 | | | THE LATEST PROGRAMME | | | |
| | The world not only looked a very different place after Captain James Cook's three voyages of discovery, but it was looked at differently too. | | | 
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PROGRAMME 2: 'TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA'
In the second of three programmes that re-evaluate the explorer Captain James Cook, Dr Nigel Rigby of the National Maritime Museum considers Cook's second voyage to the South Pacific.
In many ways this amounted to a negative achievement, demonstrating that there was indeed no fabled great Southern Continent in temperate latitudes. Talk of such a continent can be traced back to the days of Ptolemy. But it was Cook who conclusively proved that there was no kind of Arcadia whose mass counterbalanced that of the Northern Hemisphere.
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The replica of Cook's Endeavour featured in the BBC series The Ship. |
He did so by meticulously quartering the Southern Seas of the Atlantic and Pacific, going as far south as he possibly could in summer, encountering the icy conditions of the Antarctic. Then north again in the winters, thus discovering Hawaii, where he was to meet his fate on the third voyage.
Probably the world's leading expert on Cook, Professor Glyn Williams also gives his assessment of the man and his considerable achievements. Also in this programme a range of eminent speakers, both European and representing the indigenous cultures of the South Pacific, consider the enduring impact of those first encounters between Cook and the Polynesian, Melanesian, Maori and Aboriginal peoples.
Producer: Mark Smalley
Reader: Bill Wallis
Music composed and performed by: John Metcalfe.
FURTHER READING
The Journals of Captain Cook, Phillip Edwards, Penguin Books.
Voyages of Captain Cook, Captain James Cook, et al Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Captain James Cook, Richard Hough, Coronet. | |
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Listen to - introduction
