CAPTAIN COOK.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1926, Page 4

CAPTAIN COOK.

A VISUI TO JJLS BIRTHPLACE. (By John iiandes). "At daylight in the morning we diecovered a bay which appeared to be tolerably well sheltered from all winds, into which, I resolved to go, and with this view sent the master in the pinnace to sound the entrance.” Tliut sentence was in Captain Cook’s own hand writing in the journal which lie wrote on board the Endeavour, and which is now the property of the Commonwealth Government, records the action which made Australia a British possession at the end of April, 1770. Cook was in the prime of his manhood when lie sailed into the unknown j Itiy and planted the British (lag on its shore. Me was then in liis 42nd year, , and flic lino portrait, by Dance, R. A. ! which hangs in Greenwich Hospital, j reveals tlm features of a. man of powerful intellect and determined! character. THE ENDEAVOUR. ) Tn trying to visualise the Endeavour, j which carried the circumnavigator j across so many thousands of leagues of uncih,arted waters, most people are j hampered by the fact that at the pro- j sent time there is no authentic con- | temporary painting in Australia of Iho little barque. Sir Joseph Cook lias just purchased for the Commonwealth, . a painting, said to be by Thomas Lull- j ov, a well-known marine painter of the j period, who, however, whs only 13 years old when Cook set sail in the barque, and therefore could hardly have painted it at the time. There are several drawings in the Mitchell Library made by oxpert draughtsmen from authentic specifications of the vessel, hut these, however accurate they-may be, cannot reveal her as she was when “she walked the waters like “a thing of life.” Mr Norman Lindsay’s wonderful model of tile Endeavour, carved in wood and complete down to the last pulley, was made from the original plans and drawings that he found in the British Museum, and is unique as a reproduction in miniature of the famous vessel. But oven that model— though, it is the work of a brilliant and versatile artist —cannot assist the imagination to visualise tho ship as a good picture would.' Hence the oil painting purchased hv .Sir Joseph Cook will he awaited with interest. 1

Meamvhile'therc is a picture of tho

5 Endeavour under sail, which has not, | so far as is known, been seen in Australia before. It was given to this present writer at Whitby in Yorkshire by Mr T. H. Woodwark, a retired j solicitor and enthusiastic collector of souvenirs of Cook, in June, 1922. We stood at the time on the bridge over Whitby Harbour, which is the estuary of the River Esk, protected by a system of breakwaters, and saw the very spot, with small vessels still lying in the river, where the Endeavour was built and launched. Mr Woodwark affirmed that the print was from an engraving of -.an oil painting of the Endeavour. It is possible that it may turn out to be from the painting by Luney tint Sir Joseph Cook has bought. COOK’S BIRTHPLACE. It is strange that so many Australians when visiting England omit to make a pilgrimage to Captain Coo it’s birthplace at the little village of Mar-ton-in-Clevelnnd in Yorkshire, and the scenes of his boyhood in ihe country near Marion. They would find much to interest the mind and to warm the heart and imagination.

In the grounds of Marion Hall—a huge mansion of the Victorian period —erected for himself by the late Mr H. W. Bolckow in the early part of last century, and not shut up and deserted —stood the small cottage built of unbaked clay in which James Cook, the circumnavigator, soil of James Cook, day-labourer, was born on October 2/, 1728. When Mr Bolckow, the. great ironmaster, built his mansion there the two-roomed cottage of the day-labourer had already Uisappeared, but there was a pump at the corner of the cot-

tage, and that pump was still standing. So to mark the spot Dir Bolckow erected a fine memorable urn of polished red marble. As you walk down the village street you will come to the Captain Cook Memorial School, where they have two Australian flags sent from Sydney-, and, also a Canadian flag sent from Ottawa. For did not Cook take part in the famous siege at Quebec,, and was be not specially .selected as master ol the Mercury for the difficult and dangerous servico of taking soundings of the channel of the river St. Lawrence, a service which, lie performed with tdmirablc skill, though attacked in the middle of it by Indian auxiliaries of the French troops. It will touch the heart of the Australian stranger to find in the school room at Marton, a complete collection of wild flowers Botany, pressed and mounted in a book. The flowers were sent by the children of Botany to the children of Marton. There they were—the piuk-boronia, criostemons, the pink four-petalled tetratheea, the grevilleas, flannel flowers cpacris and the loveK red and vellow Christmas bells. SCHOOLDAYS. AY he n he was 8 years old, having learnt to read tho short words from Dame AValker at the village school, young James' moved -with his family to tho neighbouring village of Groat Avion, where his father had obtained a' Ijettcr'positifv.f 7.S F farm-bailiff to; Mr Thomas Skottowc, a prosperous farmer. A'oung James must have shown unusual qualities even at that early age, for Mr Skottowc undertook fo pav the costs of his education at the Great Avion school. The school is depicted in a photograph taken by a very remarkable old gentleman, Mr AVaynnian Dixon, the squire of Crept Ayton. who gave it to me. He was an engineer in his earlier days. The British Government gave him the job of transporting the huge obelisk called Cleopatra’s Needle from Alexandria to London some GO years ago. and many remarkable adventures happened to that obelisk—including the fate of being abandoned as a derelict m tho Ba> of Biscay, and subsequently rescued by a French, steamer —before it reached the Thames. Mr AA'aynnuui Dixon is an enthusiast about Captain Cook, and a well-informed authority on the story of the great sailor’s boyhood.

AVhen Cook was 13 he was apprenticed to a storekeeer at Staithes, a fishing village on the Yorkshire coast, between Middlesborougli and AVhitbv. It was inhabited chiefly bv smugglers iu those days, and the lad must have seen many cargoes of silk and French brandy landed in the cleft between two bills which formed the harbour. With tho North ‘Sea. beating almost against the doors of Mr MUliana Siuiderson’s store, and with tho daring fishermen and smugglers launching their boats daily for a run to the French coast, it was now wonder that i trte young bov hoard the call of the i sea and obeyed it. He ran away to "Whitby, and took service with a pair of Quakers, John and Helm* Walker, who were shipowners. As an apprentice he lived in the house of liis employers, between his voyages, and 1 hat house may still be seen at Grapelaue, Whithv. There he studied mathematics and navigation when not engaged | in his duties as deck hand, and aftoiwards as mate of the little coaster Feelove on her coasting voyages to Gravesend, ft. was a hard school of seamanship, hut a thorough one. JOINS THE NAVY. In 1755, when war broke out between England and France. James Cook, who was then 27 years of age, happened to |be in the Thames with his ship. I here was a “hot press” for seamen for the j navy, but Cook took the opportunity jto offer his services voluntarily. He j joined the Eagle, a ship of CO gnus. commanded by Captain Hamer, end ; from that time forward, in pence or i in war, bis abilities and his character i brough thim rapid promotion, and lie I never looked back. j A legend has grown up that Captain Cook was a silent and reserved man. taking his meals alone,' and holding liimsolf much aloof from his officers during his great voyages of exploration; but this impression is considerably modified by a study of the intimate personal narratives that are disi covered or re-discovered from time to time. For instance, in the wordy battle-royal between Dr Forster, the ! naturalist, and Mr William Wales, the ‘ astronomer, oil the Resolution during Cook’s second voyage, it would appear | th,at Cook was in the habit of taking supper with those members of the j ship’s company at any rate, for Cook . j was obliged oil one occasion to order I fh.o quarrelsome naturalist out of the cabin, an occurrence which the astronoj mcr gleefully describes as an '’arrest.” ; It must have been terribly trying on j the nerves for a small group of men to see nobody hut each other ,and to lie cramped up together on a little ship [ for a couple of years at a time. I There is evidence that Captain Cook j had a hot temper, but that lie forgave readily, and never bore malice against jcm offender—a. fine trait in a great nature. His great intellectual power was seconded by untiring industry. Freed by self discipline and iron restraint from small vices himself, lie could nevertheless understand and excuse the frailties of ordinary human nature in others. He cared for his senmean like a father. With, his high courage and unswerving sense of duty, he had an innate kindliness of heart that endeared him not only to his own men, but to the savages who came within the influence of his personality on many of the islands that he discovered. Such -a man is worthy to lie looked up to l>y the Australian public as an example for the nation to which he bequeathed such a noble home, and as an ever-living proof of the heights to which a child of the people attain under liberal institutions. The bicentenary of Captain Cook's birth will occur on October 27, 1928 in a little more than two years from now. The hope may be voiced that the occasion will ho worthily commemorated by tfie Government and people of the Commonwealth.