From Publishers Weekly
In a strong effort "to clear away the tangle of myth and hero-worship" that surrounds his subject, Dugard (Knockdown: The Harrowing True Account of a Yacht Race Turned Deadly), a well-known adventurer himself, deftly recounts the exciting story of James Cook, a farm boy from northern England who at first worked on merchant ships and then, when offered a chance to captain his own ship, turned his employer down and joined the Royal Navy. Cook started at the bottom and worked his way up, but knew he was not from the right social class to advance to captain. However, others recognized his talents: Cook was the first noncommissioned Royal Navy officer to be appointed to command a vessel. His trek with the Endeavour which began in 1768 and circumnavigated the globe, charted the coasts of New Zealand, scouted numerous Pacific isles and retrieved botanist Joseph Banks (who grew to respect Cook after trying to steal command of his ship) brought Cook international fame. Dugard recounts Cook's four-year voyage with the Resolution, which also sailed around the world while trying to locate the coasts of the legendary Southern Continent (Antarctica). By the end of this voyage, Dugard contends, Cook's ego had begun to get in the way of his talent. Thereafter, Cook began to make errors and became tyrannical at sea. This character change ultimately cost Cook his life when he was slain by Hawaiian natives. Well researched, with information from Cook's own journals, this fast-paced book brings to life the English explorer driven to outclass his predecessors and contemporaries. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Like Pizarro and Cortez, Capt. James Cook changed history by discovering unknown lands and opening them up to European settlement. Born to a farming family in 1729, Cook longed for a career at sea, apprenticed himself to a shipping company, and after nine years rose to the rank of captain in the merchant marine. On the verge of a profitable career, he resigned to enlist in the Royal Navy and soon became an officer an improbable feat in the 18th century. After service in Canada in the French and Indian War, he was given command of a survey ship and spent time charting eastern Canada. Later, he commanded three epic voyages to the South Pacific, in 1769, 1772, and 1776, discovering Tahiti, New Zealand, Tonga, New Caledonia, and many other islands. In 1779, he arrived at the Kona coast of the big island of Hawaii, where hostile natives killed, steamed, and ate him. There are few exemplary biographies of Cook, and Dugard has written a masterly one-volume account of the great explorer's life. It belongs in all public and academic libraries. Stanley L. Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, NY Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This stirring chronicle charts the course of the life and times of renowned explorer, navigator, scientist, and cartographer Captain James Cook. Famous for three painstakingly planned and executed naval expeditions in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Cook discovered the eastern coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. In addition he also explored the great ice mass of Antarctica and accurately mapped the vast Pacific Ocean. Perhaps even more startling was the fact that Cook, a stickler for proper health and nutrition, managed to accomplish impressive feats of exploration with surprisingly few mortalities recorded among his crews. Despite his brilliant string of successes, Cook eventually lost his love of adventure and suffered a brutal, premature death in Hawaii. Employing Cook's personal journals as the foundation for his research, Dugard paints an intriguing portrait of an extraordinary man. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Clive Cussler A brilliantly written saga of history's greatest explorer.
Book 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.
Download 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.
About the Author
Martin Dugard is the author of Knockdown: The Harrowing True Account of a Yacht Race Turned Deadly and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Survivor: The Ultimate Game. His dispatches have appeared in GQ, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire. An avid adventurer, Dugard has completed the Raid Gauloises race three times, and is co-holder of the Around the World Speed Record. He lives with his wife and three children in Orange County, California.
Farther than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook FROM THE PUBLISHER
James Cook never laid eyes on the sea until he was in his teens. He then began an extraordinary rise from farmboy outsider to the hallowed rank of captian of the Royal Navy, leading three historic journeys that would forever link his name with fearless exploration (and inspire pop-culture heroes like Captain Hook and Captain James T. Kirk). In Farther than Any Man, noted modern-day adventurer Martin Dugard strips aaway the myth of Cook and instead portrays a ocmplex, conflicted man of tremendous ambition (at times to a fault), intellect (though Cook was routinely underestimated) and sheer heardheadedness.
When Great Britain announced a major circumnavigation in 1768—a mission cloaked in science, but aijmed at the pursuit of world power—it came as a political surprise that James Cook was given command. Cook's surveying skills had contributed to the British victory over France in the Seven Years' War in 1763, but no commoner had ever commanded a Royal Navy vessel. Endeavor's stunning three-year journey changed the face of modern exploration, charting the vast Pacific waters, the eastern coasts of New Zealand and Australia, and making landfall in Tahiti, Tierra del Fuego, and Rio de Janeiro.
After returning home a hero, Cook yearned to get back to sea. He soon took control of the Resolution and returned to his beloved Pacific, in search of the elusive Southern Continent. It wa on this trip that Cook's taste for power became an obsession, and his legendary kindness to island natives became an expectation of worship—traits that would lead him first to greatness, then to catastrophe.
Full of action, lush description, and fascinating historical characters like King George III and Master William Bligh, Dugard's gripping account of the life and gruesome demise of Capt. James Cook is a thrilling story of a discoverer hell-bent on traveling farther than any man.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Like Pizarro and Cortez, Capt. James Cook changed history by discovering unknown lands and opening them up to European settlement. Born to a farming family in 1729, Cook longed for a career at sea, apprenticed himself to a shipping company, and after nine years rose to the rank of captain in the merchant marine. On the verge of a profitable career, he resigned to enlist in the Royal Navy and soon became an officer an improbable feat in the 18th century. After service in Canada in the French and Indian War, he was given command of a survey ship and spent time charting eastern Canada. Later, he commanded three epic voyages to the South Pacific, in 1769, 1772, and 1776, discovering Tahiti, New Zealand, Tonga, New Caledonia, and many other islands. In 1779, he arrived at the Kona coast of the big island of Hawaii, where hostile natives killed, steamed, and ate him. There are few exemplary biographies of Cook, and Dugard has written a masterly one-volume account of the great explorer's life. It belongs in all public and academic libraries. Stanley L. Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A thoroughly readable biography of the famed sea captain and explorer. Nautically inclined journalist Dugard (Knockdown, 1999, etc.) applies the techniques of the sports-magazine profile to the life of Captain James Cook, the 18th-century mariner who, he notes, metamorphosed through time into both Captain Hook of Peter Pan and Captain Kirk of Star Trek. Dugard's sometimes breathless, you-are-there approach, though hardly the stuff of standard maritime history, is quite satisfying, capturing Cook's irrepressible bravery and the spirit of adventure that fueled his circumnavigations. He is also skilled at capturing period detail and of deciphering the intricacies of the English class system—by the rules of which, he observes, Cook should not have enjoyed the success that he did (he was the only noncommissioned officer in the history of the Royal Navy to have risen to the rank of ship commander), given that he was the son of a lower-class Jacobite rebel and was resolutely nonpolitical in a fiercely politicized military culture. Dugard is less satisfying as an interpreter of Cook's doubtless fine mind, relying (in the absence of solid documentation and in the face of Cook's own efforts to shield his thoughts) on guesswork and turning to such New Age accouterments as Carl Jung's personality-typing theories to account for Cook's manner of doing things (he brands Cook an INTJ—an Introvert, Intuitive, Thinker, Judger—whose "drive to transfer . . . dreams into reality can even come across as eccentric to those who don't share the vision"). The author's readiness to speculate so freely will earn him demerits from serious historians, but general readers won't much mind. Instead,they're likely to enjoy Dugard's well-made narrative, and to come away sharing his abundant admiration for the admirable—and ultimately unfortunate—Cook.
Art & Photography
Book Info
