Captain Hook

The School children were excited. They were going to visit the replica of the Endeavour in Sydney, Australia. The Endeavour was the name of Captain James Cook’s first ship. People dressed as the captain and the crew were going to show what life was like on the ship.

“Welcome to the Endeavour,” said a man as they walked onto the ship. “My name is Captain James Cook and this is my crew.” “Wow,” said Jessica as she looked around at all the people. Their clothes were the same as those worn by sailors in the eighteenth century. Please ask questions at any time,“ said the captaiin.

A hand went into the air. “Why are you famous?” asked a young boy. “That’s a good question,” replied Captain Cook. “I made three major voyages during my life. I discovered many island in the Pacific Ocean and was lucky enough to visit most of the continents on Earth. The maps I made were also considered very detailed.”

“Did you go to Tahiti during your first voyage?” asked Andrew. “Yes, that’s right. I had been asked to make some astronomers to Tahiti to see a special event in the sky,” said the captain. “Did you know that I had also been given secret orders?” “Really,” said Andrew, “what were they?”

 “I had to sail from Tahiti and try to find a great piece of land. We could not find it, and so continued on to New Zealand. I sighted New Zealand’s second island and made a detailed map. Then we went to Australia’s east coast. We first landed at Botany Bay,” said Captain Cook.

 “How did you decide names for places?” asked one of the students. “Well,” said Captain Cook, “First it was called Stingray Bay. However, we found hundreds of different plants there, so I changed the name to Botany Bay. On one voyage, I named Young Nicks Head in New Zealand after one of my crew, Nicholas Young. He was the first to see that places.”

They were now down below the deck, and were looking at where the crew slept and ate. The children were surprised. There were life-size copies of a goat, some pigs and cow. “Did you really travel with animals?” asked Jessica. “Yes, we did. We got fresh milk from goat,” replied one of the crew. “What else did you eat?” asked Andrew.

“We had dried soup, concentrated fruit juice, beans and some vegetable. We caught fish, bird and sometimes seals,” said Captain Cook.

“The captain is famous for helping to stop scurvy” said one of the crew. “He was very strict with our food. We also had to keep the ship very clean. All of this stopped scurvy from being a problem on our long sea voyages.”

“Who was on your ship?” asked a student. “We had sailors, of course,” said Captain Cook. “And men who studied different sciences. Also artists who could draw the plants, animals and people that we saw. We had a doctor and two Polynesian native men on board as well. They helped us talk with people in some of the new countries.”

“Did you enjoy your life as a sailor and explorer?” asked Jessica. “Yes, I did very much!” said Captain Cook. “I was able to see many countries, learn many new things and provide new information that made history. But most of all I loved the adventure of sailing the ocean!”