritime tales, stories and life.I thought that pirates and life aboard ships were interesting decades ago.

This was a slow, monotonous account.At least all that I could read for three days.Then I lost interest.I have read period pieces before.However the abbreviations and some of the words I just could not decipher.

If you want to attempt to figure out this book, I wish you luck.If you do, maybe you could explain it to me.:)

Cook Lite
I wish I had read the reviews before paying for this. The key word for this edition is ABRIDGED. According to the editor Philip Edward's introduction, only about a third of Cook's/Beaglehole's text is included.

READ THIS ALONGSIDE RICHARD HOUGH'S BIOGRAPHY
This is a spectacularly interesting journal. Cook was an odd sort, that's for sure. But a genius? I'd certainly say so after reading his often-daily account of his activities. Really neat book.

A detailed account of Cook's voyages
This well prepared abridged edition of Captain James Cook's journals is a specialized book of interest to people studying the exploration of the Pacific and/or the British Navy of that time period.Other people might find sections of it dry reading.The book is recommended for oceanography students as the 17th century voyages of exploration formed the basis for later oceanographic cruises.

Cook's voyages carried scientific personnel of that time period, many of whom died from the harsh conditions along with members of the crews.In addition to bad weather, there were diseases and hostile natives (including cannibals).Extensive charting was carried out and, on the second voyage, the Board of Longitude supplied Cook with Larcum Kendall's copy of John Harrison's H4 watch for determining longitude.Observations were made of prevailing winds, currents, temperature, and other things of scientific interest.

Natives throughout the Pacific would go to great lengths to obtain iron, expecially axes, even prostituting their wives and daughters (willing or not).Natives would attempt to steal items, if they could, leading to numerous confrontations including one in which a boat crew of the Adventure (the consort ship of the second voyage) were killed and eaten by the Maori natives of New Zealand.

Cook's journal ended several weeks before his death.The editor fills in details from journals of other people who were on the voyage, and speculates on the reason he was killed by the natives in Hawaii.

The book includes maps of Cook's routes on his voyages.It also has an index listing the names of the various individuals mentioned, with an indication of their positions on the voyages or their other positions if they were not active participants.While the index mentions the later careers of a few individuals like William Bligh, it makes no mention of John Gore's career (he is listed in the Wikipedia as having died in 1790).

A classic re-launched
This re-issue of the Beaglehole edition of the Cook journals attests to the enduring importance of Cook as the exemplar navigator and Beaglehole as his nautical Boswell.

The writing is elegant and subtle and thefascination of the recital enduring.

Best there is no other! ... Read more

Product Description
A brief biography focusing on the career of the British navigator who became a famous explorer of the Pacific Ocean. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (20)

Cook : The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook
This is a blow by blow of all three round-the-world voyages James Cook made in the 18th century.I find it much easier to read than the original material which the author often quotes.Our language today, at least in America, is not as "foreign" as English in England in the 18th century.The author makes relatively deep ananlyses of the various cultures Cook and his men ran into during his travels.For example, he had long stays at Tonga and Tahiti, so he became close to many of those islands' people.He also had artists on all his journeys, and they conveyed much visual graphics of the people and their residences.The book is only a couple of years old, so the author compares some current descriptions of various elements of culture and places to help the modern reader understand what Cook and his crew experienced.I highly recommend Cook to anyone interested in early exploration of the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.A good follow-on book is Stephen Bown's "Madness, Betrayal, and the Lash," a description of Captain George Vancouver's trip to the Pacific Northwest in search for the Northwest Passage.Vancouver served on Cook's last voyage, and made a short trip with Cook to the Northwest.I found Vancouver's trips interesting.I'm familiar with most of the geography and places he describes and became fascinated with what he found and what today we know was just out of his reach.I've lived on the West Coast of America most my life and found the author's descriptions to be interesting when compared to what I see today.

Danger plot give-away:Cook bad, natives good
Perhaps the title should have been a hint - Simply "Cook", no Captain.Within pages this guy had me bored by his unimaginative noble savage approach.He does not appear to really know very deeply the social, political and intellectual world in which Cook lived, either.This is the first book about the great Captain Cook, an unassuming hero and superachiever, that I have ever found just too boring to finish.The axe grinding is just too much.For heaven's sake, if you've never read anything about Captain Cook, don't make this the first.Probably just stay away from anything written by this author, who in my opinion is a good example of "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".

Reading this book more difficult than Cook's voyages

If you can speed read Shakespeare (DeVere) or king's english then you may consider submitting yourself to the tedious, convoluted and tortuous language that was a torture to me.

Had Samuel Clemmens authored the accumulated details or the products of the author's research the comprehension would have been easier, yet still wanting the omission of trivial and boring details.

Captain Cook
Fast-moving and fascinating account of Captain Cook's three around-the-world voyages, culminating in his death at the hands of Hawaiian peoples who apparently mistook him for a god based on his ill-timed arrival and departure schedule.

The concept of leaving on just one 3-year trip in uncharted lands so far from home and family and communication with them seems even more astounding and heroic today in the age of always available, always on communication.Of course, Cook and his crew weren't always heroes, displaying at times the reflexive racism and cultural arrogance of the age of Empire that spawned the exploration in the first place.However, it is interesting to watch Cook's attitudes change and mature during the voyages.

You may want to cross-reference to Tony Horwitz' Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before which I also reviewed.Horwitz applies his witty and accessible style to a popular cultural, anthropological, historical, and gastronomical view of Cook's travel stops and his impact on them.

Fascinating account of Cook's voyages into the Pacific
This book covered Cook's 3 voyages into the Pacific.Cook's drive to explore new lands and interact with the people that he met along the way was fascinating.This book did not try to judge the actions of Cook and his crew, but rather chronicled the good and the bad, describing the various attitudes of several of the crew members as taken from their diaries and accounts of the voyages. ... Read more

Product Description

In the annals of seafaring and exploration, there is one name that immediately evokes visions of the open ocean, billowing sails, visiting strange, exotic lands previously uncharted, and civilizations never before encountered -- Captain James Cook.

This is the true story of a legendary man and explorer. Noted modern-day adventurer Martin Dugard, using James Cook's personal journals, strips away the myths surrounding Cook's life and portrays his tremendous ambition, intellect, and sheer hardheadedness to rise through the ranks of the Royal Navy -- and by his courageous exploits become one of the most enduring figures in naval history.

Full or realistic action, lush descriptions of places and events, and fascinating historical characters such as King George III and the soon-to-be-notorious Master William Bligh, Dugard's gripping account of the life and death of Captain James Cook is a thrilling story of a discoverer hell-bent on going farther than any man. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

All Cap Cook Books - This Is Perfect Start
I'm a collector of antique and rare books and a nautical historian - - my largest collection is relative to Cook travels.Previous reviews get hung up on the lack of bibliographical compendium at the end, and yes that would be nice for serious scholarly study.However, if the reader is looking for the BEST start to understanding Cook, his background and his history in a concise 288-page book, then this is the place to start.If I was teaching a course on Cook, then this would be the first book I'd have them read - - I finished it in 3 nights and don't consider myself a fast reader.From here you can launch into a very serious study of Cook and branch into Beaglehole, Kippis, the crew journals, Williams, you name if - - if you want.Or you may just be satisfied in that you read a great detailed look at Cook, his background, his travels all set in the backdrop of that time in history. To refute some of the other reviews here, if I was looking for a seriously thick book with a serious scholarly modern-day study on Cook, then I'd look for a seriously thick, 600-page book by someone like David McCoullough.If you want a good read, on Cook, and want to relax and enjoy and get a fantastic start in this period of history - - then this is your place to start.

Absolutely Riveting
I chewed through the 288 pages of this book within two weeks, despite a very busy schedule. Do not order this book if you have to wake up early most mornings - you will often go to bed late, which will be entirely the fault of "Farther Than Any Man."

The book will keep you begging for more after each page. The scenery is vividly portrayed, the emotions masterfully recreated, and the stimulation is non-stop. Cook's fate, to which the author alludes throughout the entire book but never reveals until the very end, will touch you on a deep level, once you have become thoroughly attached to the flawed hero.

You will find yourself constantly seeking a map as you strive to follow Cook on his journeys around the globe. If you are a true adventurer at heart, you will rise, and fall, with Captain James Cook.

Where's the Bibliography?
I was taught in my youth that there are certain minimum standards for a non-fiction work, not the least of which is a specific citation of references.As thorough as Mr. Dugard's research may have been, he has provided no bibliography, notes or references.The lack of a bibliography in a non-fiction work is a most serious failing.

Additionally, as an avid reader of non-fiction, I routinely refer back to prior readings to compare notes with other authors.This work does not even include an index, making it absolutely worthless as a reference work.I don't believe I have ever read a work of history that did not include even a basic index of topics.

Where are the detail maps?How can anyone present a biography of one of history's greatest navigators and cartographers, and include only a single world map depicting the approximate route of his voyages?As I read about explorers, I enjoy tracing their steps in some detail.While reading Mr. Dugan's biography, I found myself constantly referring to various atlases to locate places he refers to.Some of these places have different names now, and I grew increasingly frustrated attempting to find them.

I do not recall the last time I read a biography that did not even include a single portrait of the subject, even one done posthumously.Mr. Dugan actually refers to James Cook sitting for painters, but he fails to include a single image of this great man.In my edition, the back cover of the book does include a portrait of the handsome Mr. Dugan, which adds nothing to my appreciation of his subject.

I understand from the narrative on the back cover that much of Mr. Dugan's account comes from the captain's own journals.But our author fails to provide us any direction for further study.Are these journals published somewhere?Are there multiple editions that may be in conflict with one another?Are Mr. Bank's letters published somewhere?

Mr. Dugan even goes so far as to give us direct quotes, but fails to name the individual quoted (e.g.: pp 17, 21, 22).

Feeling compelled to say something positive about this work, I must say that I failed to find a single typographical error in the entire edition, a refreshing find in the deteriorating world of quality control in today's publishing industry.There is, however, an error in grammar on p. 188 that should have been caught by the editor.

As an entertaining read, I give Mr. Dugan a B-.As a work of non-fiction, I cannot even consider a passing grade.Shame on the Washington Square Press for publishing what is purported to be a non-fiction work without meeting the minimum standards required of an eighth grade essay.

Set Sail with Captain James Cook!
I was captivated by Martin Dugard's "Into Africa" - the story of Stanley's search for Dr. Livingston, and became an instant fan.As I neared the end of the book, I ordered from Amazon, "Farther Than Any Man" The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook. Mr.Dugard has a way of taking the reader and putting him there with the greats - be they in the hard environment of deep unexplored Africa, or out on the vast unexplored seas with a legend. His writing is spellbinding, his research impeccable, his ability to paint a scene with words - genius. I love nautical adventure books and have many in my library. This one is around the top of the list. If you like to escape to a time when men were first exploring this world of ours, learn of the key players personalities and get totally wrapped up in the adventure, without the perils to self - you must read this book! You will not be disappointed!

Excellent Read
Found this book by chance at the library.I love biographies and found this one to be a particularly informative quick read.Definitely encourages one to read more about Cook and travels he did.I thoroughly enjoyed this book. ... Read more