Voyage of the Endeavour : Captain Cook and the discovery of the Pacific

Captain Cook's voyage into the uncharted South Pacific not only provided the incentive for the settlement of Australia and New Zealand - it was one of the greatest scientific adventures. In this volume, the author overturns the familiar idea of Lt James Cook RN.

The competent "tradesman" navigator is revealed as a passionate visionary whose impact on those he worked with was profound. The author attempts to discover what it meant to sail with Cook, why the Endeavour sought out the mysterious Great South Land, why the manoeuvrings of the French and Spanish mattered, and what kind of man Cook was.