WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.740 You look at a map of the Pacific Ocean today 00:00:01.740 --> 00:00:04.799 and it feels so complete, doesn't it? The islands 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:06.740 are exactly where they should be. The coastlines 00:00:06.740 --> 00:00:10.320 are, you know, defined to the meter. It's really 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:13.640 hard to imagine a time when that massive blue 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:17.379 expanse was, for Europeans at least, just a terrifying 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:20.219 blank space. Oh, absolutely. It was the dark 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:22.420 side of the moon for the 18th century. It was 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.559 this void on the charts where, you know... sea 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:28.199 monsters and these hypothetical continents lived. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:30.559 And the sources we're diving into today, they 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:32.979 really focus on the man who filled in that blank 00:00:32.979 --> 00:00:35.759 space, Captain James Cook. Right. But looking 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:38.060 at these logs, these journals and all the modern 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.780 analysis, our mission here isn't just to, you 00:00:40.780 --> 00:00:43.060 know. list off a bunch of dates we really need 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:45.000 to strip away that powdered wig mythology yes 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.259 exactly the school textbook version where he's 00:00:47.259 --> 00:00:50.000 just this noble explorer pointing stoically at 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.479 the horizon the reality that you find in the 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:55.500 source material is so much grittier i mean we 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:59.079 are talking about a farm laborer's son who basically 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:01.520 hacked the british class system taught himself 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:04.180 the math of the stars and then sailed a coal 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:06.599 ship off the edge of the known world And it's 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:08.540 a tragedy, too. I mean, that's the angle that 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:10.920 really stands out to me. You have this unbelievable 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:14.340 scientific brilliance just colliding head on 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:17.340 with the violent disruption of indigenous cultures. 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:19.939 Yeah. It's an adventure story for sure, but it 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:22.780 ends in chaos on a beach in Hawaii. It's the 00:01:22.780 --> 00:01:25.159 ultimate collision of the Enlightenment and, 00:01:25.260 --> 00:01:29.519 well, imperialism. We've got three massive voyages 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:32.500 to cover, near -death experiences on coral reefs, 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:35.480 secret orders from the Admiralty, the whole medical... 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:37.680 battle against scurvy. So let's get into the 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.640 man behind the maps, because when you look at 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:42.019 his start, he shouldn't have been an officer 00:01:42.019 --> 00:01:44.819 in the Royal Navy. I mean, statistically, it 00:01:44.819 --> 00:01:47.040 was impossible. Completely impossible. He was 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:50.340 born in 1728 in Yorkshire. His father was a Scottish 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:53.439 farm laborer. And in the rigid hierarchy of 18th 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:56.379 century England, James Cook was destined to plow 00:01:56.379 --> 00:01:59.500 fields, not chart oceans. Right. If you were 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:01.659 born in that strata, you stayed there. End of 00:02:01.659 --> 00:02:03.819 story. The notes mention he tried to break out 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:05.819 by working at a grocer shop in a little fishing 00:02:05.819 --> 00:02:08.419 village called Stades. And apparently he absolutely 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:11.750 hated it. He lasted 18 months. You can just imagine, 00:02:11.849 --> 00:02:14.629 right? Standing behind a counter, smelling the 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:17.250 salt air, watching the ships come and go. He 00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:20.009 just walked out. He moves to Whitby and joins 00:02:20.009 --> 00:02:22.389 the Merchant Navy. And that specific choice, 00:02:22.550 --> 00:02:25.530 joining the merchant fleet in Whitby, that turns 00:02:25.530 --> 00:02:27.430 out to be probably the single most important 00:02:27.430 --> 00:02:30.150 factor in his survival later on. It is because 00:02:30.150 --> 00:02:32.550 of the specific type of ships they used. The 00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:36.069 cats. The cats. Exactly. The Whitby cats. And 00:02:36.069 --> 00:02:38.449 these aren't the sleek, fast frigates of the 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:42.699 Royal Navy. These are coal haulers. They're flat 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:45.699 -bottomed, really wide, and incredibly strong. 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:48.939 Designed to carry massive tons of coal from the 00:02:48.939 --> 00:02:51.659 Tyne down to London. So they're basically the 00:02:51.659 --> 00:02:54.319 18th century equivalent of a dump truck. A dump 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:56.979 truck that could float, yes. But the key design 00:02:56.979 --> 00:03:00.060 feature was that flat bottom. You could run them 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:02.960 aground on purpose or by accident, and they wouldn't 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.819 just tip over. They were built to take a beating 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:07.020 in the shallow North Sea. Which is a skill you 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:09.330 might need later. If Cook had learned to sail 00:03:09.330 --> 00:03:11.710 on some delicate naval sloop, he probably would 00:03:11.710 --> 00:03:13.750 have died on the Great Barrier Reef 20 years 00:03:13.750 --> 00:03:16.770 later. No question. And while he's hauling all 00:03:16.770 --> 00:03:19.090 this coal, he's doing something else that really 00:03:19.090 --> 00:03:21.669 separates him from the average sailor. He is 00:03:21.669 --> 00:03:24.349 just grinding. It's almost like a goodwill hunting 00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:27.930 situation. By day, he's working this brutal physical 00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:30.289 job on the coal ships, you know, hauling soot 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:33.650 and rigging sails. But at night... by candlelight 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:36.430 in this swaying cabin. He's teaching himself 00:03:36.430 --> 00:03:40.689 algebra, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy. Wow. 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:44.449 That is a heavy academic load for a self -taught 00:03:44.449 --> 00:03:47.050 sailor. It was the language of navigation. He 00:03:47.050 --> 00:03:49.129 understood, I think, really early on that if 00:03:49.129 --> 00:03:50.689 he wanted to be more than a deckhand, he had 00:03:50.689 --> 00:03:53.009 to master the math. And he got so good at it 00:03:53.009 --> 00:03:55.599 that at age 26... The owners of the coal fleet 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:57.580 offer him his own command. Okay, so that's the 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:00.039 golden ticket. Captain of a merchant ship. Good 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:02.919 money, stability, a career for life. And he turns 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:06.120 it down. In 1755, he walks away from the captaincy 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:08.580 to join the Royal Navy at the very bottom. An 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.659 able seaman. Why? I mean, that just seems like 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:13.139 a terrible career move. You're treating a captain's 00:04:13.139 --> 00:04:15.419 salary for a hammock on a crowded lower deck? 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:18.079 Well, the Seven Years' War was brewing. Cook 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:20.920 was ambitious, and he likely calculated that 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:23.589 the merchant navy had a ceiling. You could make 00:04:23.589 --> 00:04:27.269 money, sure, but you couldn't make history. The 00:04:27.269 --> 00:04:29.910 Royal Navy, if you could survive the war, offered 00:04:29.910 --> 00:04:33.089 glory. But it was a massive gamble. He had to 00:04:33.089 --> 00:04:35.149 climb the ladder all over again from scratch. 00:04:35.449 --> 00:04:37.709 But he climbed it fast. Within a couple of years, 00:04:37.769 --> 00:04:40.529 he's a master's mate. But the real turning point 00:04:40.529 --> 00:04:43.250 in the sources, it isn't a sea battle, is it? 00:04:43.470 --> 00:04:46.029 It's what happens in North America during the 00:04:46.029 --> 00:04:48.589 siege of Louisbourg in Quebec. This is where 00:04:48.589 --> 00:04:51.250 Cook evolves from just a sailor into a scientist. 00:04:51.949 --> 00:04:54.589 He meets an Army engineer named Samuel Holland. 00:04:54.970 --> 00:04:57.350 And Holland is using this device called a plane 00:04:57.350 --> 00:05:00.649 table to survey land. Okay, pause on that for 00:05:00.649 --> 00:05:03.009 a second. What is a plane table? It's a surveying 00:05:03.009 --> 00:05:05.730 instrument. It's for triangulation. So imagine 00:05:05.730 --> 00:05:08.769 a drawing board mounted on a tripod. You set 00:05:08.769 --> 00:05:10.569 it up. You say different landmarks through your 00:05:10.569 --> 00:05:12.509 ruler. And you can draw an incredibly accurate 00:05:12.509 --> 00:05:14.750 map of the terrain right there in the field. 00:05:14.910 --> 00:05:17.269 So it's Army tech. Right. Sailors didn't use 00:05:17.269 --> 00:05:19.209 it because, you know, you can't use a plane table 00:05:19.209 --> 00:05:21.980 on a moving ship. But Cook takes a concept. He 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:24.139 adapts the principles. He starts mapping the 00:05:24.139 --> 00:05:26.120 St. Lawrence River with this military -grade 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:28.740 precision. And this matters because the French 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:31.680 had removed all the navigation buoys. The British 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:34.139 fleet needed to get up that river to attack Quebec, 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:37.259 but the waters were treacherous. So Cook is out 00:05:37.259 --> 00:05:39.160 there in the dark in a little boat, sounding 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:41.720 the depths, drawing the charts. And he does it 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:44.819 so well that the entire British fleet navigates 00:05:44.819 --> 00:05:47.519 the river at night, surprises the French, and 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:50.040 takes Quebec. He didn't fire the winning shot, 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:52.930 but he drew the map, that made the victory possible. 00:05:53.129 --> 00:05:55.910 And that success gets him a new gig, mapping 00:05:55.910 --> 00:05:59.110 Newfoundland. Five years of it. Five years mapping 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:01.889 the jagged coast of Newfoundland. And this is 00:06:01.889 --> 00:06:04.709 where he cements his reputation. He observes 00:06:04.709 --> 00:06:07.689 a solar eclipse in 1766 from Newfoundland to 00:06:07.689 --> 00:06:09.970 calculate the longitude of the island. He sends 00:06:09.970 --> 00:06:12.649 the data to the Royal Society. And all of a sudden, 00:06:12.670 --> 00:06:14.790 the elites in London are looking at this report 00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:18.350 and asking, wait, who is this guy? Exactly. The 00:06:18.350 --> 00:06:20.730 charts were so accurate that the Navy was still 00:06:20.730 --> 00:06:23.810 using versions of them 100 years later. They 00:06:23.810 --> 00:06:25.949 realized Cook wasn't just some rough -and -tumble 00:06:25.949 --> 00:06:28.829 sailor. He was a mathematician. And that put 00:06:28.829 --> 00:06:31.029 him in the prime position for the big one, the 00:06:31.029 --> 00:06:35.149 first voyage. 1768 to 1771, the voyage of the 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:37.910 endeavor. And the setup here is a classic mix 00:06:37.910 --> 00:06:41.170 of science and geopolitics. The public cover 00:06:41.170 --> 00:06:44.600 story was astronomy. The Royal Society wanted 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:47.120 to send a ship to Tahiti to observe the transit 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:49.480 of Venus. Which is when the planet Venus passes 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:51.699 directly between the Earth and the Sun. Right. 00:06:51.740 --> 00:06:53.959 It was the big science project of the 18th century. 00:06:54.100 --> 00:06:56.639 By timing the transit from different points on 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:58.819 the globe, they hoped to calculate the astronomical 00:06:58.819 --> 00:07:01.420 unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun. 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:03.579 It was crucial for navigation and astronomy. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:07.220 It was basically the Apollo program of the 1700s. 00:07:07.220 --> 00:07:09.699 But the Admiralty isn't going to fund a global 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.800 expedition just for stargazing. Never. Cook was 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.839 given a sealed packet of secret instructions. 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:17.439 He was ordered not to open them until the astronomical 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:19.899 work was done. And the real mission. Find Terra 00:07:19.899 --> 00:07:23.319 Australis Incognita, the unknown southern continent. 00:07:23.769 --> 00:07:25.670 We should probably explain why they even thought 00:07:25.670 --> 00:07:28.029 this place existed. It wasn't just a random guess. 00:07:28.269 --> 00:07:30.930 It was a theory based on balance, right? It was 00:07:30.930 --> 00:07:33.310 a philosophical belief going back to the ancients. 00:07:33.490 --> 00:07:35.829 They looked at the map and saw all this massive 00:07:35.829 --> 00:07:38.629 land in the Northern Hemisphere, Europe, Asia, 00:07:38.810 --> 00:07:41.850 North America. And they believed that for the 00:07:41.850 --> 00:07:44.329 Earth to spin correctly, there had to be an equal 00:07:44.329 --> 00:07:47.089 mass of land at the bottom of the world to act 00:07:47.089 --> 00:07:49.149 as a counterweight. Otherwise, the whole planet 00:07:49.149 --> 00:07:51.910 would just topple over. Exactly. Physics has 00:07:51.910 --> 00:07:54.689 come a long way. It has. But that belief drove 00:07:54.689 --> 00:07:57.329 the funding. They expected to find a continent 00:07:57.329 --> 00:08:00.529 as rich and temperate as Europe down there. So 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:03.170 Cook buys a ship. And he doesn't pick a warship. 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:05.029 He goes back to his roots. You guys are cat. 00:08:05.269 --> 00:08:08.189 The Earl of Pembroke, which he renames the HMS 00:08:08.189 --> 00:08:11.290 Endeavor. And Whitby Collier. It was slow. It 00:08:11.290 --> 00:08:13.490 was boxy. It was ugly. But he could hold enough 00:08:13.490 --> 00:08:16.490 food for a huge crew for months. And it was shallow 00:08:16.490 --> 00:08:19.139 drafted. Cook knew he was going into uncharted 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.819 waters. He expected to hit things. He wanted 00:08:21.819 --> 00:08:24.819 a ship that could bounce. So they sail to Tahiti, 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:29.800 arriving in 1769. They set up Point Venus. And 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:32.639 this is where we see the first real layers of 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.259 the cultural contact story start to unfold. Oh, 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:37.019 it's fascinating. And it's messy. Yeah. You've 00:08:37.019 --> 00:08:39.059 got the British building a fortified observatory. 00:08:39.259 --> 00:08:41.720 And you have the Tahitians, who are incredibly 00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:44.330 curious. but operate under a completely different 00:08:44.330 --> 00:08:46.970 social code, especially about property. Right. 00:08:47.070 --> 00:08:49.590 So the British called it theft. The Tahitians 00:08:49.590 --> 00:08:52.789 likely saw it as exchange or just opportunity. 00:08:53.149 --> 00:08:55.429 Exactly. The Tahitians would take iron nails, 00:08:55.690 --> 00:08:58.269 cloth, even parts of the ship's quadrant. And 00:08:58.269 --> 00:09:00.570 Cook's response was this mix of restraint and 00:09:00.570 --> 00:09:03.539 coercion. When things went missing... He'd seize 00:09:03.539 --> 00:09:05.840 the local canoes, which were vital for fishing 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.220 and transport, and hold them ransom until the 00:09:08.220 --> 00:09:10.200 items were returned. It's a pattern that we see 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.879 again and again, leveraging superior firepower 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:15.379 to enforce British property law in a place where 00:09:15.379 --> 00:09:17.320 British law doesn't exist. And then you have 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:19.240 the human element. The crew had been at sea for 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:21.980 months. Tahiti was, well, it was very welcoming. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:24.500 Two Marines actually tried to desert. They ran 00:09:24.500 --> 00:09:26.480 off into the mountains with two local women. 00:09:26.659 --> 00:09:29.320 Cook had to take a high -ranking chief hostage 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:32.240 to force the Tahitians to hunt down his own. 00:09:32.299 --> 00:09:35.080 men and bring them back. But amidst all this 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:37.639 tension, they pick up a passenger who becomes, 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:40.820 arguably, the second most important person on 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:44.120 the entire voyage, Tupaya. Tupaya is essential. 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:46.980 He was a Tahitian high priest and a master navigator. 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:49.120 He could map the islands of the Pacific from 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:51.340 memory. He joins the Endeavour and he becomes 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:53.919 the diplomat. When they sail to New Zealand later, 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.399 Tupaya could speak to the Maori because the languages 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:59.080 share a root. Without Tupaya, Cook would have 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.480 been sailing blind and deaf. So the transit is 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:03.820 observed, though the data was a bit fuzzy, and 00:10:03.820 --> 00:10:06.259 they finally open the secret orders. Go south, 00:10:06.379 --> 00:10:08.600 find the continent. They sail south into the 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:11.080 empty ocean, and there's nothing, just waves. 00:10:11.340 --> 00:10:13.440 Then they turn west and they hit New Zealand. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:15.980 Abel Tasman had seen it before, but Cook decides 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:18.440 to do the work. He's going to circumnavigate 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:20.919 the whole thing. He spends six months meticulously 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:23.299 charting the coast. He proves that New Zealand 00:10:23.299 --> 00:10:25.519 isn't part of some massive southern continent. 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:28.220 It's two main islands. But the contact here, 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.269 the sources are very, very stark. It was violent. 00:10:31.509 --> 00:10:34.169 From the very first encounter. It was a disaster. 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:37.429 They landed. Some Maury warriors challenged them, 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:40.470 which is a standard ceremonial challenge, a way 00:10:40.470 --> 00:10:44.750 of asking friend or foe. And the British panicked 00:10:44.750 --> 00:10:47.450 and fired. They shot several Maury dead within 00:10:47.450 --> 00:10:49.669 the first few days. Cook even wrote in his journal 00:10:49.669 --> 00:10:52.070 that he failed to be civil. And they also confirmed 00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:54.129 something that really shocked the British public 00:10:54.129 --> 00:10:57.139 when they got back home. Cannibalism. They found 00:10:57.139 --> 00:11:00.080 clear evidence baskets of human bones, eyewitness 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:02.740 accounts that the Maury ate the flesh of their 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:05.240 enemies. It's interesting how the British reacted 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:07.919 to that. It became this ultimate marker of savagery 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.679 for them. Yet Cook, in his journals, he tries 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:13.039 to analyze it somewhat objectively as like a 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:15.460 war custom. He does. He tries not to moralize 00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:17.399 too much in the moment, but it definitely hardened 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:19.240 the crew's attitude. They felt like they were 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:21.879 in a dangerous alien world. So from New Zealand, 00:11:21.980 --> 00:11:24.799 they head west again. And on April 19th, 1770, 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:27.899 Lieutenant Hicks spots land. The east coast of 00:11:27.899 --> 00:11:30.960 Australia, Point Hicks. They turn north and sail 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.120 up the coast looking for a place to land. They 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:36.120 choose Botany Bay. Now, the popular history often 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.840 frames this as a discovery. But when they pulled 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:40.940 up to the beach, there were people standing right 00:11:40.940 --> 00:11:44.100 there telling them to leave. Two warriors from 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.659 the Gweagle clan. They stood on the rocks, brandishing 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:48.720 spears, shouting warnings. They were defending 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:50.950 their country. Cook tried to throw beads and 00:11:50.950 --> 00:11:52.570 nails to them, but they just weren't interested. 00:11:52.830 --> 00:11:55.669 So Cook escalates. He orders a Marine to fire 00:11:55.669 --> 00:11:58.049 a small shot. It's basically a birdshot. It hits 00:11:58.049 --> 00:11:59.950 one of the warriors in the legs. The warrior 00:11:59.950 --> 00:12:02.750 runs, grabs a shield, and comes back. Cook fires 00:12:02.750 --> 00:12:05.230 again. They eventually retreat in the British 00:12:05.230 --> 00:12:08.269 land. It's a grim precedent. The first step onto 00:12:08.269 --> 00:12:10.590 the continent was preceded by gunfire. They stay 00:12:10.590 --> 00:12:13.149 for a week. Joseph Banks goes crazy collecting 00:12:13.149 --> 00:12:14.889 plants, which is why it's called Botany Bay. 00:12:15.029 --> 00:12:17.269 And then they push north. And this is where the 00:12:17.269 --> 00:12:20.029 endeavor nearly becomes a coffin. The Great Barrier 00:12:20.029 --> 00:12:21.669 Reef. They didn't know it was there. They were 00:12:21.669 --> 00:12:24.169 sailing happily along, and then the depth dropped 00:12:24.169 --> 00:12:27.750 from 20 fathoms to zero in minutes. Crunch. They 00:12:27.750 --> 00:12:30.009 hit the coral at high tide. The ship is stuck 00:12:30.009 --> 00:12:33.399 fast. The jagged coral pierces the hull. And 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:36.120 the tide starts to drop. This is the absolute 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:39.179 nightmare scenario. They are thousands of miles 00:12:39.179 --> 00:12:41.740 from any help. If the ship breaks up, they drown 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.480 or they starve. The discipline is incredible. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:47.240 There's no panic. They start lightening the ship. 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:50.940 They throw everything heavy overboard. Six massive 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:54.179 cannons, tons of iron ballast, spoiled stores, 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:57.269 fresh water. They're fighting for every inch 00:12:57.269 --> 00:13:00.610 of buoyancy. And then the tide rises again. They 00:13:00.610 --> 00:13:03.269 manage to heave the ship off the rock, but now 00:13:03.269 --> 00:13:06.129 the water's just rushing in. The pumps can't 00:13:06.129 --> 00:13:08.370 keep up. And this is where that coal ship training 00:13:08.370 --> 00:13:11.889 pays off. Cook and his midshipman, Jonathan Monkhouse, 00:13:12.029 --> 00:13:14.590 use a technique called fathering. You have to 00:13:14.590 --> 00:13:16.049 explain this, because it sounds like some kind 00:13:16.049 --> 00:13:18.669 of MacGyver engineering. It really is. They take 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:21.200 a spare sail. They sew big clumps of oakum that's 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:23.580 shredded rope and raw sheep's wool into the canvas. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:25.960 Then they cover the whole thing in sheep dung. 00:13:26.059 --> 00:13:29.019 Eh, gross, but okay. They haul this messy sail 00:13:29.019 --> 00:13:31.340 under the hull of the ship. The pressure of the 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:33.539 water rushing into the leak sucks the sail tight 00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:35.960 against the hull. The wool and the dung get pulled 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:38.259 into the cracks and plug them up. It's a giant, 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:41.340 disgusting band -aid. And it works. The leak 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:43.820 slows down enough for the pumps to manage. They 00:13:43.820 --> 00:13:46.179 limp into the mouth of a river modern cook town 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:49.039 and beach the ship. They spent seven weeks there 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:51.259 repairing the hull. And this is where the crew 00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:53.500 actually has time to interact with the locals, 00:13:53.700 --> 00:13:56.360 the Gugu Yimithir people, and where they see 00:13:56.360 --> 00:13:59.639 the strange greyhound. The kangaroo. They had 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:01.600 no frame of reference for an animal that hopped 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:04.450 like a hare but was as big as a man. It blew 00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:07.129 their minds. But even here, where relations were 00:14:07.129 --> 00:14:09.970 somewhat better, it all breaks down over resources. 00:14:10.450 --> 00:14:13.190 The green turtles. The British crew started harvesting 00:14:13.190 --> 00:14:15.830 these turtles, which were culturally significant 00:14:15.830 --> 00:14:18.570 and controlled by the local elders. The Gugu 00:14:18.570 --> 00:14:21.149 Yimithers were furious. They set fire to the 00:14:21.149 --> 00:14:23.029 grass around the British camp to try and drive 00:14:23.029 --> 00:14:25.720 them out. Cook fired his musket again. But there 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:27.779 is a moment of reconciliation here that feels 00:14:27.779 --> 00:14:30.759 really important. Yes. After the shooting and 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:33.480 the fire, an elder approached the British. He 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:36.000 carried a spear with the tip broken off. It was 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:39.799 a clear symbol of peace. He forgave them. It 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:41.980 is one of the few moments of genuine cross -cultural 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:44.360 grace in the whole narrative. So they patch the 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:46.519 ship, they navigate the labyrinth of the Torres 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:49.559 Strait, and they head for home. But the voyage 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:52.710 has a sting in the tail. The stop in Batavia, 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:55.570 modern Jakarta. The ship was rotting, so they 00:14:55.570 --> 00:14:58.070 had to stop for repairs in this Dutch port. But 00:14:58.070 --> 00:15:00.970 Batavia was a malaria swamp. So they survived 00:15:00.970 --> 00:15:03.169 the reefs and the spears, but the microbes got 00:15:03.169 --> 00:15:05.590 them. Dysentery and malaria just tore through 00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:08.570 the crew. Cook lost over 20 men on the voyage 00:15:08.570 --> 00:15:11.830 home. including Tupaya and the astronomer Green. 00:15:12.049 --> 00:15:14.889 It was a tragic end to a triumphant voyage. But 00:15:14.889 --> 00:15:19.309 when he lands in 1771, he is a hero. The Admiralty 00:15:19.309 --> 00:15:21.750 is thrilled. But the theorists, the guys who 00:15:21.750 --> 00:15:23.570 believed in the southern continent, they weren't 00:15:23.570 --> 00:15:25.889 satisfied. No. They said, okay, you found New 00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:28.129 Zealand and Australia, but those aren't big enough. 00:15:28.230 --> 00:15:30.590 The real continent must be further south. So 00:15:30.590 --> 00:15:34.909 they send him back, voyage two, 1772 to 1775. 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:38.279 And this voyage is, from a purely navigational 00:15:38.279 --> 00:15:40.759 standpoint, the masterpiece. He has a new ship, 00:15:40.820 --> 00:15:43.039 the Resolution, and he has a secret weapon, the 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:46.659 watch. The K -1 chronometer. A replica of John 00:15:46.659 --> 00:15:49.500 Harrison's timekeeper. We have to stress how 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:52.500 revolutionary this was. Before this, finding 00:15:52.500 --> 00:15:55.059 your longitude, your position east to west, was 00:15:55.059 --> 00:15:57.480 a nightmare of complex lunar mathematics that 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:00.019 could take hours to calculate and was incredibly 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.659 prone to error. And suddenly, he has a clock 00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:05.190 that just... You kept the time of Greenwich perfectly. 00:16:05.409 --> 00:16:08.110 By comparing local noon to Greenwich time, you 00:16:08.110 --> 00:16:11.029 knew exactly how far you had sailed. Cook called 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:14.429 it his trusty friend. It allowed him to pinpoint 00:16:14.429 --> 00:16:17.049 islands with what was, for the 18th century, 00:16:17.250 --> 00:16:20.629 GPS -like accuracy. This is also the voyage where 00:16:20.629 --> 00:16:22.610 he tackles the other great killer of sailors, 00:16:22.950 --> 00:16:25.940 Scurvy. Scurvy is just terrifying. It's a vitamin 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:28.000 C deficiency. Your connective tissue literally 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:31.000 breaks down. Old wounds reopen. Your gums rot. 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:33.139 It killed more sailors than storms and battles 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:35.779 combined. And Cook loses zero men to scurvy on 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:37.960 this voyage. That is unheard of. It made him 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:40.179 famous. But here's the deep dive nuance. Cook 00:16:40.179 --> 00:16:42.379 actually got the science wrong. Wait, what? He 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:45.159 cured it, but didn't know how. He threw everything 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:48.220 at the problem. He demanded extreme cleanliness 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:51.000 below decks. He forced the crew to eat fresh 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.840 greens and celery whenever they landed. But he 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:57.299 also force -fed them malt wort, a fermented barley 00:16:57.299 --> 00:17:00.259 drink. He was convinced the malt was the cure. 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.919 But malt has no vitamin C. None whatsoever. It 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:05.700 was the fresh food and the hygiene doing all 00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:08.720 the work. But because Cook was Cook, the Admiralty 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:10.960 listened to him. They mandated malt for the whole 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.500 fleet. This actually delayed the Royal Navy's 00:17:13.500 --> 00:17:16.059 adoption of lemons and limes, the real cure, 00:17:16.220 --> 00:17:18.680 by decades. So he was right for all the wrong 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:22.160 reasons. Now on this voyage, he goes south, like 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.339 really south. He crosses the Antarctic Circle, 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.720 the first human to do so. He enters the pack 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:29.339 ice. It's freezing, it's foggy, the sails are 00:17:29.339 --> 00:17:31.240 stiff with ice. And he nearly hits the continent. 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:34.720 He gets within 75 miles of Antarctica. If the 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:36.279 fog had lifted for a moment, he would have seen 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.769 the ice shelf. But he hits a wall of pack ice 00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:40.690 and has to turn back. But that failure was actually 00:17:40.690 --> 00:17:44.130 a success. Exactly. He proved that if a southern 00:17:44.130 --> 00:17:46.930 continent existed, it was a frozen, desolate 00:17:46.930 --> 00:17:49.470 wasteland. It wasn't some lush paradise hiding 00:17:49.470 --> 00:17:51.970 down there. He killed the myth of the habitable 00:17:51.970 --> 00:17:54.289 Terra Australis. He spends the rest of the voyage 00:17:54.289 --> 00:17:56.769 looping through the Pacific Easter Island, Tonga, 00:17:56.789 --> 00:18:00.150 New Caledonia. But there is a dark subplot involving 00:18:00.150 --> 00:18:03.230 the sister ship, the Adventure. Yeah, the Adventure, 00:18:03.430 --> 00:18:06.349 commanded by Tobias Frenot, got separated in 00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:08.829 a storm. They went to New Zealand to wait. And 00:18:08.829 --> 00:18:10.509 while they were there, 10 of their crew were 00:18:10.509 --> 00:18:13.470 ambushed by a Maori, killed, and eaten. That's 00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:15.789 just horrific. And when Cook finds out... This 00:18:15.789 --> 00:18:17.809 tells you a lot about his character at this stage. 00:18:17.950 --> 00:18:20.230 He didn't launch a revenge mission. He argued 00:18:20.230 --> 00:18:22.569 that the crew must have provoked the Maori, maybe 00:18:22.569 --> 00:18:24.970 a trade gone wrong or a misunderstanding. He 00:18:24.970 --> 00:18:27.410 refused to label the Maori as inherently evil. 00:18:27.509 --> 00:18:29.390 He was still trying to be the rational observer. 00:18:29.710 --> 00:18:32.710 So he returns home in 1775. He's the greatest 00:18:32.710 --> 00:18:35.029 navigator in Europe. He gets a cushy retirement 00:18:35.029 --> 00:18:38.170 job at Greenwich Hospital. But he just can't 00:18:38.170 --> 00:18:41.670 sit still. The sea calls him back. In 1776, he 00:18:41.670 --> 00:18:43.710 volunteers for the third voyage. And the goal 00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:46.490 this time isn't the south. It's the north. The 00:18:46.490 --> 00:18:49.670 Northwest Passage. The holy grail of trade. A 00:18:49.670 --> 00:18:52.230 shortcut over the top of Canada to get to Asia. 00:18:52.410 --> 00:18:54.990 But as they set off, the sources suggest something 00:18:54.990 --> 00:18:57.369 is wrong with Cook. There is a distinct shift 00:18:57.369 --> 00:19:00.789 in his temperament. The patience is gone. He's 00:19:00.789 --> 00:19:03.329 volatile. He's tired. And how does that manifest 00:19:03.329 --> 00:19:06.630 itself? In violence. On the previous voyages, 00:19:06.630 --> 00:19:09.490 he understood that islanders taking things was 00:19:09.490 --> 00:19:12.250 a cultural difference. Now he punishes it with 00:19:12.250 --> 00:19:14.349 brutality. He starts ordering the burning of 00:19:14.349 --> 00:19:16.950 houses. He orders the cropping of ears, cutting 00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:19.190 off the ears of islanders who stole from the 00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:21.329 ship. That sounds like a man who is completely 00:19:21.329 --> 00:19:24.849 unraveling. It suggests burnout. or maybe a medical 00:19:24.849 --> 00:19:27.250 issue we don't know about, but certainly a loss 00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:29.609 of that diplomatic touch. He was reacting with 00:19:29.609 --> 00:19:32.650 rage rather than reason. On the way to the Arctic, 00:19:32.829 --> 00:19:34.910 they stumble upon the most significant find of 00:19:34.910 --> 00:19:39.789 the third voyage. Hawaii. January 1778. He calls 00:19:39.789 --> 00:19:42.109 them the Sandwich Islands. He's the first European 00:19:42.109 --> 00:19:44.950 to see them. He notices instantly that the language 00:19:44.950 --> 00:19:48.089 is similar to Tahiti, is part of that vast Polynesian 00:19:48.089 --> 00:19:50.470 web. They trade, they resupply, and then they 00:19:50.470 --> 00:19:52.700 push north to the Arctic. They chart the coast 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:55.920 of Oregon, Canada, Alaska. They go through the 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.099 Bering Strait and then a wall of ice, 12 feet 00:20:00.099 --> 00:20:02.119 high, stretching from horizon to horizon. They 00:20:02.119 --> 00:20:04.220 try to find a gap, but there is no northwest 00:20:04.220 --> 00:20:07.039 passage for a sailing ship. It's a dead end. 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:10.099 Cook is frustrated. His crew is near mutiny from 00:20:10.099 --> 00:20:12.640 the cold and the bad food. He has to turn back. 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:16.299 So he decides to winter in Hawaii. And this decision 00:20:16.299 --> 00:20:19.240 leads directly to the end. They sail into Kila 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:22.759 Kukua Bay on the Big Island in January 1779. 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:25.180 And the reception they get is unlike anything 00:20:25.180 --> 00:20:27.200 they've ever seen before. It was overwhelming. 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:30.640 Thousands of canoes, 10 ,000 people on the shore. 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:33.359 They were greeted with this intense reverence. 00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:36.019 Which brings us to the famous Lono debate. Right. 00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:38.039 The traditional story is that Cook arrived during 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:40.619 the festival of Makahiki, which honors the god 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:43.779 Lono. Lono was associated with peace, fertility, 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:46.799 and white top -of -cloth banners. Cook's ship, 00:20:46.900 --> 00:20:49.400 with its white sails and masts, looked like the 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:51.400 symbols of Lono. So the Hawaiians thought he 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:53.720 was the god returning. That's the narrative that 00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.779 anthropologist Marshall Solins argues. But other 00:20:56.779 --> 00:20:59.779 scholars, like Gananith Obisik here, say that's 00:20:59.779 --> 00:21:02.619 a European myth, that the Hawaiians were rational 00:21:02.619 --> 00:21:06.240 people who saw him as a powerful chief, not a 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.619 supernatural deity. Either way, he was treated 00:21:09.619 --> 00:21:13.599 like royalty. He was given gifts, fed, and honored. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:16.200 Until they overstayed their welcome. They eventually 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.859 left, but a mast broke in a storm just a few 00:21:18.859 --> 00:21:21.759 days later. They had to limp back to Kealakekua 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:24.279 Bay to fix it. But the mood had totally shifted. 00:21:24.539 --> 00:21:27.160 The season had changed. Makahiki, the season 00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:29.700 of peace, was over. It was now the season of 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:33.039 Ku, the war god. Ku's return was culturally awkward. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:35.640 It was just wrong. And practically, the British 00:21:35.640 --> 00:21:37.920 had eaten them out of house and home. The Hawaiians 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.279 were tired of feeding hundreds of sailors. Tensions 00:21:40.279 --> 00:21:43.700 rise, theft increases, and then someone steals 00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:46.299 a cutter, a large ship's boat. This was a critical 00:21:46.299 --> 00:21:48.819 piece of equipment, and Cook just snaps. He decides 00:21:48.819 --> 00:21:51.059 to use his old playbook. Yeah. Take a hostage 00:21:51.059 --> 00:21:52.900 to get the property back. But he doesn't just 00:21:52.900 --> 00:21:55.400 grab a local chief. He decides to kidnap the 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:59.500 king. Kalani Poo. It was a fatal miscalculation. 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.099 Cook marches ashore with a few Marines. He goes 00:22:03.099 --> 00:22:05.640 to the village, wakes up the elderly king, and 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:07.660 tries to lead him to the ship. And the king actually 00:22:07.660 --> 00:22:10.319 goes along with it at first. He does. But his 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:13.099 wife and the other chiefs step in. They plead 00:22:13.099 --> 00:22:15.420 with him not to go. They realize that if he goes 00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:18.660 to the ship, he might never come back. The procession 00:22:18.660 --> 00:22:21.200 stops right on the beach. And the crowd is growing. 00:22:21.819 --> 00:22:24.420 Thousands of people, armed with stones and clubs. 00:22:25.259 --> 00:22:28.339 And then news arrives from down the coast. A 00:22:28.339 --> 00:22:30.839 British sailor had shot and killed a high -ranking 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:33.259 chief. That's the spark. The crowd turns aggressive. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:36.319 A warrior threatens off. Cook with a dagger. 00:22:36.660 --> 00:22:39.200 Cook fires his shotgun, the barrel loaded with 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.339 small shot. It hits the warrior's shield and 00:22:41.339 --> 00:22:43.339 does nothing. The spell is broken. He's not a 00:22:43.339 --> 00:22:45.619 god. He's not invincible. The warrior attacks. 00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:48.240 Cook shoots him dead with his second barrel. 00:22:48.500 --> 00:22:51.730 But it's too late. The mob rushes. Cook is clubbed 00:22:51.730 --> 00:22:53.829 from behind. He falls face down into the surf. 00:22:53.910 --> 00:22:56.349 He's stabbed repeatedly. Four Marines are killed. 00:22:56.509 --> 00:22:58.490 The rest scramble into the boats and flee. The 00:22:58.490 --> 00:23:00.789 captain is dead. And what happens next is something 00:23:00.789 --> 00:23:03.329 that really horrified the British. The Hawaiians 00:23:03.329 --> 00:23:05.809 took the body. And they treated it according 00:23:05.809 --> 00:23:08.809 to the burial rituals for a high chief. This 00:23:08.809 --> 00:23:11.190 involved dismembering the body, removing the 00:23:11.190 --> 00:23:13.750 flesh, and baking the bones to clean them. To 00:23:13.750 --> 00:23:15.730 the British, this looked like desecration, like 00:23:15.730 --> 00:23:18.089 cannibalism. But to the Hawaiians, it was the 00:23:18.089 --> 00:23:21.279 ultimate respect. The bones held the manna, the 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.740 divine power. They wanted to keep that power. 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:25.920 The British eventually negotiated for the return 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:28.700 of the remains. And it was a grim handover. They 00:23:28.700 --> 00:23:31.579 got back a skull, some long bones, and two hands. 00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:34.839 They identified Cook by a scar on his hand where 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:37.440 a powder horn had exploded years earlier. They 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:39.619 buried him at sea. It's just such a violent, 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:42.440 chaotic end for a man who prided himself on precision 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:45.579 and order. So how do we assess the legacy? Because 00:23:45.579 --> 00:23:49.619 the scientific achievement is just... It's undeniable. 00:23:49.740 --> 00:23:51.960 It's immense. He redrew the map of the world. 00:23:52.059 --> 00:23:54.059 He proved there was no great southern continent. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:57.200 He mapped the Pacific with such accuracy that 00:23:57.200 --> 00:23:59.859 you could navigate by his charts 150 years later. 00:24:00.059 --> 00:24:02.819 He brought back thousands of plant species unknown 00:24:02.819 --> 00:24:04.640 to science. But then we have to talk about the 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:08.079 fatal impact. The mapmaker opened the door. And 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:11.400 through that door came smallpox, tuberculosis, 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:15.359 venereal disease. Populations in Hawaii and elsewhere 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:17.660 were decimated by the germs the British brought 00:24:17.660 --> 00:24:20.420 with them. And the political legacy. Cook carried 00:24:20.420 --> 00:24:22.720 instructions to take possession with consent. 00:24:23.140 --> 00:24:26.099 But at Possession Island in Australia, he raised 00:24:26.099 --> 00:24:28.400 the flag and claimed the entire East Coast for 00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:30.839 King George III while Aboriginal people were 00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:34.039 clearly present. He never asked. He never signed 00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:36.819 a treaty. And that act, that one moment of raising 00:24:36.819 --> 00:24:39.619 the flag, is the legal foundation for the colonization 00:24:39.619 --> 00:24:41.880 of Australia and the dispossession of indigenous 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:44.140 people that followed. Exactly. And that is why 00:24:44.140 --> 00:24:46.539 you see statues of Cook being defaced or torn 00:24:46.539 --> 00:24:48.940 down today. For many, he's the symbol of the 00:24:48.940 --> 00:24:52.000 invasion. He represents the end of a way of life 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.009 that had existed for 60 ,000 years. And yet the 00:24:55.009 --> 00:24:57.329 man himself, if you really read the journals, 00:24:57.450 --> 00:25:00.490 he seems so conflicted. That's the paradox. He 00:25:00.490 --> 00:25:03.029 admired the Polynesians. He wrote about their 00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:05.269 noble traits. There's a quote that really haunts 00:25:05.269 --> 00:25:07.549 me. He was observing the indigenous Australians 00:25:07.549 --> 00:25:10.450 who had no clothes, no houses, very few possessions. 00:25:10.710 --> 00:25:12.970 And the Europeans just saw them as pitiful. But 00:25:12.970 --> 00:25:15.950 Cook wrote, they are far happier than we Europeans. 00:25:16.730 --> 00:25:19.390 He said they lived in a tranquility that Europeans, 00:25:19.769 --> 00:25:22.869 with all our superfluous wants, couldn't understand. 00:25:23.470 --> 00:25:25.970 It's a stunning admission. The agent of empire 00:25:25.970 --> 00:25:28.609 wondering if the people he is discovering are 00:25:28.609 --> 00:25:30.549 actually better off than the civilization he 00:25:30.549 --> 00:25:32.809 represents. He knew it was coming. He wrote, 00:25:32.950 --> 00:25:36.009 we introduce wants and diseases which they never 00:25:36.009 --> 00:25:39.089 before knew. He saw the destruction in his own 00:25:39.089 --> 00:25:41.349 wake. It's just such a heavy legacy. We have 00:25:41.349 --> 00:25:43.670 the brilliance of the navigation, the sheer physical 00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:46.730 courage of the voyages sitting right next to 00:25:46.730 --> 00:25:49.269 the devastation of colonization. And I think 00:25:49.269 --> 00:25:51.990 that's the only way to view him. Not as a hero 00:25:51.990 --> 00:25:55.150 or a villain, but as the pivot point, the moment 00:25:55.150 --> 00:25:58.089 the world became connected, for better and, in 00:25:58.089 --> 00:26:00.509 many ways, for worse. It leaves us with a really 00:26:00.509 --> 00:26:02.849 difficult question, then. How do you reconcile 00:26:02.849 --> 00:26:04.930 the brilliant navigator who sought knowledge 00:26:04.930 --> 00:26:06.849 with the inevitable destruction that followed 00:26:06.849 --> 00:26:09.690 in his wake? Can we celebrate the mapmaker while 00:26:09.690 --> 00:26:12.410 mourning the lines he drew? That is the question 00:26:12.410 --> 00:26:14.930 at the heart of the Cook legacy. A deep thought 00:26:14.930 --> 00:26:17.630 to end on. That's our deep dive on Captain James 00:26:17.630 --> 00:26:18.829 Cook. Thanks for listening.