The Seven Voyages of Captain Cook

By Craig Cormick

The Seven Voyages of Captain Cook is a story of first encounters and clashes of cultures. But imagine that Captain Cook visited the Pacific not in the past, but in the future. But haunted by his own ghost from the past? How different might his encounters have been then. A fantastical re-imagining of history, playing with the past, the present and the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Craig Cormick
• Release date: Nov 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9798215106587

Craig Cormick

Craig Cormick is one of Australia’s leading science communicators, with over 30 years’ experience. He is the former President of the Australian Science Communicators, an award-winning author of more than 25 books, and is widely published in research journals, including those of Nature and Cell. He specialises in communicating complex science issues and has taught writing and public relations at universities in Australia and conducted communication workshops worldwide.

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The Seven Voyages of Captain Cook

By Craig Cormick

‘ON READING OVER THE journal, I find I have omitted some things, and others were not sufficiently explained; these defects are attempted to be made up by notes. In short, I have given the most candid and best account of things I was able. I have not natural, nor acquired abilities for writing. I have been, I may say, constantly at sea from my youth; and have dragged myself (with the assistance of a few good friends) through all the stations belonging to a seaman, from apprentice boy to a commander. After such a candid confession, I shall hope to be excused from all the blunders that will appear in this journal.’

Cook’s Journal note, Cape of Good Hope, March 22, 1775

1. The Transit of Venus

There is my father , standing up at the prow of the ship, looking out over the vastness of this wide blue world, as if he might see what lies over the horizon. They call him the Master. The Great Navigator. The Captain. His father called him after himself, James Cook.

Look at the way he tilts his head just a little, listening for the slightest of changes to the sounds of the ship’s engines. He pays more attention to the demands of the ship than he does to the demands of his own aging body. But my father is the consummate Company man. He has dedicated his life to fulfilling the needs of the Council of Seven who sit around a large wooden table so far away and decide his fate. And they have decreed that he should cross into the forbidden territories on this side of the globe and chart the unknown lands here.

Perhaps they have obtained some of the mythical maps of the ancients, showing the lands of gold and giants that are said to be here. Or perhaps they just became curious, or greedy, and wondered if whatever dangers that had once led to the loss of all ships that ventured here, had finally passed. If Father has any fears about this mission he has not expressed them to any of the crew or even my mother.

Father’s expedition is nominally a scientific one, but the Company sees science as a path to commerce. So we are laden with scientists, who are charged with making detailed reports of everything they encounter, and the Company will sift them to find things that they value.

My father turns now and looks back to the helm where Robert Molyneux, the ship’s balding and overweight Chief Officer, will be steering us. It’s still early, so he should be sober enough not to make a hash of it. And Daniel Solander, Father’s favourite scientist will be at his instruments charting the course for him. Joseph Banks, of course, will probably be looking over his shoulder, wishing he knew how to work them. Wishing he was more a favourite of my father. But for all his scientific talents, Banks is not a Company man. He has paid his own fare on this voyage, and pulled well-connected strings to join us. He may give us some extra air of neutrality though if we encounter competitor ships here in the forbidden territories.

Solander is a well-travelled and much accomplished scholar, and his baby-face hides his age well. He is not English by birth, but Father trusts him more than any other man on board. He speaks several languages and is skilled at identifying and classifying unknown animals and plants. And he knows how to work the ship’s systems better than anyone. He can tinker with them and improve their efficiencies. He can read the sonar and radar charts like a surgeon might examine a blurry X-ray and state with certainty what it reveals. And he looks out over this new world with soft blue eyes as though he is never surprised by what we encounter. He has a calmness to him that is rare on a Company ship where everyone is hungry for promotion.

Banks by comparison is eager to make his name. He is as young as he looks, and tall and awkward around authority. He desperately wants to return with exotic specimens and wild tales and be the darling of the social set. His family money would always ensure that, though he wants to achieve something on his own. Something great. An important new discovery named after himself. Or perhaps to do something heroic. Something that historians would write about. He keeps detailed journals, which are probably the first draft of his history.

Monkhouse is the third man of science – though that is perhaps an overly-kind estimation. He is officially the ship’s surgeon, although aged, overweight and suffering many ailments himself – including insufferable halitosis. He does not get along particularly well with anybody on board the ship, though he tries his best. But as my father says, it is hard to hold a cordial conversation with a man at dinner who may have fingered your testicles at breakfast and examined your stools at noon. Monkhouse is in awe of the ship’s engine works, and tries to understand them like the workings of a human body. The ship’s engineers are not helpful though when he asks them to explain intricate machines to him one more time. He hopes that this voyage will prove his worth to the Company more, and he has been training himself to think more like a Company man.

There is actually a fourth scientist on board: Charles Green, the astronomer. He has been charged with mapping the new night skies we will encounter on this side of the globe. But so far all he has managed to map is the ceiling of his cabin and the bottom of his