by Graeme Lay
The entries that brought her the deepest grief were those that referred to the infants they had lost without his knowing it. Little Elizabeth and baby Joseph and baby George, all of whom had died without their father’s knowledge. Until he returned home and was told. The terrible grief that she had first suffered alone was then shared with him. She remembered the comfort this sharing had brought her, and the bitterness that she had felt when he had not been present to support her. His absences had become more and more difficult to bear, until he left the last time, when the birth of baby Hugh had consoled her. Now four years old, and the sweetest child, he was the only one to have been born while James was home. He was now sleeping soundly, in the bedroom next door.
It was well after midnight when she read the final entry in the third journal.
Dearest Beth,
This entry will be brief, as a serious breakage has occurred on Resolution, necessitating a return …
Serious, certainly. The first break in the chain of events that had led to his death.
She closed the journal and placed it on top of the others on the bedside table. Then she opened the drawer in the table and took out the envelope containing the letter she had received from Nathaniel, two weeks after the report of James’s death had been published in the London news-sheets. Their second son had written to express his deep sorrow for their loss, just before he left England to serve on HMS Thunderer, in the Caribbean. The last paragraph read:
Finally, Mama, Papa told me that if he did not return from his third voyage, there is a note from him that you must read. He told me the note is locked in a compartment of the writing desk in his study, and was only to be read in the event of his death. The key, Papa said, is to be found in …
For the last eight months she had resisted James’s instruction, preferring to keep it locked away in the hope that he would return with a third journal that the two of them would share. Now that they never would, she must fulfil his wish.
She located the key, the little drawer, and the envelope on which was written: To be opened by Elizabeth Cook in the event of my death—James Cook RN.
She opened the envelope.
My dearest Beth,
The journals that I kept for you have fulfilled their purpose. I know the joy I felt while reading them to you was shared. But they are to be read by no one else. I have no wish for others to learn of my most intimate, heartfelt thoughts; they were intended only for ourselves. Not even our sons must read them; they will learn of my achievements from other sources. I know that you will keep the sentiments expressed in the journals in your mind for as long as you are able. But no other person has the right to read them, either now or in the future.
Therefore you must destroy the journals. And all my letters to you.
Your loving husband,
James
Well, the third journal had come, but without him. That young man, Lieutenant King, had been kind and considerate, and she was pleased that he had appreciated its confidences, pleased that he brought the journal to her. Now that she had read it, along with the others, and absorbed—virtually memorised—their contents, she knew what she must do.
Carrying a lamp and the three journals, she went downstairs to the parlour. The fire had died down but the embers still glowed. She took kindling from the wood box and laid some on the embers. They flared. She took the scuttle and poured on some coal. Soon the fire was blazing.
Page by page, she tore the leaves from the journals. One by one she screwed them into balls, then fed them to the fire. The paper flared, then shrank to ashes.
It took over three hours to burn them all. When she had finished, all that remained in the grate were ashes, as black and delicate as mourning lace.
For some time Elizabeth stared into the fire and its remains. She had honoured his last wish to her. Staring at the ashes, she thought: It was right that it was so. He had kept those journals solely for her. And she knew that what he had written to her would always survive.
In her memory, in her heart, forever.
Epilogue
ELIZABETH COOK (1741–1835) SURVIVED HER HUSBAND by 56 years and all six of their children predeceased her. She lived through the loss of England’s American colonies, the French Revolution, Lord Nelson’s and the Duke of Wellington’s military victories, the establishment of a penal colony in New South Wales and the advent of international steam shipping. She was granted a coat of arms by the government in 1785, whose motto ‘Nil intentatum reliquit’ translates as ‘He left nothing unexplored’. A deeply religious woman, she later left the family home in east London to live in Clapham with her cousin Isaac Smith, who had served with James Cook on HMS Endeavour and later rose to the rank of rear-admiral. The annuity Elizabeth was awarded and a share of the profits from the publication of James’s journals made her a well-to-do woman, which may have been some consolation for the many personal tragedies she had to endure. She died at 94 and was buried in Great St Andrew’s Church, Cambridge.
James Cook junior (1763–1794) rose to the rank of commander in the Royal Navy, but was drowned in Poole Harbour, Dorset, while in a boat on his way back to his ship, HMS Spitfire. His body was found washed ashore on the Isle of Wight, with the wreckage of the boat nearby. He was buried at Great St Andrew’s Church, Cambridge.
Nathaniel Cook (1764–1780) also served in the Royal Navy as a midshipman but was drowned when his vessel HMS Thunderer sank with the loss of all hands during a hugely destructive hurricane off Jamaica. His death occurred nine months after his father was killed.
Hugh Cook (1776–1793) went to Christ’s College, Cambridge, to study for the clergy. The most scholarly of James and Elizabeth’s sons, he was also the only one to have his portrait painted. Four days before Christmas 1793 he contracted scarlet fever and died. He was buried in Great St Andrew’s Church, Cambridge.
James Cook senior (1694–1779) moved from the village of Great Ayton in 1771 to Redcar, on the Yorkshire coast, to live with his married daughter, Margaret Fleck (née Cook, 1742–1804), her husband, James Fleck, and their eight children. Margaret was Captain Cook’s younger sister. James Cook senior’s wife, Grace Cook (b. 1702), had died in 1765. James Cook senior died six weeks after his famous son and was buried in Marske, near Redcar. James Cook’s other sister, Christiana (1731–?), married a man whose surname was Cocker, but it is not known if there was any issue from their marriage. Hence it is only through the Fleck family of Redcar that direct descendants of James Cook can be traced.
William Bligh (1754–1817) married Elizabeth Betham from the Isle of Man in 1781, following his return to England from the Cook expedition. Resolution’s sailing master then served as master on HMS Belle Poule, was promoted to lieutenant and served on HMS Cambridge until 1783, when he left the navy. He served on the ships of his wife’s wealthy uncle, Duncan Campbell, in the West Indies until he rejoined the navy and was given command of HMS Bounty in 1787. Sent to Tahiti to acquire breadfruit plants to feed the slaves in the West Indies, Bligh suffered a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian in 1789 off the island of Tofua, in Tonga. Set adrift in an open boat with 18 loyal crew members, Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor, 3728 miles away, 47 days later. He commanded a second, more successful breadfruit voyage to Tahiti in 1791, in HMS Providence, then served at the battles of Camperdown in 1797 and Copenhagen in 1801. Appointed Governor of New South Wales in 1806, Bligh was again mutinied against and deposed. After returning to England, where he was exonerated, he was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue in 1810, then Vice-Admiral of the Blue in 1814. Following his retirement he lived in Kent, then London, and was buried in Lambeth churchyard. Bligh Water in the western region of Fiji commemorates his epic open-boat voyage from Tonga to Timor.
James Burney (1750–1821) commanded Discovery on the final stage of her voyage home from Orkney to London. In 1781 he was given command of HMS Latona, which patrolled the North Sea. He was promoted to post-captain in 1782 and awarded command of HMS Bristol, but illness ended his
naval career. Although married in 1785, Burney eloped with his stepsister Sarah in 1798 and they lived together for five years before he went back to his wife and children. He became a writer, publishing several volumes of history of the Pacific Ocean voyages of discovery. Burney’s Beach in Queen Charlotte Sound is named after him.
His sister Fanny Burney (1752–1840) succeeded in her ambition to become a novelist. Her first novel, Evelina (1778), was published anonymously, but the revelation of its authorship brought her into prominence and thereafter she published under her own name. She also edited the memoirs of her father, Dr Charles Burney, the eminent music historian. In 1793 Fanny married General d’Arblay, a French refugee in England.
John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1771 until 1782. He proved a capable administrator during this period, although allegations of corruption were made against him. He had several children by his mistress Martha Ray, but after she was murdered in 1779 by a rejected admirer, Sandwich became less popular and remained so until the end of his tenure. The story that the sandwich was named after him, from his habit of eating meat between slices of bread so he could continue at the gaming tables uninterrupted, is now considered a myth. The name Sandwich Isles was gradually replaced by today’s title, Hawaii, in the 1840s.
John Gore (c. 1729-1790) was in charge of Resolution and Discovery when they came home to England in October 1780. Gore had assumed command of the expedition following the deaths of Cook then Clerke. Gore had circumnavigated the globe four times. After his return he was made an honorary post-captain and offered Cook’s vacated rooms at Greenwich Hospital. He took up this position with his wife, Nancy, and they remained there for 10 years. He is commemorated by Gore Bay in New Zealand, Gore Island in Nootka Sound and Gore Point in Alaska.
Kamehameha (c. 1758–1819), the nephew of King Kalani’opu’u whom Cook met at Kealakekua Bay, later became the ali’i nui, high chief, of Hawaii Island. He then acquired European firearms and used them to conquer all the Sandwich Isles, culminating in the Battle of Nu’uanu on O’ahu in 1795. Thereafter he became an outstanding ruler known as Kamehameha the Great, who embraced Western ideas and technology while at the same time protecting the traditional culture and beliefs of the Hawaiian people, including preserving the kapu system. Kamehameha was a close friend of George Vancouver, who first went to Hawaii with Cook in 1778 and returned several times.
James King (1750–1784) was made post-captain and appointed to HMS Crocodile. He was given command of HMS Resistance in 1781 and served on her when she escorted merchantmen to the West Indies. In 1782 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, awarded an honorary LLD Oxon and was involved in the writing of the official account of Cook’s last voyage. After contracting tuberculosis, King moved to the south of France to convalesce, but died in Nice. He is commemorated by King Island in the Bering Sea and King Passage in Nootka Sound, Canada. There is also a memorial to him in Woodstock, near Oxford.
Omai (c. 1753–1780) lived on his small land-holding near Fare, along with the many English possessions he had acquired. In a mêlée between the people of Huahine and the Bora Bora-born occupiers of Raiatea, Omai’s muskets and pistols proved decisive in winning Huahine the conflict. This earned him the respect of the Huahinians, but he died of a fever about two and a half years after his return. Omai’s house was then burned and his possessions taken by his Raiatean relatives. All his animals had died except his mare. His servants, the New Zealanders Te Weherua and Koa, went into a decline and died not long after Omai’s death.
Sir Philip Stephens (1725–1809) served as Secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty from 1763 until 1795. From 1768 until 1806 he was also Member of Parliament for Sandwich. His position as ‘secretary’ is somewhat misleading, as his Admiralty position carried considerable authority. Although his relationship with James Cook in the novels is mainly invented, there is evidence that the two men developed a close and mutually respectful relationship. Cook commemorated him by naming Stephens Island and Point Stephens in New Zealand, and Port Stephens on the east coast of New Holland, now New South Wales.
The North-west Passage was not successfully navigated until the Norwegian Roald Amundsen did so from 1903–06. Until 2009 the Arctic pack ice prevented scheduled maritime shipping from using the passage for most of the year, but climate change has reduced the ice and this shrinkage has made its waterways more navigable.
George Vancouver (1757–1798), who sailed on Cook’s second and third voyages as able seaman and midshipman respectively, returned to England in 1779, was commissioned lieutenant and was later awarded command of HMS Discovery. He took possession of Nootka Sound for England and surveyed the western coast of North America. He also led several expeditions to the Sandwich Isles, where he became a close friend of Kamehameha the Great. Vancouver brought English cattle to the Sandwich Islands in the early 1790s and presented them to Kamehameha, who placed a kapu on them for more than 20 years. During this period the cattle bred, forming the basis for Hawaii’s later ranching industry. Vancouver Island and Vancouver city in Canada are named after him, as is Mount Vancouver on the Yukon-Alaska border.
Johann (John) Webber (1751–1793) oversaw the production of the engravings made to illustrate the published account of Cook’s third voyage. His paintings and drawings of the voyage were also exhibited at the Royal Academy, of which he was elected a member in 1791. His best-known works were those depicting Nootka Sound, Alaska and Hawaii. Webber later developed his talent as a landscape and natural history artist, as well as a portraitist. In 2010 Webber’s portrait of Poetua, the princess from Raiatea who was taken hostage by Captain Cook in 1777, was bought by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. It was one of three portraits of the young woman that Webber painted.
John Williamson (?–1798) was promoted to post-captain in 1782—surprisingly, in view of his controversial role in Captain Cook’s death—and appointed commander of HMS Agincourt in 1796. He saw naval action against the Dutch in the Battle of Camperdown in 1797, but was charged with cowardice, negligence and disaffection, as in that battle he ignored signals to engage the enemy. He was court-martialled at Sheerness and the charge of cowardice was proved. Williamson was subsequently placed last on the Captains’ List, which had the effect of ending his naval career. Williamson’s Passage in Nootka Sound, Canada, is named after him.
Acknowledgements
LIKE ITS TWO PREDECESSORS, The Secret Life of James Cook (2013) and James Cook’s New World (2014), this final novel in the trilogy is a work of fiction. However, all three novels are based on factual events. To familiarise myself with the facts surrounding James Cook’s third voyage of exploration I drew on a variety of sources.
These included: The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond (Penguin, 2004), Captain James Cook by Richard Hough (Hodder & Stoughton, 1994), Captain Cook: The Seamen’s Seaman by Alan Villiers (Hodder & Stoughton, 1967), Cook: From Sailor to Legend by Rob Mundle (ABC Books, 2013) and Into the Blue by Tony Horwitz (Allen & Unwin, 2002). The text of Captain Cook’s Hawaii by Anthony Murray-Oliver (Millwood Press, 1975) is complemented by many colour plates and black-and-white illustrations of the people of Hawaii, mostly the work of the artist on Cook’s third voyage, John Webber. The Captain Cook Encyclopaedia by John Robson (Random House New Zealand, 2004) was again a useful reference.
As in the earlier novels, brief extracts from the official journals of James Cook during his second world voyage are occasionally quoted to illustrate the navigator’s keen observance of sea and weather conditions and his prose style. I selected these extracts from The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure 1772-1775 and The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776–1780, both edited by JC Beaglehole (Cambridge University Press, published for the Hakluyt Society, 1959) and The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery, edited from the original manuscripts by JC Beaglehole (Cambridge University Press, published for the Ha
kluyt Society, 1967). I am grateful to the Hakluyt Society for their permission to quote from Cook’s journals.
A number of people were extremely supportive of the project and provided expert advice whenever I needed it. These included Ian Boreham of the Captain Cook Society, Ipswich, and maritime novelist Joan Druett of Wellington. My editor, Stephen Stratford, carried out his work with characteristic rigour and meticulousness. HarperCollins’s New Zealand publisher, Finlay Macdonald, was extremely encouraging throughout all stages of the project and Sandra Noakes, HarperCollins’s publicist in Auckland, drew on her extensive range of contacts to ensure that no one in the media was unaware of the novels’ presence. I am again deeply grateful to my literary agent, Linda Cassells, whose sound judgment and publishing experience in New Zealand and overseas were invaluable. Darragh Walshe of Hawaii Tourism Oceania in Auckland put me in contact with Hawaiian historical experts De Soto Brown at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and Boyd Bond on Hawaii’s ‘Big Island’. The knowledge of both these experts was extremely helpful while I was researching James Cook’s time in the Sandwich Isles–Hawaii.
Finally, sincere thanks to my wife, Gillian. James and Elizabeth Cook have been a constant presence in our household for more than five years, and throughout that time Gillian’s wise counsel has been of inestimable assistance to the entire project.
Graeme Lay
January 2015
The Secret Life of James Cook
by Graeme Lay
A fictionalised account of the famous navigator’s early life, The Secret Life of James Cook brings alive Cook’s youthful ambitions, his early naval career, his marriage to Elizabeth and their family life.
Drawing on his personal knowledge of the South Pacific and Australasia, novelist Graeme Lay recreates the peerless navigator’s life up to, and including, his first circumnavigation of the world. In particular, Graeme examines the relationship between James and his equally remarkable wife, Elizabeth, the woman he married when he was 34 and she 21, and by whom he had six children, the first five born while he was away at sea.
