Book of the Month, January 2025 The Wide, Wide Seas By Hampton Sides The Fateful Final Voyage of Captain Cook

Kicking off the New Year with an Awesome Read!

This was a wonderful Christmas present from my wife and this book jumped to the top of my stack and I am so glad that it did. This is the story of Captain Cook's third and last voyage- and to some extent a bit of a history of his life overall and I found it fascinating on some many levels. It was a very worthwhile read and I could not put it down.

First, Hampton Sides researched the heck out of this book and used a great deal of source material and cross referenced what information existed. His weaves together the story using quotes , archeological evidence and a good bit of logic and informed intuition. As an historical piece, it is excellent.

Second, I was struck by just how far the world has come in terms of its knowledge of the world. In what is only 250 years-this book reminds us that the full scope of our planet was unknown and that so many civilizations were independent and developed on their own. The interactions were limited to the explorers who travelled about but were minimal for a great deal of time. Apparently, one of Captain Cook's great skills were his cartography skills which is interesting since in those days, even if someone located an unknown geography and people- it could be touch to find it again even if you wanted to. His maps , to this day, are still seen as some of the most accurate every done and match up pretty well with what we see as reality today.

Third, the whole process of exploring the oceans is a bit of a technology story- essentially a lot of work went into helping this vessels survive these journeys. I particularly liked the story in here of his use- and protection of - his chronometer - which is the device that helped him solve the latitude problem which was the bane of boat captains for centuries. But there also was nutrition science as well- Cook had figured out, intuitively , how to prevent scurvy on his crew- long before the association with a vitamin c deficiency was specifically understood. In the four year journey of his last voyage, not a single soldier came down with scurvy which was unheard of in those days- and why so many sailors wanted to be on his boats- turns out even in the old days, taking care of your people was rewarded with attracting the best talent.

Fourth, this book is a great biography of Captain Cook- it really ties to understand the whole being from his genius and courage to his violence and cruelty - and how it all fit together. There is no doubt about his impact and the sheer magnitude of what he accomplished. His presence under fire and life threatening situations for his ship and crew is undeniable but some of his other behavior is harder to understand - but the author does a nice job of trying to sort though it. It is also a great story about leadership, teamwork and innovation.

Finally, this a great piece of sociological and anthropological history. On the one hand, the advances of mankind to be able to search the world and understand its vastness is incredible. Cook started in London, went to Cape Town and then headed to the south pole and came closer to it than anyone else had, "discovered " the Hawaiian Islands out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, visited the west coast of North American, went as far north as anyone had in Alaska- and visited the far west of Russia all on this one trip. I personally cant imagine being at sea for that long but it was a calling and his amassed his expertise over a lifetime to be able to do this. On the other hand, the book also takes a sober look at what happened to these remote and independent cultures, and the natural resources around them and it is hard to say that this whole process of exploration was good for any of them. The outright violence, spread of disease and destruction of natural habitats and life forms is hard to read- and I continue to struggle from what we can learn from this- but what I liked about the book is that the author worked hard to present and balanced and candid view about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And I do think that the book is fertile ground to help us all ponder the future- what are we exploring today? what is the next frontier? and how do we think about progress and we think about cultures, people and natural resources- it is all there in this book- it a very rich piece that provides a lot of great reference points to help us think more.

And finally, this book is fun to read. It is an adventure and written in a way that it keeps moving along!. So yes, I highly recommend The Wide, Wide Sea - I think that you will both enjoy it and also provide some great history to help think about the future!