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Captain COOK Alistair MacLean Seaman Explorer 1972 Hardcover in good used condition; some minor wear on edges of DJ, otherwise like new.Former owner name.
Born in obscurity but gripped by a boundless
passion for new horizons, James Cook had
become at the time of his death in
the greatest combination of seaman,
explorer, navigator, and cartographer that
the world had ever known. He still is. He
had driven himself mercilessly, and his men
likewise, and yet the surgeon's mate on the
Resolution was able to write: 'In every
situation he stood unrivalled and alone on
him all eyes were turned; he was our
leading star; which at its setting, left us
involved in darkness and despair'.
Between i~68 and 1779, Captain Cook
circumnavigated the globe three times in
voyages of discovery that broke record
after record of exploration, endurance,
and personal achievement. He explored and
charted the coasts of New Zealand, landed
in Botany Bay, explored the Pacific, mapped
its islands, and travelled further south than
any man before him; he explored the Great
Barrier Reefand travelled thousands ofmiles
north to tackle the North-West Passage.
He excelled in all aspects of his craft and
inspired in his men an affection for him and
an enthusiasm for his undertakings that
provoked constant loyalty and unfailing
endeavour in frequently savage conditions.
Mr MacLean's achievement in this book
is to present a graphic and lively account of
this great explorer, and to describe in
exciting detail his three amazing voyages
and the adventures that befell him, his
crews, and his ships in lands that until he
sailed were in many cases unknown. Cook's
life was a resounding success and the, story
of it is a thrilling exemplification of his
own description of himself as a man `who
had ambition not only to go farther than
anyone had done before; but as far as it
was possible for man to go'. |
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