NZ James Cook Journal

NEW ZEALAND JAMES COOK JOURNAL

Issue No. 7, February 2001

Latest News

• John Robson has started his own webpages including a set of pages about Captain James Cook. They can be located at Captain James Cook (http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~cooky.html). There is information about the Captain Cook Study Unit (CCSU) in New Zealand and a link to the CCSU's homepage. So far the site contains all the copies of the NZ James Cook Journal and two bibliographies about Cook. More will be added later.

• Following Bill Whelen's successful trip to the U.K. where he gave a paper at a Coleridge Conference, he now preparing the material for publication as a book by the University of Otago Press.

• The New Zealand Map Society held its Annual Conference in Wellington at the beginning of February. One of the papers presented was by Trevor Cobeldick and entitled "A Look at some Cook voyage placenames". Two CCSU members, Brian Marshall and John Robson, were attending the conference and they sought permission for other members based in the Wellington area to be present for this paper. John Allan and Bill Whelen turned up to hear Trevor give an interesting paper. In it he covered several problem areas associated with place names such as:
  Variant names and spellings applied on maps by different people, an example being Knuckle Point at Doubtless Bay which also appears as Knockle and Knocket.

  Mishearing or misrepresentation of Maori names, the classic being Tolaga.

  The application of one name to different features on different charts. Cannibal Bay in Queen Charlotte Sound being an example.

  The later application of a Cook name to another feature to the one likely to have been intended by Cook. Cobeldick believes Gores Bay, just north of Christchurch, was meant by Cook to be the kink in the coast a little further north and known as Double Corner.

  A discussion followed and Cobeldick indicated there was more work to do after which he would write something up. It was suggested that he join the CCSU.

  After the talk the four CCSU members stayed on and talked together for about 45 minutes. It was an opportunity to meet each other and learn our particular interests in Cook. Ideas were discussed for the future of the CCSU in New Zealand. The feeling was that a national meeting was impossible but local meetings were possible, especially in Auckland and Wellington. The name of the Society was discussed (after Cliff Thornton's piece in the latest Cook's Log) and there was agreement that it should change to The Captain Cook Society (or something very close to that).

• Vanessa Collingridge, a British author working on a book about Cook, spent a few days in Wellington at the beginning of February researching her subject. (The book will be published by Ebury Press, an imprint of Random House UK, in 2002). During her visit she met or talked with several NZ members of the CCSU. She is a relative of George Collingridge, the Australian historian, who wrote at the end of the 19th century about European discovery of Australia.

• The statue of Cook on Kaiti Hill, Gisborne has been in the news again. The statue, erected in 1969, has long been controversial. It has been the centre of Maori protests in the past and on one occasion was toppled off its plinth and tumbled down the hill. However, the statue is not of Cook but of an Italian Naval Officer and the present interest centres on whether the Gisborne Council should replace the fake statue with something that really represents Cook. A more authentic statue cast by Anthony Stones stands at the Gisborne Museum.

• Cook's Landing Site at Kurnell on the south side of Botany Bay has come under threat. Sydney's international airport on the opposite shore cannot cope with the growing numbers using it and another airport is deemed necessary for the future. Apparently one location suggested is the Kurmell peninsula, the tip of which holds the historic site. Even if runways and the like did not cover the area, the whole nature of the place will be affected and probably destroyed. A lobby group has started campaigning against the airport being located anywhere near Kurnell.

• John Robson's book "Captain Cook's world" will be published in the UK at long last. Chatham Publishing, a company with a long list of good, maritime books, has agreed to publishe the book, which will appear in August 2001. Meanwhile a reprint of the book will happen in both New Zealand and Australia. The book has been nominated by Random House for the annual Montana Book Awards.

Forthcoming or recently published books

Young Nick appears to be the interest of the moment with two new books, one in English and one in German, recently published about the cabin boy of the Endeavour.

• Chevillard, Eric de. Les Absences du Capitaine Cook. Paris: Minuit, 2001. 2707317349.
  
• Hesse, Karen. Stowaway. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.0689839871.
      This is a retelling in a fictional form for children of Nicholas Young's passage on the Endeavour.
  
• Meltzer, Milton. Captain James Cook.Tarrytown, New York: Benchmark Books, 2001. 0761412409. (a book for primary school aged children).
  
• Russell Museum. Cook in the Bay. Russell, New Zealand: Russell Centennial Trust Board, 2000.
  
• Seidel, Jurgen von. Young Nick und die Verschworung auf der Endeavour. Germany: Beltz, 2000. 3407798040.
  
• Villiers, Alan.Captain Cook: the seaman's seaman. London: Penguin, 2001. 014139062X. (A new edition)

Book Review
by John Robson of

Russell Museum. Cook in the Bay. Russell, New Zealand: Russell Centennial Trust Board, 2000.

This small work (20 A5 pages) is a simple retelling of Cook's few bays in the Bay of Islands in late 1769. It uses passages from Cook's Journal and includes a copy of one of Cook's charts with extra annotations. There are some new illustrations but overall it adds lttle that is new.

Please feel free to contribute to this newsletter and send articles, letters, news, etc for inclusion in future editions. Perhaps people would like to introduce themselves and give details about their interest in Cook.

John Robson
232 b Old Farm Road, Hamilton
home ph 07-856-4807 jcr@quicksilver.net.nz
work ph 07-856-2889 x 6522 j.robson@waikato.ac.nz