With his new book, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, best-selling author and historian Hampton Sides reckons with the ambitions and intentions of Captain James Cook. In recent years, Sides writes, the enigmatic British explorer and gifted cartographer has become, in some respects, the “Columbus of the Pacific.” Cook, once seen as a swashbuckling adventurer whose exploits inspired countless books and movies, is now a divisive figure, known for stealing from Indigenous people and their land. Sides focuses on the captain’s third and final voyage, the longest and most dramatic of his seafaring journeys, for which he embarked from England in July of 1776 with his sights set on the Pacific. Based on the accounts of those onboard Cook’s ship, something wasn’t quite right with the captain during the expedition, and whatever ailed him—whether it was mental, physical, or spiritual—seemed to affect his behavior and judgment. It may have also been the impetus for his tragic death three years into his odyssey. With help from historians, forensic medical researchers, Indigenous oral histories, and the personal writings of Cook and his crew, Sides paints a stunning portrait of a morally complicated man whose enterprises have had a lasting impact, both good and bad, on the world.
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