Anchorage historian and attorney James K Barnett has focused his story between the date of Cook's 1 May 1778 sighting of the Mt. Edge-cumbe volcano near Sitka to his 26 October 1778 south-bound depar-ture from English Bay (Unalaska) for Hawaii where he was killed. This true-to-life narrative explains Cook's preparations for his Alaska journey at Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the events that led to his murder near Kealakekua on the island of Hawaii. Cook spent considerable time in Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet near Anchorage and on 18 August 1778 as far north as Icy Cape in the Arctic Ocean. He named numerous locations with the same names that are used today in his frustrated search for a Northwest Passage. He spent 179 days in Alaska waters going ashore only occasionally, but captured a remarkable visual record from artists on board. Read this detailed account by an Alaskan author of the earliest British expedition to what was the edge of the known world to the British Admiralty on Cook's third and final, fatal voyage.

Prologue : Three Comments on Cook's Third Voyage / Nicholas ThomasJames Cook, Navigator and Explorer : The Pacific Experience, 1768-1776 / John GascoigneJames Cook and the Northwest Passage : Approaching the Third Voyage / Glyn WilliamsSetting the Stage : Spain in the Pacific and the Northern Voyages of the 1770s / Iris EngstrandFrom Russia with Charts : Cook and the Russians in the North Pacific / Evguenia AnichtchenkoJames Cook and the New Navigation / Richard DunnA New Look at Cook : Reflections on Sand, Ice, and His Diligent Voyage to the Arctic Ocean / David L. NicandriEncounters : View of the Indigenous People of Nootka Sound from the Cook Expedition Records / Richard InglisThe Cook Expedition and Russian Colonialism in Southern Alaska / Aron L. CrowellGifting, Trading, Selling, Buying : Following Northwest Coast Treasures Acquired on Cook's Third Voyage to Collections around the World / Adrienne L. KaepplerThe International Law of Discovery : Acts of Possession on the Northwest Coast of North America / Robert J. MillerCook on the Coasts of the North Pacific and Arctic America : The Cartographic Achievement / John RobsonNarrating an Alaskan Cruise : Aspects of Cook's Journal (1778) and Douglas?s Edition of A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784) / I.S. MacLarenThe End of the Northern Mystery : George Vancouver's Survey of the Northwest Coast / James K. BarnettFrom Discoveries to Sovereignties : The Imperial Scramble for Northwestern North America / Barry GoughThe Continuing Quest : The Lure of the Northwest Passage in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries / James P. DelgadoSea Ice in the Western Portal of the Northwest Passage from 1778 to the Twenty-first Century / Harry SternMarine Navigation in the Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage / Lawson W. BrighamThe Arctic in Focus : National Interests and International Cooperation / Gudrun Bucher and Robin Inglis.

A groundbreaking and lyrically written work that explores the world of the Pacific Ocean.

Maritime historian James K. Barnett discovered extraordinary journals and paintings of Captain James Cook's demanding final voyage languishing in Australian archives. Expedition artist John Webber and two young officers"Discovery" first lieutenant James Burney, and "Resolution" Master's Mate Henry Roberts--offer remarkable eyewitness accounts of initial European contact, the first reasonably accurate maps of North America's west coast, the earliest comprehensive report from the Bering Sea ice pack, and portrayals of the celebrated mariner's dramatic death at Kealakekua Bay. Particularly astonishing for depictions of landings along Hawaii, Vancouver Island, and Alaska, Barnett adds context and commentary to complete the story.

Two of the Northwest Coast's largest cities and its most prominent island are named after the British explorer, George Vancouver, who is largely unknown despite his unprecedented five-year voyage during 1791-95, probably the longest voyage in European history. Sailing in the wake of his mentor, Captain James Cook, Vancouver investigated much of the North Pacific, confirming once and for all that the rumored Northwest Passage did not exist. His extraordinary expedition was the first to map Puget Sound and named nearly four hundred geographic features from Alaska's Cook Inlet to coastal Oregon. He named Point Campbell, Point MacKenzie and Point Woronzof in Anchorage, as well as Knight and LaTouche Islands, Passage Canal and Wells Passage in Prince William Sound. In Southeast Alaska he specified Lynn Canal, Admiralty and Douglas Islands, Berners Bay and Revillagigedo Island. In the Pacific Northwest he named Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Port Townsend, Bellingham Bay,

Captain Cook Rediscovered is the first modern study to frame Captain James Cook’s career from a North American vantage. Although Cook is inextricably linked to the South Pacific in the popular imagination, his crowning navigational and scientific achievements took place in the polar regions. David L. Nicandri acknowledges the cartographic accomplishments of the Australasian first voyage but focuses on the second- and third-voyage discovery missions in the extreme latitudes, where Cook pioneered the science of iceberg and icepack formation. A truly modern appraisal of early polar science, Captain Cook Rediscovered resonates in the climate change era.

New York Times Bestseller: A Pulitzer Prize–winning author retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook: “Alternately hilarious, poignant, and insightful.” —Seattle Times Captain James Cook’s three epic journeys in the eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of the world was substantially complete. Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic, vividly recounts Cook’s voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook’s adventures by following in his wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook’s embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of Cook’s vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also explores Cook the man: an impoverished farm boy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history, whose voyages helped create the “global village” we know today. “With healthy doses of both humor and provocative information, the book will please fans of history, exploration, travelogues and, of course, top-notch storytelling.” —Publishers Weekly “Horwitz retells the sailor’s story and tries to re-create first contact from the point of view of the locals—Tahitians, Maoris, Aleuts, Hawaiians, and others—and judge the legacy of his landing . . . thought-provoking . . . brims with insight.” —Booklist “A rollicking read that is also a sneaky work of scholarship . . . new and unexpected insights into the man who out-discovered Columbus. A terrific book.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award winner and New York Times–bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea “Well-researched, gripping, and peppered with humorous passages.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Part Cook biography, part travelogue, and very much a stroke of genius.” —Philadelphia Inquirer