Captain Cook: Master of the Seas
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £5.85
Trade in Captain Cook: Master of the Seas for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £5.85, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"[A]n accessible and exciting popular biography."--Michael Fathers, "Literary Review"--Michael Fathers"Literary Review" (04/01/2011)
Product Description
The age of discovery was at its peak in the eighteenth century, with heroic adventurers charting the furthest reaches of the globe. Foremost among these explorers was navigator and cartographer Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy. Recent writers have viewed Cook largely through the lens of colonial exploitation, regarding him as a villain and overlooking an important aspect of his identity: his nautical skills. In this authentic, engrossing biography, Frank McLynn reveals Cook's place in history as a brave and brilliant seaman. He shows how the Captain's life was one of struggle - with himself, with institutions, with the environment, with the desire to be remembered - and also one of great success. In "Captain Cook", McLynn re-creates the voyages that took the famous navigator from his native England to the outer reaches of the Pacific Ocean. Ultimately, Cook, who began his career as a deckhand, transcended his humble beginnings and triumphed through good fortune, courage, and talent. Although Cook died in a senseless, avoidable conflict with the people of Hawaii, McLynn illustrates that to the men with whom he served, Cook was master of the seas and nothing less than a titan.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have stlyistic and typographical complaints about this book which make me think it was poorly edited.
Even worse, although it is clear from the comprehensive list of references provided that the author researched thoroughly when preparing this book, the work does not seem to have been edited or proofread by somebody familiar either with seafaring in general or with Cook's voyages in particular.
Thus, on page 102 we have Endeavour travelling at 140 knots (nautical miles per hour) rather than sailing 140 nautical miles in a day; on p.82 we have Bougainville travelling 'due east' instead of due west to reach the Great Barrier Reef from the New Hebrides; on p.141 Cook was 'driven farther to the north than he intended, to 38N' when approaching the south-eastern shores of Australia; this should read '38S' - did anyone look at a map?
On p.140 the author writes: 'on 27 March, they came into safe anchorage at Queen Charlotte Sound.' No, Endeavour anchored in Admiralty Bay after circumnavigating South Island, New Zealand, and did not re-enter Queen Charlotte Sound on this occasion.
In my own exploration of Cook's voyages I have, so far, only covered the first voyage. I am reluctant to read more of this book until I know the facts as stated by Cook in his own journals; I don't trust this work to report the subsequent voyages accurately.
As mentioned above, the book is littered with typographical errors and is flawed stylistically.
On p.72 we have Hernando de Grijalva sailing in the 'low altitudes of the South Pacific' (I thought all ocean-going ships sailed at low altitude, namely at sea level - could he mean 'low latitudes'?); on p.81, Bougainville 'returned home to Francein 1760' (sic); on p.93: 'On 30 July Cook 1768 received his instructions'.
Elsewhere we have 'the the' and 'one one eighth'; it's all very sloppy and disappointing in an expensive hardback.
In Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, guideline 14 on the topic of avoiding fancy words advises: 'Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able'.
The editor of Captain Cook was happy to let through the following words which I'm pretty sure nobody uses or at least they are used so rarely that the author deploying them, however marvellously well educated he is, fails to communicate his meaning clearly:
fuliginous, lucubration, turbillion, acidulous, irruption, lubricious, minatory, nugatory, congeries, and many more.
This is a book in which sharks are 'pelagic predators' and for some reason able-bodied seamen become 'matelots' (en passant, don't get me started on the use of foreign words and phrases). The author's cleverness is beyond doubt; I feel he needs to try less hard to demonstrate his erudition by making a better choice of words. A spade is an excavatory implement, but it's still a spade.
I've given this review three stars rather than fewer because, despite its flaws, it still tells a gripping story in which Cook the man rises above the failings of the book.
Even worse, although it is clear from the comprehensive list of references provided that the author researched thoroughly when preparing this book, the work does not seem to have been edited or proofread by somebody familiar either with seafaring in general or with Cook's voyages in particular.
Thus, on page 102 we have Endeavour travelling at 140 knots (nautical miles per hour) rather than sailing 140 nautical miles in a day; on p.82 we have Bougainville travelling 'due east' instead of due west to reach the Great Barrier Reef from the New Hebrides; on p.141 Cook was 'driven farther to the north than he intended, to 38N' when approaching the south-eastern shores of Australia; this should read '38S' - did anyone look at a map?
On p.140 the author writes: 'on 27 March, they came into safe anchorage at Queen Charlotte Sound.' No, Endeavour anchored in Admiralty Bay after circumnavigating South Island, New Zealand, and did not re-enter Queen Charlotte Sound on this occasion.
In my own exploration of Cook's voyages I have, so far, only covered the first voyage. I am reluctant to read more of this book until I know the facts as stated by Cook in his own journals; I don't trust this work to report the subsequent voyages accurately.
As mentioned above, the book is littered with typographical errors and is flawed stylistically.
On p.72 we have Hernando de Grijalva sailing in the 'low altitudes of the South Pacific' (I thought all ocean-going ships sailed at low altitude, namely at sea level - could he mean 'low latitudes'?); on p.81, Bougainville 'returned home to Francein 1760' (sic); on p.93: 'On 30 July Cook 1768 received his instructions'.
Elsewhere we have 'the the' and 'one one eighth'; it's all very sloppy and disappointing in an expensive hardback.
In Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, guideline 14 on the topic of avoiding fancy words advises: 'Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able'.
The editor of Captain Cook was happy to let through the following words which I'm pretty sure nobody uses or at least they are used so rarely that the author deploying them, however marvellously well educated he is, fails to communicate his meaning clearly:
fuliginous, lucubration, turbillion, acidulous, irruption, lubricious, minatory, nugatory, congeries, and many more.
This is a book in which sharks are 'pelagic predators' and for some reason able-bodied seamen become 'matelots' (en passant, don't get me started on the use of foreign words and phrases). The author's cleverness is beyond doubt; I feel he needs to try less hard to demonstrate his erudition by making a better choice of words. A spade is an excavatory implement, but it's still a spade.
I've given this review three stars rather than fewer because, despite its flaws, it still tells a gripping story in which Cook the man rises above the failings of the book.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Captain James Cook has had many accounts written of his voyages, including his own. The most recent that I have found is by Richard Hough (1993), which provides a straightforward, enjoyable, and readable account of his life. This new book by Frank McLynn reveals the author as a thorough academic with a gift for writing dense prose using obscure and sometimes archaic words. I recommend reading on a Kindle, having had the new experience of using its excellent dictionary to explain words at the probable rate of one per page. This obviously slowed down the flow, although inevitably extending my vocabulary. I would prefer that the book was reedited into everyday English usage. I wonder whether the object of this biography is more to impress the academic community than for general readership. I read it on a long journey across the Pacific, visiting some of the places mentioned, and I could not finish it even then. It included hundreds of references which are only likely to be followed up by another keen historian.
However, finish it I did and I think it has enhanced my knowledge of Cook, his crew the islanders and their civilisations. The earlier life was covered in satisfying detail, but the end was an anticlimax with little to put the voyages into context with later events in the naval and political history of Great Britain.
However, finish it I did and I think it has enhanced my knowledge of Cook, his crew the islanders and their civilisations. The earlier life was covered in satisfying detail, but the end was an anticlimax with little to put the voyages into context with later events in the naval and political history of Great Britain.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Well researched and interesting but with annoying errors
24 Nov 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
There is much to admire in this book, which is extensively researched and referenced. It summarizes Cook's three great voyages but, unlike Cooks' own journals, or even J.C. Beaglehole's biography, takes a much wider view of them, considering the social and political context in which they were conducted. McLynn emphasizes particularly Cook's attempts (and failures) to understand the Polynesian psyche, especially in its religious aspects, a matter that has puzzled many another voyager, including Melville. McLynn also considers extensively the alteration in Cook's behavior in the third voyage. There are suggestions of a possible physical origin but reliable evidence is lacking. Cook's extraordinary seamanship and his magnificent achievements as a navigator are fully acknowledged and highly praised but the book ends with the rather sad feeling that Cook pushed himself into one voyage too many, one that ended with his tragic death at the hands of a people he tried in vain to understand.
Despite the quality of the McLynn's scholarship and his the extensive and interesting researches the book was marred for me by a truly extraordinary number of errors. Apart from typographic and spelling errors which suggest that the book was never properly proof-read there are errors of fact and statements that reveal that the author has not taken the trouble to acquaint himself with the language of ships and the sea. I would expect a historian who writes about a great seaman and the ships he sailed to familiarize himself sufficiently with correct terminology, as used in Cook's journals, rather than paraphrase badly, giving the impression that accuracy in such matters is of no importance.
Despite the quality of the McLynn's scholarship and his the extensive and interesting researches the book was marred for me by a truly extraordinary number of errors. Apart from typographic and spelling errors which suggest that the book was never properly proof-read there are errors of fact and statements that reveal that the author has not taken the trouble to acquaint himself with the language of ships and the sea. I would expect a historian who writes about a great seaman and the ships he sailed to familiarize himself sufficiently with correct terminology, as used in Cook's journals, rather than paraphrase badly, giving the impression that accuracy in such matters is of no importance.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Captain Cook Master of the Seas
6 Feb 2012
Format:Hardcover
Mclynn is really forcing it here. His many misstatements and uncritical observations and conclusions make this book painful to read, especially for Captain Cook enthusiasts. The general impression is that he is skating on very thin ice, employing a very limited number of substantial sources, and often accepting their outrageous statements without batting an eye. A favorite example of mine is when Mclynn states that Cook recorded an extraordinarily hot day on Tahiti--119 degrees. This would be an extraordinarily hot day, if it were true. In fact it would be way, way off the scale for the climate of Tahiti. I guess, when Mclynn picked this tidbit from Cook's journal (Beaglehole), he didn't notice that Cook says straight out he set the thermometer IN THE SUN. No one would accept this as sound science, or a remarkable event in the history of Tahiti, or British imperialist exploration, unless he or she was already predisposed to exaggerate in favor of Cook's greatness. I recommend 1/2 star for the book and twelve lashes for the author for wasting precious paper.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
