Before Captain Cook went to Antarctica. Why didn't Cook discover Antarctica? Endeavor nearly sank on the Great Barrier Reef

James Cook (\(1728\)–\(1779\)) was an English naval sailor, explorer, cartographer and discoverer, Fellow of the Royal Society and Captain of the Royal Navy. He headed \(3\) expeditions to explore the World Ocean, all of which circumnavigated the world. During these expeditions he made a number of geographical discoveries.

J. Cook's first trip around the world

Barque "Endeavour"

In \(1769\) the expedition bark Endeavor (Effort) left London with the purpose of observing the passage of Venus through the Sun. Captain Cook was appointed its leader, who, together with astronomer Charles Green, was supposed to conduct research on the island of Tahiti. In January \(1769\) they rounded Cape Horn and reached the shores of Tahiti. Having landed astronomers on the island, Cook began exploring the archipelago and along the way discovered the Partnership Islands. Having gone in search of Novaya Zemlya, seen by Tasman in \(1642\), in October he approached the eastern shores of New Zealand. Cook sailed along its shores for more than three months and became convinced that these were two large islands separated by a strait (later named after him). The hostility of the local residents did not allow him to penetrate deep into the islands.

Then he headed to the shores of Australia. In \(1770\) he approached the unknown eastern coast of the Australian mainland (called New Holland at that time). By August of the same year, Cook had reached its northern tip. He gave the name New South Wales to the entire eastern coast of the continent, and declared Australia the property of England. Cook was the first to explore and map about \(4\) thousand km of its eastern coast and almost the entire (\(2300\) km) discovered by him Great Barrier Reef.

On the mainland, Cook saw strange animals with long legs and a strong tail. These animals moved by jumping. When Cook asked the locals what these animals were called, they replied “we don’t understand,” which sounded like “kangaro” in the Aboriginal language. This is how the name appeared - kangaroo.

Cook passed through the Torres Strait to the island of Java and, having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, returned home on July 13, 1771, having lost 31 people due to tropical fever. Thanks to the diet he developed, none of the team suffered from scurvy. Cook's first voyage around the world lasted a little more than three years, after which he was awarded the rank of captain \(I\) rank.

J. Cook's second trip around the world

During the first expedition around the world, Cook failed to discover the large Southern Continent south of Australia. To finally find out whether this continent exists or not, the English government equipped a new expedition under the command of Captain Cook, consisting of two ships - “Resolution” (“Decision”) and “Adventure” (“Adventure”).

The ships left England in \(1772\). Having reached the Cape of Good Hope, they headed south. Soon it got colder, floating ice began to appear, and fog appeared. Having encountered a solid ice field, Cook was forced to turn east. After numerous attempts to break through to the south, Cook turned north. He came to the firm conviction that there was no vast land near the South Pole. This erroneous conclusion was refuted only in the 19th century. Russian navigators Bellingshausen and Lazarev.

"Resolution" and "Adventure" in Matavai Bay (Tahiti). Painting. \(1776\)

While sailing in the Pacific Ocean, Cook again visited the island of Tahiti, part of the Society (Partnership) archipelago, and discovered many new islands, including New Caledonia. Cook's second voyage lasted \(3\) years and \(18\) days.

J. Cook's third trip around the world

After some time, Cook accepted the offer to become the head of a new expedition, which was supposed to go from the Pacific to the Atlantic along the coast of North America. In \(1776\) he set off on his third and final voyage on the ship "Resolution" and the new ship "Discovery".

For a long time, ships sailed in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Several new islands were discovered there. Cook then headed north. Soon the ships spotted land again. They were unknown then Hawaiian Islands.

The islanders greeted the British friendly: they brought a lot of fruits and edible roots, brought in pigs, helped the sailors fill barrels with fresh water and load them into boats. Scientists - members of the expedition - went deep into the islands for their research.

From the Hawaiian Islands, the ships headed east, to the shores of America, and then went north along them. Coming out through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, they came across solid floating ice. Cook decided to return to the Hawaiian Islands for the winter. This time the British did not get along with the local population and turned the Hawaiians against themselves. In a fierce battle, Captain Cook was killed.

"The Death of Captain Cook." Painting by Sean Linehan

James Cook's travels provided a lot of new information for the development of Earth science. He penetrated further than his predecessors into the southern latitudes. Natural scientists took part in his expeditions, collecting a variety of scientific material about the nature and population of the numerous islands he discovered. His voyages are valuable for the development of geographical science in that they refined knowledge about the southern parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

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But why did the Aborigines eat Cook? For what reason is unclear, science is silent. It seems to me a very simple thing - They wanted to eat and ate Cook...

V.S.Vysotsky

On July 11, 1776, Captain James Cook, a world-famous English sailor, traveler, explorer, cartographer, discoverer, who led three round-the-world expeditions of the British fleet, set off from Plymouth on his third (last) voyage around the world. Killed in a collision with aborigines in the Hawaiian Islands.

James Cook

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is one of the most revered figures in the history of the British Royal Navy. The son of a poor Scottish farmhand, at the age of eighteen he went to sea as a cabin boy to get rid of hard work on the farm. The young man quickly mastered maritime science, and after three years the owner of a small merchant ship offered him the position of captain, but Cook refused. On June 17, 1755, he enlisted as a sailor in the Royal Navy and eight days later was assigned to the 60-gun ship Eagle. The future navigator and traveler took an active part in the Seven Years' War, as a naval military specialist (master) participated in the blockade of the Bay of Biscay and the capture of Quebec. Cook was given the most important task: to clear the fairway of the St. Lawrence River so that British ships could pass to Quebec. We had to work at night, under fire from French artillery, fighting off night counterattacks, restoring buoys that the French managed to destroy. The successfully completed work brought Cook an officer's rank, enriching him with cartographic experience, and was also one of the main reasons why the Admiralty, when choosing the leader of the round-the-world expedition, chose him.

Cook's expeditions around the world

Hundreds, if not thousands of books have been written about D. Cook's trips around the world, which significantly expanded Europeans' understanding of the world around them. Many of the maps he compiled were not surpassed in their accuracy and precision for many decades and served navigators until the second half of the 19th century. Cook made a kind of revolution in navigation, having learned to successfully fight such a dangerous and widespread disease at that time as scurvy. A whole galaxy of famous English navigators, explorers, scientists, such as Joseph Banks, William Bligh, George Vancouver and others took part in his expeditions.

Two voyages around the world under the leadership of Captain James Cook (in 1768-71 and 1772-75) were quite successful. The first expedition proved that New Zealand is two independent islands, separated by a narrow strait (Cook Strait), and not part of an unknown mainland, as was previously believed. It was possible to map several hundred miles of the eastern coast of Australia, which had been completely unexplored until that time. During the second expedition, a strait was opened between Australia and New Guinea, but the sailors failed to reach the shores of Antarctica. The participants of Cook's expeditions made many discoveries in the field of zoology and botany, and collected collections of biological samples from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

The purpose of Cook's third expedition (1776-1779) was the discovery of the so-called Northwest Passage - a waterway crossing the North American continent and connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and Australia.

For the expedition, the Admiralty allocated two ships to Cook: the flagship Resolution (displacement 462 tons, 32 guns), on which the captain made his second voyage, and Discovery with a displacement of 350 tons, which had 26 guns. The captain on the Resolution was Cook himself, on the Discovery it was Charles Clerk, who participated in Cook's first two expeditions.

During Cook's third voyage around the world, the Hawaiian Islands and several previously unknown islands in Polynesia were discovered. Having passed the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, Cook tried to go east along the coast of Alaska, but the path of his ships was blocked by solid ice. It was impossible to continue the road north, winter was approaching, so Cook turned the ships around, intending to spend the winter in more southern latitudes.

On October 2, 1778, Cook reached the Aleutian Islands, where he met Russian industrialists who provided him with their map for study. The Russian map turned out to be much more complete than Cook’s map; it contained islands unknown to Cook, and the outlines of many lands, drawn only approximately by Cook, were displayed on it with a high degree of detail and accuracy. It is known that Cook redrew this map and named the strait separating Asia and America after Bering.

Why did the Aborigines eat Cook?

On November 26, 1778, the ships of Cook's squadron reached the Hawaiian Islands, but a suitable anchorage was found only on January 16, 1779. The inhabitants of the islands - Hawaiians - concentrated around the ships in large numbers. In his notes, Cook estimated their number at several thousand. Later it became known that the high interest and special attitude of the islanders towards the expedition was explained by the fact that they mistook white people for their gods. Local residents stole from the European ships everything that was in bad shape, and often stole what was in good condition: tools, rigging and other things necessary for the expedition. The good relations that were initially established between the members of the expedition and the Hawaiians began to quickly deteriorate. Every day the number of thefts committed by Hawaiians increased, and the clashes that arose due to attempts to return stolen property became increasingly heated. Detachments of armed islanders flocked to the ship's anchorage.

Feeling that the situation was heating up, Cook left the bay on February 4, 1779. However, a storm that began soon caused serious damage to the Resolution's rigging and on February 10 the ships were forced to return. There was no other anchorage nearby. The sails and parts of the rigging were taken ashore for repairs, where it became increasingly difficult for travelers to ensure the protection of their property. During the absence of ships, the number of armed islanders on the shore only increased. The natives behaved hostilely. At night they continued to commit thefts, sailing in their canoes close to the ships. On February 13, the last pincers were stolen from the deck of the Resolution. The team's attempt to return them was unsuccessful and ended in an open clash.

The next day, February 14, the longboat was stolen from the Resolution. This completely infuriated the expedition leader. To recover the stolen property, Cook decided to take Kalaniopa, one of the local chiefs, on board as a hostage. Having landed on shore with a group of armed men, consisting of ten marines led by Lieutenant Phillips, he went to the leader's home and invited him onto the ship. Having accepted the offer, Kalaniopa followed the British, but at the very shore he became suspicious and refused to go further. Meanwhile, several thousand Hawaiians gathered on the shore and surrounded Cook and his people, pushing them back to the water. A rumor spread among them that the British had killed several Hawaiians. Captain Clerk's diaries mention one native who was killed by Lieutenant Rickman's men shortly before the events described. These rumors, as well as Cook’s ambiguous behavior, pushed the crowd to begin hostile actions. In the ensuing battle, Cook himself and four sailors died; the rest managed to retreat to the ship. There are several conflicting eyewitness accounts of those events, and from them it is difficult to judge what actually happened. With a reasonable degree of certainty, we can only say that panic began among the British, the crew began to randomly retreat to the boats, and in this confusion Cook was killed by the Hawaiians (presumably with a spear to the back of the head).

Captain Clerk emphasizes in his diaries: if Cook had abandoned his defiant behavior in the face of a crowd of thousands and had not started shooting Hawaiians, the accident could have been avoided. From the diaries of Captain Clerk:

“Considering the whole affair as a whole, I am firmly convinced that it would not have been carried to the extreme by the natives had not Captain Cook made an attempt to punish a man surrounded by a crowd of islanders, relying entirely on the fact that, if necessary, the Marine soldiers would be able to fire use muskets to scatter the natives. Such an opinion was undoubtedly based on extensive experience with various Indian peoples in various parts of the world, but today's unfortunate events have shown that in this case this opinion turned out to be erroneous. There is good reason to suppose that the natives would not have gone so far if, unfortunately, Captain Cook had not fired upon them: a few minutes before, they began to clear the way for the soldiers, so that they could reach that place on shore, opposite which the boats stood (I have already mentioned this), thus giving Captain Cook the opportunity to get away from them.

According to a direct participant in the events, Lieutenant Phillips, the Hawaiians did not intend to prevent the British from returning to the ship, much less attack them. The large crowd that had gathered was explained by their concern for the fate of the king (not unreasonable, if we bear in mind the purpose for which Cook invited Kalaniope to the ship). And Phillips, like Captain Clerk, places the blame for the tragic outcome entirely on Cook: outraged by the previous behavior of the natives, he was the first to shoot at one of them.

After Cook's death, the position of head of the expedition passed to the captain of the Discovery. The clerk tried to obtain the release of Cook's body peacefully. Having failed, he ordered a military operation, during which troops landed under the cover of cannons, captured and burned to the ground coastal settlements and drove the Hawaiians into the mountains. After this, the Hawaiians delivered to the Resolution a basket with ten pounds of meat and a human head without the lower jaw. It was completely impossible to identify the remains of Captain Cook in this, so the Clerk took their word for it. On February 22, 1779, Cook's remains were buried at sea. Captain Clerk died from tuberculosis, which he was ill with throughout the voyage. The ships returned to England on February 4, 1780.

The name of the great navigator James Cook is known to most of our compatriots only by the names on the geographical map and the song by V.S. Vysotsky “Why did the aborigines eat Cook?” In a humorous manner, the bard tried to play up several reasons for the death of the brave traveler:

Don't grab other people's waists, breaking free from the hands of your friends. Remember how the late Cook swam to the shores of Australia. As if in a circle, sitting under an azalea, We would eat from sunrise to dawn, Evil savages ate each other in this sunny Australia. But why did the Aborigines eat Cook? For what? It’s unclear, science is silent. It seems to me a very simple thing - they wanted to eat and ate Cook. There is an option that their leader, Big Beech, shouted that the cook on Cook’s ship was very tasty. There was a mistake, that’s what science is silent about. They wanted Coke, but they ate Cook. And there was no catch or trick at all. They entered without knocking, almost without a sound, They used a bamboo baton, a bale right in the crown of the head and there was no Cook. But there is, however, another assumption that Cook was eaten out of great respect. That everyone was incited by the sorcerer, the cunning and the evil one. Hey guys, grab Cook. Whoever eats it without salt and without onions will be strong, brave, and kind, like Cook. Someone came across a stone, threw it, a viper, and there was no Cook. And the savages are now wringing their hands, breaking spears, breaking bows, burning and throwing bamboo clubs. They are worried that they ate Cook.

Apparently, the author of the song was not aware of the real details of the incident on February 14, 1779. Otherwise, the curious theft of ticks and the ill-fated longboat, which served as the main cause of the conflict between the islanders and the leader of the expedition, as well as the fact that James Cook died not in Australia, but in the Hawaiian Islands, would not have gone unnoticed.

Unlike the inhabitants of Fiji and most other peoples of Polynesia, the Hawaiians did not eat the meat of their victims, especially their enemies. During the solemn ceremony, only the left eye of the victim was usually offered to the presiding chief. The rest was cut into pieces and burned as a ritual sacrifice to the gods.

So, as it turned out, no one ate Cook's body.

Discovery's captain, Charles Clerk, described the transfer of Cook's remains by the natives:

“About eight in the morning, when it was still quite dark, we heard the flapping of oars. A canoe was approaching the ship. There were two people sitting in the boat, and when they got on board, they immediately fell on their faces in front of us and seemed to be terribly frightened by something. After much lamentation and profuse tears over the loss of “Orono,” as the natives called Captain Cook, one of them informed us that he had brought us parts of his body.

He handed us a small bundle from a piece of cloth that he had previously held under his arm. It is difficult to convey the horror we all felt as we held in our hands the stump of a human torso weighing nine or ten pounds. This is all that remains of Captain Cook, they explained to us. The rest, it turned out, was cut into small pieces and burned; his head and all the bones, with the exception of the bones of the body, now, according to them, belonged to the temple at Terreoboo. What we held in our hands was the share of the High Priest Kaoo, who wanted to use this piece of meat for religious ceremonies. He said that he was passing it on to us as proof of his complete innocence in what happened and his sincere affection for us ... "

James Cook

In 1769, the planet Venus was supposed to pass through the solar ocean. To monitor its passage into the Pacific Ocean, a expedition of English scientists led by Joseph Banks was equipped. The expedition set off on the ship Endeavor, commanded by James Cook 728-1799), the first person to prove that the Southern continent was not where they were looking for it.
During his life, full of travel and adventure, Cook visited many islands of the Pacific Ocean and made many discoveries. But more than his discoveries, he was proud of the fact that during the many months he spent at sea, he did not lose a single person from Scurvy.
James Cook was a brave sailor, he had a strong will. His father was an agricultural worker, and the boy worked his way through hard work. Cook's path was difficult, but it eventually led him to the captain's bridge of a British warship. He managed to firmly take control of the ship, gaining the authority of the “gentleman” officers who looked askance at him because of his simple origin.
The Endeavor rounded Cape Horn and anchored off the island of Tahiti, where the expedition successfully observed the passage of Venus. It was unbearably hot, the thermometer showed 48° Celsius.
Having completed his observation, Cook set off on his famous voyage and, having visited the Partnership Islands, then headed to New Zealand and circled both of its islands, finally establishing that it was not part of the mainland. This was not an easy task, and another, less persistent person probably; I would not have completed this matter. Cook conscientiously mapped a coastline more than 3,800 kilometers long; he did not dare to penetrate into the interior of the island, since he had to witness cannibalism among the Maori natives.
Cook, who knew about the existence of New Holland (present-day Australia), sailed west. On April 19, 1770, he approached the mainland from the east and headed along the coast to the north. This coast is now part of the province of New South Wales. On April 28, Cook's ships anchored in Botany Bay, so named because of its rich vegetation.
The Endeavor sailed along the deserted coasts of Australia, often noticing haze on the shore, but only occasionally meeting natives. Apart from numerous kangaroos, researchers saw little of interest on the Australian shores. All was well until June 10, when Endeavor left the bay north of Cape Grafton. The sailor measuring the depth shouted: “Seventeen fathoms!”, and a minute later the ship stumbled upon a coral reef. Only the intense efforts of the crew, who began pumping out the water that poured into the hold, and the ingenuity of midshipman Monkhouse, who managed to plug the hole, saved the ship and allowed it to be brought into the mouth of some river, where it was put for repairs near the sloping shore. After repairs, the Endeavor safely reached the shores of New Guinea.
Cook did not have a single scurvy patient on the ship. During his previous voyages, he more than once had to witness how half, or even more than half of the crew died from this terrible disease. And he made it his task to fight scurvy in every possible way. Above all, he demanded cleanliness and always personally inspected the ship. All rooms were often fumigated, thoroughly washed and cleaned, and the cabins and holds were dried with hot coals after washing. The severity of his rounds led one of his biographers to write that “on Captain Cook’s ship every day was Sunday.”
But the most important anti-scorbutic remedy was a special, strictly obligatory diet. It included sour herbs, mustard, vinegar, wheat grains, condensed orange and lemon juice, sa-loup (a drink made from the roots of a meadow grass, or American laurel, widespread before the introduction of tea and coffee), "dry soup ", which looked like slabs of wood glue, sugar, molasses, and vegetables. In addition, wherever possible, the supply of celery was replenished and fresh malt wort was often brewed.
Everything went well until arriving in Batavia. But Batavia turned out to be a hotbed of tropical fever. While staying there, three people died from it.
From Batavia, the Endeavor headed to England, where it arrived in July o771.
In addition to its remarkable achievements in the fight against scurvy, Cook's first expedition made valuable contributions to geography. The main achievements of this expedition include proving that New Zealand is an island and not part of the southern continent, as well as mapping its contours and the eastern coast of Australia.
In 1772, England sent a second expedition of two ships: the Resolution was commanded by Cook, and the Adventure was commanded by Furneaux. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the ships headed southeast and crossed the Antarctic Circle in January 1773.
The southern continent was nowhere to be seen, but there were much more ice fields and icebergs than Cook would have liked. New Zealand managed to collect large reserves of anti-scorbutic herbs. They were boiled and eaten twice a day. The herbs could not have come at a better time, since some of the team were already sick.
Turning again to the south and then to the east, Cook finally became convinced that the Great Southern Continent, which ancient geographers spoke of, did not exist.
Having come to this conviction, he left the polar waters, sailed to the Marquesas Islands and then to Tahiti. Having described an arc around the southern part of the ocean, the Resolution approached the Espiritu Santo Islands, which Cook renamed the New Hebrides. Then he moved southwest and discovered a large island, which he named New Caledonia.
We returned back past New Zealand and Cape Horn, stopping at the Cape of Good Hope. During this expedition, which lasted three years, Cook crossed the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans in the polar latitudes and again made several discoveries. The length of the route of the second expedition was 84,000 kilometers, that is, more than twice the length of the earth's equator.
Cook received the rank of captain 1st rank and was elected a member of the Korolev Geographical Society.
The very next year, Cook organized a third expedition to find the Northern Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
This time he alone commanded two ships: Resolution and Discovery. The ships traveled along the route: Cape of Good Hope, Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga and the Partnership Islands. Sailing north, Cook rediscovered the Hawaiian Islands, once found by the Spaniards and later discovered, which he renamed the Sandwich Islands. Next, Cook, in search of the Northwest Passage, walked along the western shores of America to its northwestern tip - Cape Barrow. On the way, he approached the shores of the Chukotka Peninsula. Cook could not find a passage to the Atlantic, and the ships returned back, first to the mouth of the Yukon, and then to the Hawaiian Islands.
Here the natives began to steal all sorts of small items from the ships. The size of the thefts kept increasing, and it got to the point that a boat was stolen from the Dis-Kaveri. Cook sent several detachments of sailors to search for the missing boat, and he himself came to explain to the local leader Torreoboo. The conflict was ready to be resolved peacefully when news arrived that the sailors had killed some local king. The natives grabbed their weapons, and Cook and his sailors had to retreat to the shore.
The natives, hiding behind mats, which perfectly protected them from the fire of English muskets, attacked with stones and darts. When the British finally reached the water, Cook, who was covering the retreat of his men, turned for a moment to face the sea to give orders to one of the boats. This moment turned out to be fatal for the captain: a stone hit him in the head, he fell into the water, and the natives dragged him away.
For several days, the ships knew nothing about the fate of the captain. Finally, a party of native warriors, led by a leader, drove up to the ships and gave the half-gnawed bones of their chief to the English. On February 21, at sunset, the Resolution, with flags at half-mast, saluted its fallen commander. To the sound of gunfire, Cook's remains were lowered into the depths of the ocean.
Captain Cook was the greatest explorer of his age and an excellent leader, and deserved much greater honor than he enjoyed in England during his lifetime.
Kind and strict, fair and energetic, James Cook was and will remain a model of nobility and courage.

Chapter 5. You have to be born a gentleman, you can become a god

The name of the person who discovered the island remains forever in the geographical chronicle. What then can we say about Cook, who discovered not even dozens, but hundreds of islands!

Ships under his command circumnavigated the globe three times and crossed the equator six times. Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time in history; Cook became the first person to visit both the Arctic and Antarctica; he truly “traversed” the whole world.

It is probably simply impossible to compile a complete list of Captain Cook's geographical discoveries. He mapped the entire east coast of Australia and New Caledonia, the Hawaiian Islands and South Georgia, New Zealand, the Society Islands, the Tonga Archipelago, the Marquesas Islands, the New Hebrides, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the northwest coast of North America...

James Cook is known to us as the greatest navigator, but... But as a person, he is almost unknown to us. His English biographer writes: “We know everything about Cook and at the same time nothing.”

For twenty-three years, almost half his life, Cook methodically kept a detailed diary day after day. He described the weather and ship operations, and noted shift changes. The diary gives a comprehensive picture of what Cook did, but not what he thought or what he was like.

For sixteen years he was married to Elizabeth Betts. But in the diaries her name is not mentioned even once, and in personal correspondence known to biographers only twice, and even then in passing. The names of six children are not mentioned even once in the diaries or letters. It is only known that three of them died in infancy, three in childhood.

English biographer Alistair Maclean writes: “To protect your personal life from prying eyes requires considerable skill. However, Cook succeeded in this.”

All we know about his parents is that they were both day laborers on a farm in Yorkshire. From the age of six, James also worked as a laborer.

In 1745 (he was not quite seventeen) Cook moved to a neighboring town and became a grocer's apprentice. The shop stood on the very shore of the sea; during a storm, the waves licked its threshold.

I would like to say that the sea beckoned to Cook. But perhaps the situation was simpler: the sea promised a more prosperous life.

In the fall of 1746, he became a cabin boy on a cat, a ship that transported coal. Cook visited Norway, Holland, the Baltic ports, in particular St. Petersburg. In the intervals between flights, young James - this can be said reliably - is completely absorbed in reading and self-education. He is involved in navigation, mathematics and astronomy. Nine years later, the shipowners offer him the position of skipper on a catboat. What more could a farmhand's son dream of? But Cook, for reasons unknown to us, refuses. At twenty-seven years old, he voluntarily enlists as a sailor on a warship. Why? You can make any assumptions here.

It was believed that sailor service was worse than hard labor. Yes, that's how it was. The sailors lived in cramped quarters, ate biscuits and corned beef, they were flogged for the slightest offense, their ears were cut off for disobedience, or... they were dragged under the keel. Scurvy, typhoid, and stomach diseases were rampant on the ships. It is known that only 1,512 English sailors died in battles during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Diseases claimed another fifty thousand lives!

Truly, sailor service was worse than hard labor! Not many went to serve on Her Majesty's ships of their own free will. More often, recruiters got the simpletons drunk in port taverns and brought the “volunteers” on board dead drunk.

Cook actually became a sailor voluntarily...

And again gradual promotion: co-navigator, boatswain, navigator. Cook said that he dragged himself (“I draggedmyself...”) through all types of naval service.

During the Seven Years' War, Cook takes part in the siege of Quebec. Already a navigator, he is tasked with mapping the St. Lawrence River. And under the fire of French cannons, he takes measurements, again and again placing milestones on the fairway.

After the war - hydrographic survey of Newfoundland and Labrador. Five long years. Favorite, but tiresomely monotonous work: hundreds of miles of sounding lines, thousands, tens of thousands of bearings.

And the result is new and new cards. Excellent cards, let's add. The sailing directions of Newfoundland and Labrador, compiled in 1763-1767, were then used for a century.

Cook's abilities and talent have long been noticed; he is considered the best navigator in the fleet. But...

But Cook is already thirty-nine years old, and he is still a non-commissioned officer. According to the Lords of the Admiralty, only a gentleman can be an officer, and a gentleman must be born, but cannot be made.

Determining the location of a ship on the open ocean continued to be a very difficult task at that time. Often an island was discovered, put on the map and... again “lost” for many decades.

England was then waging an intense struggle with France for new colonial possessions. It is clear that such “losses” did not suit the Lords of the Admiralty. To their indignation, the round-the-world expedition, headed by John Byron, the grandfather of the great English poet, ended with virtually no results. Byron completely lost his bearings in the ocean and, as the English author writes, “returned home by pure chance without discovering a single island.”

In 1768, the British began organizing a new expedition. Formally, she was supposed to go to one of the islands of the Pacific Ocean to observe a rare astronomical phenomenon - the passage of Venus between the Earth and the Sun. But in fact, the purpose of the expedition was still to search and seize new lands.

Cook's reputation as a navigator and cartographer was so great that, contrary to all traditions, it looks like a fairy tale! - the son of a farm laborer becomes an officer, a ship commander, and the head of a round-the-world expedition.

For the voyage, Cook chose not a frigate or a cruiser, but an unsightly cat. It was called "Indevr" ("Attempt"). On the same coal-mining ships, Cook will go on both his second and third voyages. “The coal miners resembled a wooden shoe and a coffin at the same time,” writes Cook’s biographer. But they could withstand a strong storm, were easy to move and, thanks to their shallow draft, could come almost close to the shore.

Each voyage lasted about three years. Often for several months the sailors saw nothing but a raging sea. Many times a day they climbed onto the yards to lower or raise the sails.

"Indevre"

Now twenty to thirty people sail on ships of this displacement (about 400 tons). And they often complain about cramped conditions and lack of amenities. There were about a hundred people on board each of Cook's ships. And also guns and ammunition for them, goods for trade with the natives. And of course, a supply of food for three years.

Cook was a son of his time, he could not help but be. He was a strict and even cruel commander. But at the same time, he took every possible care of the crew’s health: he introduced fresh meat, sauerkraut, and pine broth into the mandatory diet, and stocked up on fresh vegetables and fruits at every call.

Heinrich Zimmermann, who was a participant in the third voyage, left the most detailed description of Cook the captain, Cook the man:

“Cook was a handsome, strong, tall, but slightly stooped man. Dark brown-haired. His face was rather stern.

He was extremely strict and so hot-tempered in character that the slightest contradiction on the part of officers or sailors greatly irritated him and infuriated him. He was merciless regarding the implementation of the ship's regulations and just as mercilessly punished for violation of them. If anything was stolen from us by one of the natives, the watchman was severely punished for his negligence.

Probably no captain had such complete power over the officers subordinate to him. None of them ever dared to contradict him. He usually sat at the table in the wardroom without saying a word. He was really very uncommunicative and reserved. For little things, ordinary sailors were punished more severely than officers, but from time to time he was extremely friendly towards the crew.

He never mentioned religion and did not want to have a priest on his ship, although he celebrated the resurrection of Christ. He was a just and honest man in all his actions and never blasphemed even in anger.

He was scrupulously clean and insisted that all people on board follow him in this regard. On Sundays, each crew member was required to wear a clean dress.

Moderation was one of his main virtues. During the entire voyage, no one had ever seen him drunk. Any member of the crew who happened to be too drunk to keep watch was punished very harshly.

Cook ate very little, mainly sauerkraut, corned beef and some peas.

On Saturdays he was usually more good-natured than on other days, and often drank an extra glass of punch, proclaiming a toast “to all the lovely women.” However, there was never the slightest reason to suspect him of having relationships with women.

All crew members allowed themselves to “go astray” and often could not “resist” the native women. He alone remained pure and blameless.

In all other pleasures he was a supporter of equality. Food and drink were always, even in special circumstances, distributed equally between the officers and 5 sailors.

Everyone believed that he had some kind of secret gift to foresee danger and avoid it... There were often cases when only he “predicted” the appearance of the earth, and in this premonition he was always right.

He had an instinctive ability to communicate with the natives, and it was obvious that this communication gave him pleasure. He was very respectful of the islanders. However, when they stopped honoring him or laughed at him, he became furious. His anger at such moments was terrible, but he never punished with death. He had a special gift for communicating with the natives with gestures and did everything he could to please them, to earn their friendship with gifts, interesting stories, and entertained them with a demonstration of European costumes...

He constantly tried to keep people busy with work and, when there was nothing to do, he ordered the sails to be lowered and raised again or made some maneuvers to keep the crew busy. To this constant employment, combined with a moderate lifestyle, I attribute the fact that the health of the crew was excellent... Every week the whole ship was thoroughly washed and fumigated by burning gunpowder... the hammocks were carried daily on deck, where they remained until sunset...

Captain Cook constantly warned us against the intemperate consumption of meat, and always endeavored to provide us with flour for the preparation of other dishes in place of meat. Three times a week, part of our diet was sauerkraut. Whenever we approached the land, a special party was immediately sent to collect greens, which were boiled in soup. If, however, there was no vegetation, then the nets were cast so that we could have a supply of fresh fish and reduce the amount of meat in our diet. Always and everywhere his first concern was to provide us with fresh food...

On the American coast and in New Zealand we made something like beer. They cut off the shoots of various trees, boiled them in water, and then added to every 40 gallons of this water a quart of malt decoction and 5 or 6 pounds of sugar. It turned out to be a very pleasant and healthy drink, which we drank instead of brandy... although many accused Captain Cook of selfish economy, since by using this “beer” he saved supplies of brandy..."

It should be noted that not everyone liked the new diet introduced by Cook. The long-term habit of English sailors to biscuits and corned beef had an effect.

At the very beginning of the first voyage, Cook’s diary records: “For refusing to receive their ration of fresh meat, he punished sailor Henry Stevens and marine soldier Thomas Denster with twelve lashes.”

Cook later changed his tactics. For example, he began to defiantly consume huge quantities of cabbage and kept asking the cook for a pine decoction. Soon the sailors began to steal cabbage from the barrels standing in the hold.

Thanks to the new diet, there were almost no cases of scurvy on Cook's ships, although in other expeditions of that time a quarter or even half of the crew often died from it. It is characteristic that Cook was subsequently elected a member of the Royal Society of England not at all for his remarkable voyages and discoveries, but for the introduction of new rules of nutrition and hygiene on ships.

Despite Cook's strictness, many officers and sailors participated in all three of his voyages. Cook possessed a quality absolutely necessary for a captain - while punishing, he forgave. For example, he willingly took on his second voyage a certain marine who had been severely punished on the Endevre for attempting to desert. It is also significant here that the Marine again wanted to sail under Cook’s command.

Perhaps it cannot be said that the sailors loved him. The captain's reserve bordered on inaccessibility. Officers were often unhappy that Cook did not consult with them or discuss plans. He ruled. But after his first voyage they began to idolize him and worship him. “He was our guiding light,” wrote one officer.

The captain managed to infect the team with his determination, his thirst for discovering new lands. “He who follows orders from above to the letter will never become a true discoverer,” Cook wrote. He was a pioneer by the very nature of his character. Time after time he violated the letter of the Admiralty orders, he knew how and loved to take risks. “The fate of sailors,” we read in his diary, “is fraught with vicissitudes that always await them when sailing in unknown waters. If it were not for the satisfaction that the discoverer experiences even if only sands and shallows await him, this service would have been would be unbearable, especially in such remote places as this country, and with the scarcity of food supplies. The world will hardly forgive a traveler if, having discovered the land, he does not explore it; he will not be justified by the hardships he endured and will be accused of cowardice and lack of perseverance - all they will unanimously declare him a person unsuitable for voyages made for the sake of discovery... On the other hand, if the navigator bravely faces all dangers, but the results of the voyage are unsuccessful, he will be considered impudent and unreasonable... It may seem that there was negligence on my part to spend so much time among these islands and shoals... If we had not visited these places, we would not have been able to give any sensible answer... is this land a continent or a group of islands that lives and grows on it, is connected Is it with other lands?

Cook discovered Oceania to the world - myriads of islands and coral reefs in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Each of them was like a separate, unique little world with its own unusual fauna and flora.

Most of the Pacific islands were already inhabited before Europeans. According to scientists, unknown to us sailors of Southeast Asia reached the islands of Tonga long before the beginning of our era, at the beginning of our era - Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, then Hawaii and Easter Island, and in the 11th - 12th centuries - New Zealand. At a time when European ships were still timidly huddling to the shores, Polynesian and Micronesian sailors boldly went into the open ocean. They had an equally good understanding of both the map of the starry sky and the map of sea currents. They navigated by the constellations and the color of the sea water, by the reflections in the sky of distant coral lagoons and by the subtle smell of land carried by the night breezes.

Kanaka - "people" - they called themselves.

An old Polynesian song says:

The handle of my steering oar is eager for action - It leads me to a foggy, unclear horizon, To a horizon that stretches before us, To a horizon that is forever running away, To a horizon that is always approaching, To a horizon that inspires doubt, To a horizon, which inspires horror... This is a horizon with an unknown force, a horizon that no one has ever penetrated.

Cook owes many of his discoveries to a young Tahitian priest named Tupia. He compiled a map of Oceania for Cook, on which he plotted seventy-four islands scattered within a radius of up to two thousand miles from Tahiti. He even approximately indicated the azimuths of these islands!

Cook, as you know, did not receive any formal education. But he was an excellent, thoughtful observer, and his diary entries about the life of the natives retain scientific value to this day.

Soviet ethnographer S.A. Tokarev writes: “Captain Cook’s ethnographic notes are distinguished - this has been pointed out more than once and for a long time - primarily by their great accuracy and reliability. Cook was sometimes able to see more clearly and understand more accurately than another professional scientist, what appeared to his eyes. He saw not only external facts - the type, clothing, jewelry, behavior of the natives, he was able to recognize social relations; he even understood the languages ​​of the native population, very quickly mastered them enough to communicate with the local residents without an interpreter. But the main thing is not even this. The main thing, perhaps, lies in the great scientific, precisely scientific, although Cook did not belong to the scientific class, the conscientiousness of his observations and records; he always sharply distinguished between what he himself saw and understood, and what could be was supposed - a distinction that we do not always find among professional ethnographers of later and even our time."

In most cases, the natives greeted the British hospitably. It is not for nothing that one of the archipelagos was named the Friendship Islands.

Cook loved the natives in his own way. “The most beautiful people not only in the Pacific Ocean, but in the whole world,” he writes about the inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands. And he calls the population of the island of Elua “a beautiful people on a beautiful island.”

However, all this did not prevent the English navigator from taking hostages every now and then for the most insignificant reasons, for example, because of a “stolen” trinket.

And of course, Cook did not hesitate to use force if the meeting was unfriendly. What could the aborigines do with their spears and clubs against rifles and cannons? Despite resistance, Cook landed on the island and planted the English flag.

Cook's biographer enthuses: "One man, in the space of just two months, added New Zealand to England's colonies, followed by Australia." Cook understood the terrible misfortunes European “civilization” was bringing to the natives. “To the great shame of civilized Christians,” he wrote, “we have corrupted the natives... and after becoming acquainted with us, they began to have needs that the natives had never known before, and they only disturbed the happy tranquility in which their fathers lived and in which they themselves enjoyed."

"Colonization" is no less cruel a word than "conquest". Fifty years after Cook, the population of Tahiti decreased tenfold. A hundred years later, the Maori - the inhabitants of New Zealand - and the Aborigines of Tasmania were almost completely destroyed.

James Cook's first circumnavigation of the world lasted two years, ten months and seventeen days. On July 13, 1771, Endevre returned to England, and a month later Cook was received by the king. Lieutenant Cook became captain 3rd rank. It seems that even then there was talk of a new expedition. This second voyage (1772-1775) is rightfully considered the most important event in the development of geographical concepts of the 18th century.

Since ancient times, people have been confident in the existence of a huge continent in the southern hemisphere. According to Ptolemy, Terra Australis Incognita - the Unknown Southern Land - was a continuation of Africa and closed the Indian Ocean from the south in equatorial latitudes (approximately 15° S). On Ortelius' map (1570), the "Southern Land, not yet known" retreats into higher latitudes. Tierra del Fuego, discovered by Magellan, and New Guinea were considered peninsulas of this continent.

In 1606, the Spanish navigator Pedro Fernandez Quiros crossed the Pacific Ocean and discovered - we now know - the island of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides archipelago. This island is twenty times smaller than Sicily, but Quiros believed that he had achieved his goal. He gave the country the sonorous name “Southern Land of the Holy Spirit” (Tierra Australia del Espirito Santo) and founded New Jerusalem here - the capital of the “huge” continent.

“This previously hidden Earth,” Quiros wrote to the Spanish king, “occupies a quarter of the world and as such is twice as large as all the kingdoms and provinces that your Majesty owns... Moreover, there are no Turks, Moors, or other peoples on its borders ", which cause unrest and unrest. All open lands lie in a hot zone and in some places reach the equator, and from the equator they stretch to the south, in some places to the pole, and in others a little closer."

In the middle of the 18th century, the so-called speculative geography flourished. The existence of the southern continent was now scientifically substantiated.

The name "Resolution" is usually translated as "Decision", but it is more correct to translate "Decision"

In vain did the French navigator Bougainville write mockingly about “scientists” “who, in the quiet of their offices, philosophize about the Earth and its inhabitants to the point of darkness, and stubbornly subjugate nature to the whims of their imagination.” In vain.

According to armchair geographers, the southern continent had to exist to “balance” the land masses of the northern 70th hemisphere.

Otherwise, the geographers said thoughtfully, the Earth would constantly be turned towards the Sun by the heavier northern half.

In addition, there was a strong belief that sea water could not freeze at all (in fact, it freezes at temperatures below zero degrees).

It was believed that all the ice of the Arctic Ocean formed on the rivers of Siberia and North America. And if so, then we could only assume that the ice and huge icebergs that sailors encountered in the southern latitudes carried the high-water rivers of an unknown continent into the ocean.

The English geographer Alexander Dalrymple calculated its length - no less than 8516 kilometers! And he even managed to calculate the population of the Southern continent - 50 million people!

"Resolution" and "Adventure" in the ice of the Southern Ocean. Cook first crossed the Antarctic Circle in 1773

The trouble was that ships very rarely came south of the 50th parallel.

Now Cook was ordered to “go around the globe in high latitudes...”

On July 13, 1772 - exactly one year after the return of Endevre - the cats Resolution and Adventure left Plymouth.

Cook became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. This happened on January 17, 1773. The ships were not at all prepared for polar navigation, and the temperature in the cockpits was approximately the same as on the deck.

“The rigging was all frozen and decorated with icicles,” Cook wrote. “Our shrouds were like wire, the sails were like boards or metal sheets, and the pulleys were frozen to the blocks so that great efforts were required to lower or raise the topsails. The cold was unbearable, everything the sea is covered with ice."

Time after time, Cook repeated attempts to get as far south as possible. He followed the instructions of the Admiralty: he circumnavigated the world at high latitudes.

“The desire to achieve the goal took me not only further than all other people - my predecessors, but also further than the limit to which, as I believe, a person can generally reach,” Cook wrote. “The outer, or northern, edge of this huge ice field consisted of broken ice or ice fragments so closely packed that nothing could get in. About a mile further on the solid ice began - one continuous compact body... In this field we counted 97 ice hills, or mountains, and very many of them were extremely large... We could no longer move a single inch to the south, and therefore no other arguments are required to explain the need to return to the north; at that time we were in the latitude of 71 ° 10 "N. w. and in longitude 106°54"W."

By this time the ships had already separated. Tobias Furneaux, captain of the Adventure, considered his task completed and left for England. All the sailors of the Resolution were also sure that the voyage was ending. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Cook’s obsession: after all, food supplies had not yet run out, the crew was healthy, and therefore the voyage must continue!

Midshipman John Elliott ( the rank of "midshipman" can be conditionally equated to the rank of "midshipman" in the Russian fleet) wrote then: “We were all terribly exhausted at that time, because while going to O (Ost. - Author), we got it into our heads that we were going straight to Cape Horn on the road to the house. Our supplies of tea, sugar and everything else were quickly spent, in connection with this many hints were made to Captain Cook. But he only smiled and said nothing, so that even his first mate did not know when we would leave any place and when we would arrive at the next. In this, and in in all other respects, he was the most suitable person for such a voyage. And then all our hopes were dashed in an instant, for... instead of going to O, Captain Cook ordered the ship to be sailed to S. We were extremely amazed, and moment when there was almost a murmur on the ship."

Around the same time, Cook wrote in his diary: “I must pay tribute to my companions - under any circumstances they showed readiness to assist me in the success of my planned enterprises by all possible means. In this regard, it is hardly necessary to mention that the sailors were always efficient and obedient and in this case they did not at all want our journey to end. They were pleased with the prospect that the voyage would increase by a year."

“So who was right, Elliott or Cook?” the biographer asks. “What did the team want - to immediately go to England or spend another one, or even two years in the southern seas and all this time experience hardships and homesickness? "

One thing can be said - midshipman John Elliott and captain James Cook looked at the world with different eyes. Tea, sugar? Are you all terribly exhausted? Murmur? What nonsense! We must do everything that is necessary, we must do everything that is possible. And then - do the impossible!

After Cook's voyage, there was no doubt: the “balancing continent” does not exist. “I have now circled the Southern Ocean in high latitudes,” Cook wrote, “and crossed it in such a way that there was no space left where the mainland could be located, except near the pole, in places inaccessible to navigation.”

It must be emphasized that Cook refuted and rejected only the existence of a huge “balancing” continent. “I will not deny,” he wrote, “that there may be a continent or land of significant size near the pole - on the contrary, I am of the opinion that such land exists there.”

But geographers were so shocked by the collapse of their theoretical conclusions that they tried to “forget” about the southern continent forever. Ironically, when Antarctica was already discovered, they continued to “not believe” in its existence. A funny impression is produced by maps compiled at the beginning of this century, on which hundreds and thousands of kilometers of the coast of the southern continent are plotted along the perimeter, and in the center, without hesitation, it is signed - “Southern Ocean”!

Probably, if Cook had made only one - his first - voyage, we would have called him a great navigator. He opened Oceania to the world! Now, after finishing the second, he has become the greatest. He made a revolution in geographical science. Cook's authority is indisputable. When Cook set off on his third and final voyage a year later, France and the United States made a completely unprecedented decision. Despite the war with the British, despite the fact that their ships on all oceans mercilessly sink all British ships - both military and commercial, despite all this, they will declare the ships of the English navigator James Cook inviolable.

The son of a farm laborer is at the zenith of glory!

Looking at the portrait of Cook, painted at this time, it is difficult to get rid of the impression that his entire appearance exudes some kind of all-crushing power. High forehead, straight nose, sharp facial features. Particularly expressive are the eyes, the look of which, even from a portrait, is not easy to maintain.

Cook was indifferent to fame; achieving the goal itself was the best reward for him. Just 12 days after returning to England, he sadly writes to an old friend: “... a few months ago the whole southern hemisphere seemed cramped to me, but now I am limited by walls...”

He was received by the king, received the rank of captain of the 1st rank, received the honorable and quiet position of Chief Warden of the Greenwich Naval Hospital... But less than a year had passed before he again ascended to the captain's bridge of the Resolution.

This time the main goal of the expedition was to search for the Northwest Passage - a sea route from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, around the northern shores of North America.

"Resolution" and "Discovery" off Cape Ledyanoy (Alaska). August 1778

On July 12, 1776, the Resolution, under the command of Cook, set sail. On November 10, he was joined in Cape Town by Discovery under the command of Charles Clarke.

In the Pacific Ocean, Cook first headed for his beloved Friendship Islands, the Tonga archipelago. Here the ships lingered for a long time, moving aimlessly and leisurely from island to island.

It seems that the captain was simply tired. For many years (if we ignore childhood, exactly as long as he lived), Cook did not know rest, persistently walking up the ladder of life. In 1762 he married. But out of the past fifteen years, he was only at home for three years, in between expeditions. All this plus the crazy stress of two consecutive round-the-world voyages - six years! - could not help but have an impact. Of course he was tired. He became even colder, more unapproachable in his relations with his subordinates, and more cruel in his relations with the natives. Sometimes he was overcome by uncontrollable attacks of rage, when he could no longer control his actions. Midshipman J. Trevenen in his notes calls such seizures with the native word “heiva” and explains: “heiva is a dance among the islanders of the southern seas that is very reminiscent of convulsions.”

Perhaps this lack of restraint was the root cause of what happened subsequently?

After leaving the Tongan archipelago, the ships entered Tahiti and then headed north. Along the way, Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, but did not stop to explore them. He strove for the shores of Alaska, for the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

Alaska and the Aleutian Islands had already been discovered by Russian sailors and settled by Russian industrialists. The strait separating Asia from America was mapped. True, the world’s cartographers still had some doubts about the accuracy of Bering’s data, but Cook finally rejected them: “Giving tribute to Bering’s memory, I must say that he marked this coast very well, and determined the latitudes and longitudes of the capes with such accuracy that it is difficult was expected."

Cook himself named one of the bays in the Gulf of Alaska Bering Bay - Berings Bay. And later, one of the participants in his expeditions, naturalist G. Forster, introduced such names as are familiar to us - Bering Strait, Bering Sea...

The ice of the Chukchi Sea turned out to be insurmountable. First, Cook walked east along the coast of Alaska. It was stopped at Cape Ledyanoy. Then he turned west and reached Cape Northern (now Cape Schmidt). Winter was approaching. Cook did not accept defeat; he intended to repeat the attempt to find the Northwest Passage next summer. “I will not stop in my pursuit of the great goal of this journey,” he wrote. In the meantime, waiting for the summer, the ships returned to the Hawaiian Islands to complete their inspection, make the necessary repairs, and stock up on fresh provisions.

Perhaps nowhere was Cook greeted as much as in Hawaii. According to local legends, the god Lono - the god of happiness, the god of peace - left the islands a long time ago and sailed overseas. Sailed away, but must return.

Cook was accepted as a returning deity. One and a half thousand canoes came out to meet the ships. Hundreds of swimmers glided through the water like schools of fish. Thousands of islanders were waiting for Cook on the shore to prostrate themselves before the deity...

It's hard to be a god... The reason was generally insignificant, not even worth mentioning, but Cook lost his temper.

“The captain expressed regret that the behavior of the Indians forced him to use force,” writes one of the senior officers. “He said that in this case they should not hope to be able to defeat us ....” Once in a conversation, Cook remarked: “I can’t understand why Magellan needed to enter into an unnecessary skirmish with the natives.”

Now Cook himself led the punitive expedition and ordered the king of the Hawaiian Islands to be taken hostage... A crowd of thousands of excited natives surrounded the captain and the dozen soldiers accompanying him. A volley rang out. Cook himself shot and wounded the native. God of peace?! Cook turned his back to the crowd to approach the boat...

From the report of Lieutenant King: “He was already at the water's edge when one chief struck him in the neck and shoulder with a sharp iron stick; the captain fell face down into the water. The Indians rushed towards him with a loud cry, hundreds of them surrounded the body, finishing off the fallen man with daggers and clubs ..."

This happened on February 14, 1779 in Kealakekua Bay of the Hawaiian Islands... Only on February 22, Cook's remains - scalp, head without lower jaw, femur, forearm bones, hands - were buried at sea...

The British were thirsty for revenge. But Captain Charles Clarke, who led the expedition after Cook's death, showed wisdom. He forbade bloodshed, understanding that the killing was not premeditated.

“There are good reasons to suppose,” Clark wrote, “that the natives would not have gone so far if... Captain Cook had not fired at them...”

The last days of his life he was a deity for the natives. For many years he was a deity for sailors who participated in his expeditions.

Now the ships were destined to return to England without their captain.

After Cook's death, the expedition was led by 27-year-old Discovery captain Charles Clarke.

Charles Clarke also failed to complete the expedition. He died of tuberculosis during a repeated voyage in search of the Northwest Passage and was buried in Kamchatka, in Petropavlovsk. He was only 27 years old, but he became a sailor at twelve, and the last expedition was his fourth (!) circumnavigation of the world. He made three of them under the command of James Cook.

Of the participants in the last expedition alone, twelve became captains, one became an admiral. The names of many of them are widely known. After Clark's death, Captain James King led the Resolution to England, and Captain James Barney brought the Discovery. Captain George Vancouver later became famous for his exploration of the coast of Northwestern America. Captain Joseph Billings, having entered service in Russia, led an expedition to the Arctic Ocean, mapped Chukotka...

They say that even fifty years later, as soon as some former cabin boy said: “I sailed with Captain Cook,” hats were taken off to him. The great English navigator deserved his fame, as did those who stood next to him on the decks of ships. They went through a harsh school - it is difficult for us to imagine its severity.

Of course, Cook was an outstanding navigator, navigator and cartographer. But not only this determined the success of his expeditions. And not only this allowed him to raise a galaxy of brilliant captains.

On the second, main voyage, his ships were called "Resolution" and "Adventure". In Russian editions of Cook's diaries, these titles are usually translated as “Decision” and “Enterprise” - not a completely accurate translation. The word "resolution" also has a second meaning - "determination". And the word “adventure” means not just “enterprise”, but necessarily “risky enterprise”, “risk”.

“Resolve” and “Risk” - that’s what was written on the sides of Cook’s ships. This was the motto of his life.

One of the participants in his last expedition wrote: “Nature gifted him with a lively and extensive mind, the abilities of which he hardworkingly and persistently developed in his mature years. His knowledge was immense and varied, and in his profession he knew no equal. Possessing the ability to judge soberly, with great courage and perseverance, being especially inclined to action, he pursued the goal set before him with inflexibility and always remained highly active and collected, calm and imperturbable in the face of dangers, patient and firm in difficulties and failures, generous when circumstances required it; "great and original in all his undertakings; energetic and persistent in carrying them out. In any difficult situation, he was above everyone, having no rivals or competitors, all eyes were turned to him, he was our guiding star."

Captain James King noted: “Knowledge, experience, insight helped him to master his profession so comprehensively that the greatest obstacles were overcome and the most difficult voyages became easy and almost safe under his leadership...”

On the memorial, which was built in England in memory of Captain James Cook, the words are engraved:

"He possessed to an outstanding degree all the qualities required for great undertakings."

Researchers put their names next to each other. Scott and Amundsen. Two travelers, an Englishman and a Norwegian. Both were passionately eager to reach the South Pole. Both arrived, but only one returned.

When forming their expeditions, Amundsen and Scott adhered to completely different points of view. Amundsen planned separate raids. Scott - general offensive. Amundsen's squad consisted of no more than 10 people. Scott led 20-30 scouts. Scott preferred active-duty sailors, but he also did not refuse volunteers who were able to pay their share of expenses. This can probably explain the fact that Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Lawrence Oates participated in Scott’s last expedition. They each contributed £1,000.

A recent Oxford graduate, Cherry-Garrard was a green boy. He came to Scott at the insistence of his relatives, who believed that a trip to Antarctica would strengthen him physically and morally.

Captain Ots, who came from an aristocratic environment, had a personal income and led the typical life of a cavalry officer: he played polo, visited a shooting range, hunted, owned his own outhouse, a yacht and a pair of racehorses. Scott was just looking for a person to care for the horses that were supposed to pull the expedition equipment on the first stage of the journey to the Pole. Ots's offer was so opportune that Scott enrolled him in the detachment in absentia.

Another volunteer, Trygve Grahn (who recently died at the age of 91. Grahn became the first pilot to fly across the North Sea; wrote several books - Ed.), was recommended to Scott by the Norwegian hero of the Arctic Fridtjof Nansen. Twenty-year-old Gran was an excellent skier, and by demonstrating his technique, he was able to convince Scott, who was previously skeptical, that during a long journey across the Antarctic expanses, skis should take a strong place in the arsenal of means of transportation along with motorized sleighs, horses and dogs.

Captain Scott clearly hoped that Gran would be able to turn his companions into skilled skiers in the short time between the landing in Antarctica and the start to the Pole, that is, in a few months instead of the usual several years. Many of them, such as Oates and Lieutenant Bowers of the Royal Indian Navy, did not ski at all.

Fridtjof Nansen convinced Scott to take Siberian dogs to Antarctica. They decided to bring ponies for the expedition from Manchuria, where a special breed of animals was bred that could withstand frost well. 33 huskies and a dozen ponies were delivered by sea to New Zealand, where the expedition members were to arrive on the ship Terra Nova.

Race for the Championship

By the time Scott announced his second expedition to Antarctica (this was in September 1909), Roald Amundsen had already hatched his own plan for a trip to the South Pole, but kept it secret not only from Scott and other famous explorers, but even from future participants in his polar raid. He did not even risk ordering maps of Antarctica openly, but obtained them through his country’s embassy in London.

Amundsen's intentions were revealed only when the Fram, Nansen's old Arctic ship, converted for a voyage to the Antarctic, reached the island of Madeira on its way south.

A desperate race for championship began. Amundsen's behavior, which, however, did not cause a wide resonance in England at that time, was regarded as incorrect. Scott, on the Terra Nova, anchored in Melbourne, having received a cable with this news, was afraid that the Norwegians would try to “seize” the proposed landing site of his expedition on the Ross Sea coast in McMurdo Sound and the area allocated for the base.

But “Terra Nova” arrived in Antarctica first, and only 10 days later, on the opposite shore of the Ross Sea, in Whale Bay, the Norwegian team landed, bringing with them sleighs, skis and a hundred dogs.

Already the first failures of the British on the ground in Antarctica did not bode well - one of the three motor sleighs specially made for the expedition fell through the ice.

The first trip to lay food along the expedition route was very difficult for the British. Every morning the ponies set off first, and the fast dogs started later in order to arrive at their destination at the same time. Ots called this procedure overly complicated and ineffective. He often wondered what would happen when the motor sleighs were used. “The attempt to use three modes of transport at once amazes me,” he wrote home. “This doesn’t bring success even in the army, and therefore I am absolutely sure that nothing will work out for Scott.”

At first Oates did not believe in the effectiveness of dog sleds, but he soon became convinced that dogs were better adapted to polar conditions than ponies. When he noticed how the horses were weakening from cold, hunger, and hard work, he began to insist that Scott slaughter the weakest animals along the route and leave their carcasses in storage for the next season - as food for dogs, and if necessary, for people . Scott refused - he was disgusted by the thought of killing animals.

“I am against cruelty to animals,” Scott said dryly, “and I will not give up my principles in order to continue our movement forward.”

“I'm afraid you'll regret this, sir,” Oates said at the end, annoyed by Scott's sensitivity.

After laying down the storage facility, which they called “One Ton” (due to its capacity), Scott ordered the detachment to return to base.

Roald Amundsen, a good organizer and psychologist who knew how to find an approach to people and establish the right relationships with them in any situation, handled the matter differently and very thoughtfully.

In a small, isolated team, where any friction can lead to a squabble between people, morning irritability is fraught with serious emotional danger. Scott, for example, was downright grumpy in the mornings and would take his anger out on anyone who came his way. The more sensitive Amundsen knew how to control himself and looked for ways to relieve morning tension among his subordinates. So, he organized competitions in guessing the air temperature. Every month the winners were awarded prizes, and the one who won the overall victory at the end of the season received the main reward - a spyglass. Amundsen told the detachment that this was being done in order to develop in everyone the ability to determine the temperature themselves in case all the thermometers failed during the polar expedition. His true goal was to lure people into the fresh, frosty air, which is so important for a good morning mood.

Amundsen wanted to entertain people. Every Saturday the expedition prepared hot cognac punch. On Sundays, holidays and birthdays, dinners with strong drinks were held. This helped to stop emerging conflicts, since a friendly feast among the Scandinavians has ritual significance.

On Saturday evenings they had a sauna, also a kind of ritual of cleansing the body and spirit. Heat and steam were obtained here using two primus stoves covered with a metal tray. Running naked through an ice tunnel between the sauna and the residential barracks replaced the traditional snow bathing after the sauna.

Amundsen considered it extremely important to protect people from scurvy. He insisted that the rations include raw seal meat, which was served daily for lunch and dinner, and for dinner in blueberry sauce. The cook of the expedition always undercooked the meat, thanks to which, as we now know, vitamin C is well preserved in it. In addition, the Norwegians ate bread made from wholemeal flour and products made from yeast dough. Thanks to this, the body was saturated with vitamin B.

Seal meat, black bread, hot cakes - natural and nutritious foods - formed the basis of the diet of the Norwegian expedition. The English, according to Gran, “lived in luxury,” eating foods that were considered delicacies even in civilized conditions. They ate white, not black bread. Their diet included a lot of canned food, which is poor in vitamin C. They did not eat seal meat every day and, moreover, only in overcooked form. The exquisite diet of the English expedition threatened its members with illness.

Step by step - to disappointment

In many respects, the two bases were strikingly different from each other. The atmosphere in Framheim was akin to the atmosphere of a mountain hut or a hunting vessel. In Cape Evans, on the contrary, there was a peculiar hybrid of a warship and a professorship. In the barracks, divided in two by a partition made of packing boxes, officers and scientists were housed on one half, and ordinary participants in the campaign lived a separate life on the other. Since the expedition was given a naval character from the very beginning, it was logical to maintain the distinctions accepted in the fleet on the shore. However, the contrast between the atmosphere in one and the other team was determined by the quality of their leadership.

The spirit of business that reigned in Framheim was very faintly felt in Cape Evans. The Antarctic winter passed in idleness, laziness, and an atmosphere of amateurism. Camp duties were carried out on a voluntary basis, and the “obedient horses” were completely ridden. The development of movement techniques during the expedition was ignored.

A tragically symbolic figure in this company was Lawrence Oates. A random person among them, he was a stranger both to the top of the expedition and to its unskilled workers who lived on the other side of the “partition.” Ots sat for hours in the stable by the stove, which was heated with blubber. Scott believed he was doing this out of love for horses. Yes, that was partly true, but it was also true that he preferred their company to the company of people.

The fact that Scott at some stage lost faith in himself is confirmed by his letter to his wife, written shortly before reaching the Pole: “I am now firmly in the saddle. Both physically and mentally I am ready to work, and I know that others see this and have complete trust in me. But the fact is that in London, or rather, until we got here, everything was different. The trouble was that I lost faith in myself..."

Whether Scott was lying to his wife or not when he wrote that his companions now had complete confidence in him, he was deceiving himself in the first place if he sincerely believed it. Here is what Oates, who was probably the most outspoken in criticizing what was happening here, writes: “The winter was terrible, although we all got along well with each other... I really dislike Scott and would have given up this idea if our expedition had not been English and we had not should have prevailed over the Norwegians. Scott is unfailingly polite to me, and I have a reputation for being able to get along with him. But the fact is that he is an insincere person, he puts himself first, the rest are far behind, and when he gets what he needs from you, your song is done.” These are lines from a letter to my mother while waiting for the start of the hike.

On Wednesday, November 1, 1911, sometime around 11 a.m., Scott, who was, according to Grahn, “a little” but in fact thoroughly nervous, harnessed his pony to the wrong sleigh and, in embarrassment, was forced to change it. This happened before the polar detachment went on a campaign. One by one, the eight men, each leading a harnessed pony, disappeared into the gray silence.

A few hours later the phone rang at the base. Scott was on the line, speaking from the forward post. He explained that in the pre-launch fever he had left the United Kingdom flag at the base, which Queen Alexandra had given him with instructions to hoist it at the pole. He wanted the flag to be delivered to their camp site. Gran was entrusted with this task as the fastest and most technical skier. However, a snow storm delayed him until the next day.

The next day, Gran set off on his journey immediately after noon, wrapping a cloth around his body so as not to wrinkle it. The skier ran as hard as he could, covered the 15 miles (1 mile = 1.6 kilometers) to Hut Point in three hours in a strong headwind, and showed up at the party just before he left the parking lot.

And the flag of Norway was already flying over the South Pole...

Scott's detachment slowly covered the last 110 miles remaining to the Pole. One after another, the horses fell out of action. Scott seemed to understand that pulling a sled was “grueling work.” In addition, he and the others “were terribly oppressed by the monotony of actions, and everyone could easily convince themselves that they were no longer good for anything.” The detachment was in this mood even before reaching the goal, and yet there was more than half the way ahead.

Having been delayed in the start due to the fact that the horses could not tolerate low temperatures, Scott doomed the detachment to arrive at the Polar Plateau at an inconvenient time - three weeks after the summer solstice. The frosts were already 10 degrees lower than those that found Amundsen's expedition near the Pole. The members of Scott's squad had no fur equipment, not counting mittens and boots, and this made itself felt by constant frostbite, especially in the face.

Among other things, Scott's men suffered from dehydration. During hard physical work at high altitudes and low temperatures, the human body loses a large amount of fluid through sweat. The loss must be compensated, and for this you need to drink a lot. Scott barely had enough fuel for cooking, so the question of using it to melt snow and get the drinking water necessary to maintain health did not even arise. Dehydration manifested itself with symptoms such as physical weakness, nervous disorders, and general exhaustion.

By the time Scott and his comrades reached the Polar Plateau, they had developed vitamin deficiencies - a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2) and niacin - which, combined with general malnutrition, convincingly explains the state of depression that reigned in the detachment. Vitamin C deficiency caused open suppuration after a cut on the hand of naval petty officer Evans, which stubbornly did not go away.

Payback for hindsight

Neither Scott, skiing ahead, nor Wilson, trudged alongside, noticed the dark spot ahead that disturbed the even whiteness of the area. Bowers, trudged along in the middle of the caravan, saw him first. It was five o'clock in the afternoon.

The spot slowly grew, turning into a swaying object, and soon they stood under a black flag - the flag of the collapse of their hopes. Dog droppings and paw prints in the snow told them a simple story. The merciless wind blowing in my face seemed harsher than an hour ago. “It’s not a very happy evening for us today,” said Ots.

The shock of the discovery caused a sleepless night. “Scott accepts defeat much better than I expected,” wrote Ots. “Amundsen, I must admit, has a head on his shoulders. The Norwegians probably walked comfortably on dog sleds, in contrast to our terrible journey with sleighs on our backs.”

The next morning, leaving the parking lot and the black flag, they reached the pole, which was several miles away. In the Norwegian tent, Scott discovered an envelope with Amundsen's address to King Haakon, and on top - a letter addressed to him personally:

“Dear Captain Scott!

Since you will probably be the first to reach this place after us, I ask you to do me the courtesy of forwarding this letter to King Haakon VII. If you need things left in the tent, please use any of them without hesitation. Please accept my good wishes for a safe return.

Sincerely yours, Roald Amundsen."

“This thing has me stumped,” Scott wrote in his diary. These words are indicative of the state of mind of the commander of the English detachment at that time. He did not understand that Amundsen's letter was a routine precaution in case of disaster. He probably suspected it was a hidden attempt to humiliate him. In any case, the effect was devastating. In one fell swoop, according to one of the expedition members, Scott “was demoted from scouts to postmen.” The return journey for the English detachment was not difficult: no rough terrain, no mountains not marked on the map - only a smooth, well-trodden road to the wide gate to the Beardmore Glacier. A steady polar wind was blowing at their back, the sleigh moved as if on sails, the hard crust crunched under their feet, and ahead of them lay a convenient descent from the top of the plateau. All this helped Scott's squad feel better. In the first three weeks the party covered an average of 14 miles a day, only slightly slower than Amundsen's group, which covered 15 miles a day. But the British had a new painful problem - finding storage facilities. Scott did not use simple transverse markings of the terrain, like Amundsen, but left only flags, which were of little use in such conditions. Conventional landmarks in the form of pyramids also did not help, since they were too low and few in number. In devising a return route, Scott relied on footprints left in the snow. For convenience, Amundsen did the same. But he had dogs and also an advanced group of scouts, looking for tracks in the snow. In Scott's detachment, where people pulled sleighs behind them, such orientation turned out to be ineffective, since the tracks were sometimes impossible to distinguish. The British had to straighten up and fumble around every time. Therefore, determining the direction seemed to Scott's people a terribly difficult task. Moreover, it was effective only in clear weather.

Twice in the first week the British advance was stopped by snow storms. They considered it impossible to travel in such conditions, although this was not an axiom, since the wind was blowing favorably. Footprints covered with snow were often difficult to spot due to the sun shining in the eyes. It did not occur to Scott, like Amundsen, to switch to night mode of movement when the sun was behind them.

Walking was excruciatingly difficult, Bowers said. “I would be glad to have my good old skis,” he wrote on January 31, when the detachment had already covered a distance of 360 miles. After February 4, Bowers stopped keeping a diary altogether.

Bowers was an optimist, and such people usually do not like to talk about troubles. The first alarm sounded on January 25, during the search for the next storage facility. “We only have food left for three days, and we will be in trouble if we don’t find the warehouse,” he writes. Bowers was in charge of provisions and knew that Scott was running out of supplies, but only now he began to understand to what extent the commander was cutting down their supplies.

Petty Officer Evans was the largest in the detachment in height and weight, but he had to make do with the same rations as the rest. Therefore, he was the most hungry of all, and his health deteriorated sharply. He lost a lot of weight, the wound on his arm would not heal, and by the end of January Evans could no longer even help with setting up camp.

When the party began descending from the glacier on February 4, Scott and Evans fell waist-deep into a crevasse, Evans twice. In general, this is a common incident in the mountains, but that same evening Scott wrote that Evans was “becoming rather stupid and helpless,” and the next day he again noted that the foreman was “behaving very stupidly.”

An unhealed wound, festering cuts, prolonged nosebleeds - all this gives reason to assume that Evans was suffering from vitamin C deficiency on the return route. He probably began to develop scurvy. A slight shock from a fall into a crevasse could be sufficient to cause damage to the blood vessels of the brain and cause cerebral hemorrhage.

Last days

The crisis came on February 16th. During the day, Evans felt weak, bouts of nausea, and dizzy. Oates, as usual, described the situation honestly: “Evans was the first to take off his harness and hold on to the sleigh, and later he said that he could not go any further. If he doesn't get better by tomorrow, God knows how we'll get him home. We probably won’t be able to carry him in a sleigh.”

The next day, the foreman seemed to feel better; he harnessed himself to the sleigh, but it immediately became clear that he was unable to pull it. His companions were in despair, as they again had to get to the next vault at speed. Their food supply was running low, and they could not afford a moment's delay. At this time, something happened to Evans' boots. He was left to get himself in order and told to catch up with the squad as soon as he had everything settled.

“After lunch,” writes Oates, “Evans was still missing, so we skied back for him—Scott and I. We found him on all fours in the snow in a very pitiful condition. He couldn't walk. We went to get an empty sleigh to transport him to the tent.” Evans died that night.

Scott's squad continued to struggle for life, now covering only 6-7 miles of travel per day. On February 24, having reached the next storage facility, Scott discovered a fuel leak.

“What a pity that we have little fuel... The disappearance of fuel continues to cause concern... Fuel is insanely low... The situation is critical. We may be safe when we reach the next vault, but I have a feeling of foreboding."

These notes from Scott indicate that he understood the gravity of the situation. The squad was facing a duel with death. The British arrived at the next warehouse on March 1, and here the picture familiar from the previous warehouse was repeated. Instead of the expected gallon (1 gallon = 4.5 liters) of kerosene, Scott found less than a quart in the can (1 quart = 1.13 liters), and the lifesaver - “One Ton” - was 150 miles away. These kerosene leaks in extremely cold temperatures were familiar to polar explorers. Amundsen, who encountered this phenomenon while sailing through the Northwest Passage, made every effort to avoid it at the South Pole. Fifty years later, at 86 degrees south latitude, a hermetically sealed canister of kerosene was found, the contents of which were completely preserved. The canister belonged to Amundsen's squad. Scott, on the other hand, did not know how to store fuel that was vital for the detachment, and it partially evaporated just three months after the storage facilities were laid.

Ots developed gangrene as a result of frequent frostbite. Out of false courage, he hid this fact until, on March 2, the pain became so severe that he was forced to confess.

On February 25, Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Russian dog driver Dmitry Gorev set out with a dog team from Cape Evans to meet the polar detachment. Cherry-Garrard was in no way suited for this role. He had never dealt with dogs before. He was nearsighted and could not navigate. Scott always laughed at him when he tried to master this science. Cherry imagined that this mission would just be a nice stroll. On March 4, they reached the One Ton storage facility without incident, covering 20 miles a day thanks to Dmitry's experience.

There was no sign of Scott. A storm began and raged for four days, pinning Cherry and his partner to the spot. An experienced musher could have continued on his way, but Cherry was by no means one, and Dmitry had no desire to travel in a storm. Besides, according to their calculations, Scott would not necessarily reach the One Ton yet, and Cherry felt entitled to remain where he was. After waiting for Scott for six days, he turned back, still unaware of the mortal danger that hung over the polar detachment.

By the time Cherry Garrard returned to base, Oates was already at death's door. Scott ordered Wilson to distribute opium pills so that anyone who wanted could relieve their suffering. By March 14 or 15 - they had lost count of the days - Ots's suffering had become unbearable. That night in the tent, Ots wrote until late, then handed Wilson his diary, asking him to give it to his mother.

“She,” said Ots, “is the only woman I have ever loved.”

In the morning, Ots barely crawled out of his torn, damp sleeping bag, crawled over his neighbors’ legs, hobbled to the exit and disappeared in a snowy whirlwind. Nobody saw him again.

Wilson wrote to Oates' mother that he had never met a man of such courage as her son had shown. He died like a soldier and like a man, without a single complaint, Wilson reported.

“A little more experience - and their enterprise would have been crowned with success...”

The weather cleared, and this gave Scott, Wilson and Bowers the strength to fight for life for some time. On March 21, when only 11 miles separated them from the One Ton, they were almost out of food and fuel. They set up camp, and then another storm began, coming from the southwest. Scott's leg was frostbitten, and now the commander himself became a brake on progress. Wilson and Bowers, still in their best shape, prepared to go to the storage facility themselves and bring food and kerosene. But something stopped them. It's unclear what. For at least nine days they lay next to Scott - each in his own sleeping bag, the remains of food and kerosene hopelessly melting, and the life was slowly leaving them.

Wilson and Bowers wrote several bitter, personal letters. Scott prepared his farewell messages ahead of time. The first letter is dated March 16 and addressed to the expedition's treasurer, Sir Edgar Speyer. “I am afraid that we are destined to perish,” he wrote.

In addition, Scott addressed a message to the public in which he wrote: “The causes of the disaster lie not in organizational failures, but in an unfortunate combination of circumstances in the context of the risks that we had to take. Loss of ponies... Weather... Soft snow on the lower parts of the glacier... Problems of food, clothing, storage... I don't think a person has ever experienced what we experienced in one month... We would have gone through this... if not for the illness... of Captain Oates and not the disappearance of fuel in our storage facilities, for which I cannot be held responsible.”

The English expedition, which spent the winter in Cape Evans, was sure that Scott's detachment had died. The search party left the base on October 29, 1912, heading south. It consisted of 12 men with dogs and seven Himalayan mules used by the Royal Indian Army. As far as possible the party stuck to the old route.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, about 10 miles south of the One Ton storage facility, when the search party was just about to set up camp, people saw what they initially took to be a conventional landmark. In fact, it turned out to be a tent covered with snow. Scott, Wilson and Bowers were so close to salvation that Gran, shocked by this thought, wrote in his diary: “I can’t help but think that we could have saved Scott. We might have been successful if Cherry had known his way around.”

Scott's death made him a national hero, England anxiously reread the lines from his message to the public: “Bad weather was certainly to blame for our crash ... I don’t think that ever a person experienced what we experienced in one month ... I don’t regret it a journey in which we proved that the English, as before, know how to endure hardship, help each other and face death courageously.”

Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole was something between art and sport. Scott saw the Pole as a springboard for displaying heroism for heroism's sake. “They had plenty of courage, firmness, and strength,” wrote Amundsen. “A little more experience and their venture would have been a success.”

Roland Huntford, Observer, London