Tony Horwitz: Into the Blue: Boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before

Reviewed by Linda Herrick*

Considering Captain James Cook's historic connection with this country, it's puzzling how little is taught in our schools about the man and the impact of his three epic voyages around the Pacific Rim. As far as I can recall - it was a long time ago, mind - the official classroom version was Captain Cook "discovered" New Zealand and he died a hero in Hawaii in 1779. Who he was and what effect he had on our part of the world was never explored and Cook's presence has faded everywhere, even in his home territory of Yorkshire.

So thank you, Tony Horwitz. What a ripping yarn is Into the Blue, all rum, sodomy and the lash. It's also a complex and comprehensive salute to a man who rose from humble origins to become leader of men, as well as a horrified lament for the damage wreaked on the cultures infected by Cook and his colonising successors.

Horwitz, an American journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995, first stumbled across Cook in the 1980s when he married an Australian and lived in Sydney for some time. Armed with a sense of humour and a taste for adventure, he decided to follow in Cook's path and visit as many places as possible charted by the navigator, comparing the comments in the captain's log with the contemporary state of the nation.

Horwitz also questioned the locals about their knowledge of Cook and their opinion of his impact, which in many cases was savagely negative.

The result is a vividly realised saga which marries meticulous research - Horwitz cites dozens of sources, particularly our own Professor J.C. Beaglehole - to his own journeys via an Endeavour replica and more conventional modes of transport, like rental cars and heaving ferries.

It's all pretty rough. Whenever possible, his mate Roger, an Englishman living in Australia, tagged along and Rog's principal interests in life - booze and women - mirrored the obsessions of Cook's crews.

As Horwitz and (sometimes) Roger traipse to British Columbia, Tahiti, New Zealand (specifically Gisborne, in a chapter called "Warriors, Still"), Botany Bay and Great Barrier Reef, Niue, Tonga, Yorkshire, Alaska and then, fatefully, Hawaii, he paints a pretty awful picture of destruction and decay, especially among the Aborigines and the societies of Tonga, Niue and Tahiti. In some circles, Horwitz had to be discreet when asking questions about Cook, so reviled is his legend.

Nevertheless, Horwitz' fascination and respect for the man grew as he peeled away the layers of history. Determined to be on the spot in Hawaii on the anniversary of Cook's murder - February 14 - Horwitz does a superb job in capturing the dangerous mood that was brewing between Cook, his increasingly dissolute crew and the natives as the Resolution restocked supplies and rested.

Cook and co were initially welcomed by the hierarchically organised society because - although this is still the subject of debate - they had arrived at a key time in the divine calendar and were tolerated as demi-gods. But after two weeks of debauchery, the divine period was over and they had overstayed their welcome. Relieved when the white men left, the Hawaiians were not happy to see the Resolution return, forced back by leakiness.

Once berthed, Cook - already in a foul frame of mind - became unstrung by the theft of the ship's cutter. He was determined to get it back through the usual method: take a chief hostage and make demands.

It was a fatal miscalculation, as Horwitz' chapter "A Bad Day on Black Rock" reveals. A huge crowd turned on Cook and his party on the shoreline and Cook, unable to swim, was stabbed repeatedly, his body cut to pieces and baked. He also records the murderous reaction of Cook's crew, behaviour he describes as "Kurtz-like".

Horwitz, Roger and Cliff Thornton, President of the British Captain Cook Society, marked his death with a salute from a toy pistol and a bottle of rum, an event the author found deeply moving.

Compelling, and still such a relevant tale, Horwitz has done the good (and bad) captain proud.

* Linda Herrick is the Herald's arts editor.

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