Pacific Exploration & Captain Cook

A careful and accessible survey of modern archaeological, anthropological, genetic and linguistic findings about the origins of Maori and Pacific Islanders and the 200 year old history of Western ideas about Polynesian origins.

Penguin Books NZ, Auckland, 2003. Paperback. 235 pages. SECONDHAND

In 1606 the little Dutch East India Company ship Duyfken was the first European vessel to sight the continent of Australia. This is that story and also of the construction of a replica ship.

University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1999. Softback. 218 pages. SECONDHAND

Isaac Gilsemans and the Voyages of Abel Tasman. A vivid picture of Tasman's achievements as navigator and explorer revealing the role played in them by his merchant Isaac Gilsemans.

Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2001. Softback. 162 pages, illustrations. SECONDHAND

A fresh history of early Tahiti, considerably richer than any published before, a tour de force, precise in its reconstruction of the political relationships that evolved with the visits of the British, French and Spanish.

Penguin Viking NZ, Auckland, 2009. Hardback with dust jacket. 537 pages. NEW

Recounts the expeditions to observe the transits, a tale of obsession and personal tragedy, and an inspiring account of Enlightenment science and discovery.

William Heinemann, London, 2012. Hardback with dust jacket. 304 pages. NEW

New Zealander Professor John Cawte Beaglehole is the doyen of Cook scholars best know for his editing of Cook's complete journals published in 4 volumes by the Haklyut Society. This book is a deeply revealing study of the growth of a complex character, stubborn and passionate yet patient and judicious, seen in his actions as an unrivalled navigator, explorer and commander of men. Sunning to jacket at spine.

A & C Black Ltd. London, 1974. Hardback with dust jacket. 760 pages. SECONDHAND

The first ever detailed account of Cook's early naval career that helps explain why he was chosen to lead the expedition to the Pacific in 1768, having become supremely and uniquely qualified for the exacting task of exploration.

University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009. Hardback with dust jacket. 216 pages. NEW

The Journals of Captain Cook provide a vivid first-hand account of his three voyages  of discovery during which he charted the coast of New Zealand, the east coast of Australia and brought back detailed descriptions of Tahiti, Tonga and numerous other Pacific Islands. This edition, abridged from the Hakluyt Society’s definitive four-volume collection and preserving Cook’s idiosyncratic spelling, makes this inimitable personal account of his nine years of voyaging accessible to the general reader. Philip Edwards provides an introduction to each voyage and a postscript on the controversy surrounding Cook’s death.

Penguin NZ, Auckland, 2003. Softback. 646 pages, maps. NEW

The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas. Anne Salmond traces Cook's three voyagesto the Pacific in fresh and exciting detail; it's a rediscovery of Cook, sympathetic and probing, as Salmond follows his travels in a kind of psychological pursuit. This account has received much critical acclaim.

Penguin NZ, Auckland. Softback. 506 pages. NEW. 

Tupaia sailed with Cook from Tahiti, piloted the Endeavour about the south pacific and was the ship's interpreter. Lauded by Europeans as 'an extraordinary genius', Tupaia was also a master navigator, a brilliant orator and a most devious politician.

Random House, Auckland, 2011. Hardback. 439 pages. NEW

A vivid account of life on board the Endeavour during Cook’s first voyage of discovery 1768-1771. This voyage resulted in the mapping of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, and numerous ethnographic and botanical discoveries.

Cassell & Co., London, 2002. Hardback with dust-jacket, illustrated. 256 pages. NEW

Essays about Joseph Banks’s artists, Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg’s pantomime Omai, Cook’s views on ancient Pacific voyaging, artefacts from Cook’s voyages and art and ethnographica from the Solomon Islands . 

British Museum, London, 1979. Hardback with dust-jacket, illustrated. 249 pages. SECONDHAND

Resolution, Captain Cook's Second Voyage of Discovery. On 13 July 1772, James Cook set sail with two ships, the Resolution and Adventure to further map the Pacific and explore its natural history. It was during this three year epic that 10 of Cook’s men from the Adventure were captured and killed by the Maori.

Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2004. Hardback with dust-jacket, illustrated 189 pages.  NEW

Sea of Dangers, Captain Cook and his Rivals. This is the most revealing narrative so far written of Cook's astonishing voyage along the east coast of Australia. It also casts light on the little known voyage of Jean de Surville; Blainey argues that the Frenchman was in the vicinity of Sydney Harbour months before Cook arrived.

Penguin Viking. Hardback. 420 pages. NEW. 

Much is known about Cook’s exploits as a navigator and explorer but few have been able to assess his character. The author uses Cook’s journals to build up a picture of the man behind the official portraits and accounts.

Tauris & Co. Hardback with dust-jacket, illustrated. 263 pages. NEW

Like insects ibn amber, the records of Cook's voyages capture that rare moment when two different cultures saw each other actoss a frontier that was open and uncluttered by previous encounters. This is the theme here.

Continuium Books, London, 2007. Hardback with dust jacket. 288 pages. NEW

After describing the voyage in great detail the series of related mishaps, follies, fantasies and wild misunderstandings that led to Cook's murder are here presented with the inevitability of a classical tragedy. This is not the Captain Cook of the earlier voyages.

Macmillan Ltd., London, 1979. Hardback with dust jacket. 271 pages. SECONDHAND

A detailed examination of the death of Cook in Hawaii compiled from original sources by the premier Cook scholar and editor of Cook's Journals for the Haklyut Society. Published on the bicentennial of his death. Limited edition, No. 240 of 1000.

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, 1979. Hardback with dust jacket (small ring mark). 21 pages. SECONDHAND

This new interpretation of Cook's life and death argues that the circumstances and reporting of his death are the key to his reputation. For many years this seaman enjoyed unparalleled status as the pride of his century. By contrast a different view began to emerge of a destructive invader, more anti-hero than hero. Cook's progress from obscurity to fame and then, for some, to infamy, is a story that has never been fully told.

Profile Books,, London, 2008. Hardback. 198 pages. NEW. 

Explores one of the classic accounts of Cook's death in Hawaii by the voyage surgeon David Samwell, a Welshman who was believed by his contemporaries to be a literary man touched by genius. Also includes previously unpublished letters relating to the voyage.

University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 2007. Softback. 170 pages. NEW

A narrative of the three year voyage of Joseph Banks in the Endeavour with Cook and of the numerous new plants he gathered at various landfalls, most notably in New Zealand and Australia. Also the story of Banks' Florilegium and the eventual publication of the 738 engraved plates two centuries later.

William Collins Pty Ltd., Sydney, 1986. Hardback with dust jacket. 194 pages. SECONDHAND

William Hodges was the artist, 'a landskip painter', who travelled with Cook on the second voyage in the Resolution and Adventure. Each chapter of this book focuses on the close reading of a significant painting of a South Pacific location and opens fresh theoretical perspectives.

Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2011. Hardback with dust jacket. 346 pages. NEW

An interesting monograph on the astonomy and astronomers of Cook's three voyages, together with details of the astronomical instruments and equipment. Carter Observatory Monograph No. 1. A limited edition of 750 copies.

Carter Observatory Board, Wellington, 1998. Softback. 131 pages. SECONDHAND

The findings of a joint Royal Society of New Zealand and Royal Society of London scientific expedition to the Cook Islands, Tonga Islands and surrounding seas. In commemoration of the Cook voyage two hundred years earlier.

Royal Society of New Zealand, Wellington, 1971. Softback. 141 pages. SECONDHAND

Into the Blue, Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. Contemporary adventurer Tony Horwitz recounts Cooks voyages of discovery by revisiting the lands and peoples Cook discovered centuries earlier.

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2004. Hardback with dust jacket. 480 pages. SECONDHAND

Tells the story of volunteers who sailed the Endeavour replica ship on the original route from the Great Barrier Reef to Indonesia, taking a fresh look at the great voyage through the experiences of a modern crew.

BBC Worldwide Ltd., London, 2002. Hardback with dust jacket. 223 pages. SECONDHAND

Traditional accounts of first contact between Maori and Europeans have been from the perspective of the explorers. This is a penetrating rethinking of encounter. Both Maori and European protagonists were active and fully human, following their own practical, political and mythological agendas.

Viking Penguin, Auckland, 1991. Hardback with dustjacket. 477 pages. SECONDHAND

Pacific exploration from Captain Cook to the Challenger 1776-1877. Pacific exploration did not end with Cook and this volume describes the explorers and achievements that came after him.

Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1971. Hardback with dust jacket. 429 pages. SECONDHAND

A fully revised and illustrated second edition of the classic study discusses the interpretation of the Pacific in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It considers the work of artists attached to the scientific voyages of the time and elucidates the ways in which such work is related to the scientific interests and prevaling ideas of the era.

Harper and Row Publishers, Sydney, 1984. Hardback with dust jacket. 370 pages. SECONDHAND

Extracts from Journals relating to the visit to New Zealand of the French ship St Jean Baptiste in December 1769 under the command of Jean F.M. de Surville with an appendix of charts and drawings. French text and English translation side by side.

Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, 1982. Hardback, no dust jacket as issued. 225 pages. SECONDHAND

A fascinating collection of essays on the impact of France on New Zealand, from the earliest sightings of a new and unknown land to the political and economic issues of more recent times.

The Heritage Press Ltd., Waikanae, 1990. Hardback with dust jacket. 213 pages. SECONDHAND

A fascinating collection of essays making an unusual contribution to New Zealand history by presenting early contact from an exclusively French point of view, be they travellers, scientists, artists, novelists or missionaries.

The Heritage Press Ltd., Waikanae, 1992. Hardback with dust jacket. 203 pages. SECONDHAND

An account of the remarkable expedition of French navigator M. de Surville's voyage of pacific exploration that saw him off the coast of Northland in 1769 at the same moment as Cook though the two ships passed out of sight of each other.

Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1969. Hardback with dust jacket. 127 pages. SECONDHAND

The mystery of the dissapearance of La Perouse in 1788 during his long voyage of discovery in the Pacific was solved almost 40 years later, yet it still facinates people and expeditions continue to search for his body and the remains of his ships. What was it about this man that has exerted such an influence for so long. A very readable account of French exploration in the pacific.

Exisle Publishing, Auckland, 2006. Hardback with dust jacket. 292 pages. NEW

An account of the massacre of Captain Marion du Fresne by the Maories in 1772 written by Alexander Dumas pere and now translated for the first time by F.W. Reed.

The Caxton Press, Christchurch, 1949. Hardback with dust jacket. 53 pages. SECONDHAND

An account of the murder of French Pacific explorer Captain Marion de Fresne at the Bay of Islands in 1772, translated by F.W. Reed who was a Dumas scholar and collector of his books, now in the Auckland public library. First published in 1949, this is a facsmile reprint.

Cadsonbury Publications, Christchurch, 1998. Softback. 56 pages. NEW

An account of the Russian south pacific expedition led by F.G. von Bellinghausen that visited the Marlborough Sounds in 1820. Translated from the Russian for the first time. Illustrated with pictures of rare Maori artifacts now in Russia.

The Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 1979. Hardback with dust jacket. 183 pages. SECONDHAND

Accounts and illustrations from records of Duperrey's visit in La Coquille, that provides some very interesting details if Maori and Europen life in New Zealand at the time. Sunning to spine.

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, 1971. Hardback with dust jacket. 125 pages, folding chart to rear. SECONDHAND

Explorer, navigator, botanist, hydrographer, philologist and writer; Dumont d'Urville was gifted and his achievements were numerous. Yet like the statue of the Venus de Milo, which he helped to take to France, he was flawed. This first full biography in English reveals every facet of this complex man.

Exisle Publishing, Auckland, 2007. Hardback with dust jacket. 252 pages. NEW

New Zealand 1826-1827 from the French of Dumont D’Urville. ‘An English translation of the Voyage de l’Asrolabe in New Zealand waters with an introductory essay by Olive Wright.'

Wingfield Publishing, Wellington, 1950. Hardback with dust-jacket. Illustrated, 251 pages. SECONDHAND

An English rendering of the Journals of Dumont D'Urville and his Officers of their visit to New Zealand in 1840, together with some account of Bishop Pompallier and Charles, Baron de Thierry.

A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1955. Hardback with dust jacket. 180 pages. SECONDHAND

The aggressions of the French at Tahiti and other islands of the Pacific by George Pritchard, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul 1837-1844. The manuscript is in the Alexander Turnbull Library and edited by Paul de Deckker was published for the first time in this volume.

Auckland University Press, 1983. Hardback with dust jacket. 253 pages. SECONDHAND

When Christian Fletcher led a mutiny against the iron rule of William Bligh on the Bounty, Bligh and 18 of his men were abandoned in a small boat with meagre rations. Based on Bligh's notebook, this is his account of how they survived a 47 day voyage to safety.

National Library of Australia. Softcovers. Illustrated. 234 Pages. NEW

The unfamiliar story of Bligh's second voyage to the South Pacific, commenced in 1791, only one year after his return to England following the Bounty munity. This time the origional mission, transplanting breadfruit trees to the West Indies, was completed. This is a journal of the voyage kept by Lieutenant George Tobin, published for the first time.

Chatham Publishing, London, 2007. Hardback with dust jacket. 184 pages. NEW

The author draws on her unrivalled knowledge of early Polynesian cultures to re-tell the extaordinary story of William Bligh's voyages and the munity on the Bounty.

Penguin Viking, Auckland, 2011. Hardback with dust jacket. 528 pages. NEW

First published in 1814, Flinders vividly describes his voyages to map the great island continent between 1796 and 1803. Includes the journey made with George Bass to prove Tasmania an island and the voyage of the Investigator. He writes of meeting Aborigines, French explorers and Macassan fishing fleets. Compelling history.

Penguin Books, Melbourne, 2008. Softback. 268 pages. NEW

This biography was first published in 1914 to honor the centenary of Flinders' death. This new edition was timed to coincide with the bicentenary. Flinders was the first explorer to complete the cicumnavigation of the Australian continent.

Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 2001. Softback. 371 pages, illustrations. SECONDHAND

Illustrates nearly 300 objects from New Zealand and the Pacific gathered during the 18th and 19th centuries by European voyagers, missionaries and settlers.

Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006. Softback. 287 pages. NEW

The theory behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition. Polynesia and the old World, Polynesia and Northwest America, the road through Hawaiki and the complexity of Polynesian origins. Botanical evidence of Polynesian routes, aborigional Peruvian navigation in the Pacific.

George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1952. Cloth boards, no dustjacket. 821 pages, illustrations. SECONDHAND

The story of the episode culture clash, part of the early colonial Australian and New Zealand history that took place in Whangaroa habour in 1809. 

Hodder and Stoughton, Auckland, 1984. Hardback with dust jacket. 184 pages. SECONDHAND

The full story of the United States Pacific exploring expedition led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, that spent four years in the region conducting one of the most comprehensive scientific surveys ever conducted that included some of the first discoveries of the antarctic continent. 

Viking Penguin, New York, 2003. Hardback with dust jacket. 452 pages. SECONDHAND

An account of one of the most horrifying stories in maritime history, the sinking of the American whaleship Essex by an enraged sperm whale and the subsequent ordeal of the survivors in the empty Pacific ocean.

Harper Collins Publishers, London, 2000. Hardback with dust jacket. 302 pages. SECONDHAND

Provides a comprehensive history of these aids to navigation and explains how they work. Includes details of developmen of the Harrison chronometers, one of which came to New Zealand with Cook.

The Crowood Press, Marlborough, UK, 2010. Hardback with dust jacket. 112 pages. NEW

The interesting story of the surprising links between three great men of late eighteenth century science, explorer James Cook, botonist Joseph Bamks and the surgeon John Hunter.

Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1993. Hardback with dust jacket. 80 pages. SECONDHAND

The absorbing history of the oldest department of the Navy Office compiled from the mass of original archive material, in the department collection of charts, letters and reports. Illustrations. Small piece clipped from front free end paper.

Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1967. Hardback, no dust jacket. 378 pages, reproductions  of 10 folding charts. SECONDHAND