This remarkable map documents the 1778-79 encounter between the expedition led by the famous British sea captain and explorer James Cook and the people of the Hawaiian Islands. James Cook was born in 1728 in Cleveland, Yorkshire, England, the son of a modest farm laborer. When he was 17 his family moved to the coastal town of Whitby. Here he got a job on a collier, a ship that brought coal from the mines of northern England to homes and industries of London. His interest in the sea thus stoked, in 1755 he joined the Royal Navy as an able seaman. His skill in the arts of navigation, astronomy, surveying, and cartography during service in North America earned him rapid promotion.

In 1768 he was the surprise choice to command a scientific voyage bound to Tahiti to make astronomical observations and to search for a rumored great southern continent-the first of three expeditions he commanded that would remake the map of the Pacific Ocean. On this first voyage, he had his first encounter with the Polynesian peoples of the central and southern Pacific Ocean, and developed a fascination with their culture, language, and navigational skill. After some weeks in Tahiti, Cook conducted an extensive circumnavigation of New Zealand, inaugurating the British association with that island country on October 8, 1769. Next he completed the first comprehensive reconnaissance of the east coast of Australia, giving the first firm evidence of the location and size of the continent. His ship, the Endeavor, completed a circumnavigation of the globe in July 1771.

Cook’s second voyage (1772-75) is notable for what it didn’t discover. Determined to prove once and for all whether a southern continent existed, Cook’s ship, the Resolution, visited Tahiti and New Zealand once again, and discovered lonely Easter Island. But, despite several transits back and forth across the South Pacific, and a circumnavigation of Antarctic waters as far south as possible, he found no great continent. He concluded that if one existed, it was too cold to be habitable.

Our core map, drawn by William Bligh (of Bounty fame), who was the Ship’s master for the Resolution, comes from the published journal of Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-80), which proved fatal to him. On this voyage Cook was charged with the task of locating the elusive Northwest Passage from the Pacific Ocean side of North America. He failed in this task, but added a great deal to the knowledge of the regions north and south of the Bering Strait. The voyage is also notable for Cook’s encounter with the Hawaiian Islands-the first such encounter by Europeans. Bligh has marked on the map the tracks of Cook’s ships, the Resolution and the Discovery, as they sailed about the “Sandwich Islands” on two occasions. (Cook named the islands after the Earl of Sandwich, a major benefactor of the voyage, but this name did not stick.)

The dates marked on the track indicate his ship’s position at noon on that date. The calculation of a ship’s position (its latitude and longitude) at sea was usually made at noon. Before the adoption of standard international time zones in the late nineteenth, noon at a given location was determined by the Sun’s position in the sky. At any location on earth this was the one natural indicator of the time of day that was consistent from day to day. Sunrises and sunsets varied with the time of year, but the solar zenith always comes exactly 24 hours after the previous one. This was essential for determining a ship’s longitude. Longitude is an expression (in degrees, minutes, and seconds) of the angular distance of one’s position from a Prime Meridian. A meridian of longitude is an imaginary arc drawn on the surface of the Earth that traces a direct path from the North to the South Pole. The Prime Meridian is a meridian chosen to be the reference meridian from which all other longitudes are measured. Today, the internationally accepted prime meridian is a north-south arc that runs through Greenwich, England, a suburb of London that is the location of the Royal Observatory. There are 360° of longitude, which are usually expressed as 0-180° west of Greenwich or 0-180° east of Greenwich. The Earth, of course, rotates from west to east, taking 24 hours to complete a 360° turn each day. Therefore, in each of the day’s 24 hours it rotates 15° of longitude, which means that if it is noon in Greenwich, it is 11:00 AM in City A 15° west of Greenwich; when an hour has passed it will be noon at City A and 1:00 PM in Greenwich. Determining local longitude would seem therefore to be a simple matter of comparing local time-preferably noon-with the time at Greenwich. In the age of telecommunications, this is a simple matter. For most of the twentieth century, the precise time in Greenwich (Greenwich Mean Time or GMT) was regularly broadcast on radio signals that could be received anywhere in the world. In Captain Cook’s time, however, sailors had to rely on extremely accurate clocks, called chronometers, that were set constantly to Greenwich time to calculate longitude. If, for example, it was solar noon wherever the ship was and the chronometer indicated precisely 7:00 PM in Greenwich, then the sailor knew he was 7 hours west of Greenwich or 105° (7 x 15°) west of Greenwich. The problem until the eighteenth century had been finding reliable clocks that could withstand sea journeys without losing or gaining time (Remember that electric clocks did not exist, and clocks kept time by means of pendulums, which could be disturbed by the normal movements of the sea.). A reliable seaworthy chronometer was not invented until around 1760, and such chronometers were not consistently available until the nineteenth century. Cook was among the first navigators to use them to calculate his longitude, and his maps are, as a result, considered to be the first explorer’s maps to have been made with a high level of longitudinal accuracy.

The measurement of latitude was fairly simple by comparison. Since ancient times mariners and surveyors had understood that the latitude of any place could be determined by measuring the angular distance of the Sun above the horizon. Tables had been constructed which told sailors what this measured angle would be at any time of day at a particular latitude; it was only a matter of measuring the angle of the Sun above the horizon in real life. This measurement was usually made at noon, when the Sun was at its highest point in its daily journey across the sky. The sextant, invented in 1757, was latest of a number of instruments invented to facilitate this measurement. It looks somewhat like a large protractor with arms, mirrors, and a small telescope mounted on it. There is no need to explain its use here, but diagrams and explanation may be found in Lloyd Brown’s The Story of Maps and The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (see Resources).

In many places along the track marked on the map may be found additional numbers-for example, the numbers “21,” “20,” and “19” marked just to the west of Kahoolawe (Tahoorowa on the map). These are soundings, measurements, expressed in fathoms (1 fathom=6 feet) of the depth of the water at those points-useful information for ships looking for places to drop anchor or wishing to avoid underwater obstructions of running aground. The water was deeper than 160 fathoms in at places marked “160 no ground”; “foul ground” indicated places where the bottom of the sea was unsuitable for anchoring.

Cook first sighted Oahu (Woahoo on the map) and Kauai (Atooi) on January 18, 1778. On this occasion, Cook’s visit lasted about two weeks-long enough for him to land at Waimea, Kauai, and to trade and replenish supplies. (We have supplied a portion of Cook’s account of this first encounter; see Resources.) Bligh drew the track of this first encounter as a dashed line to distinguish it from the track of Cook’s second, and fatal, encounter with the islands from November 26, 1778 - March 15, 1779, which is marked as a solid line.

Cook returned to the islands on his way home to Great Britain after spending most of 1778 exploring the Arctic, Siberia, and Alaska. Cook’s return trip began with a brief visit to Maui (Mowee). Cook’s journal entries for November 26-30, 1778 (see Resources) relate cordial relations with the Mauians and vigorous trading between his men and the islanders, which he sought unsuccessfully to limit and control. On November 30 he was visited by and exchanged gifts with Kalani’opu’u (Tereeoboo), king of the big island of Hawaii (see Resources). To the displeasure of his crew, Cook refused to anchor his ships for two months, preferring instead to make a slow reconnaissance of the big island, searching for a safe harbor where he could make repairs to his ships, trading almost daily with the Hawaiians, but limiting contact between his crew and the natives. Finally, on January 17, the ships anchored in Kealakekua Bay. They were enthusiastically greeted by the Hawaiians, and, after days of trading and shore visits, Cook was greeted formally by Kalani’opu’u on January 26. After a peaceful visit of more than two weeks, Cook’s ships departed on February 4, but after 3 days at sea the Resolution was damaged in a storm. Cook was reluctant to return to the Kealakekua Bay, knowing that their stay has been a costly one to the hospitable residents of that area, but he had no choice. Relations with the chiefs of the region were not so cordial this time. While repairs were underway, some minor disputes and brawls occurred, culminating with the theft of one of the Discovery’s cutters (a small boat) on February 14. Cook led a small armed contingent to recover the craft. A huge crowd gathered and Kalani’opu’u himself appeared. A melee ensued in which Cook and four of his men were killed. Scattered hostilities occurred over the next several days, resulting in the deaths of 25 Hawaiians. The violence finally abated, the repairs completed, and Cook’s expedition, now under the command of Charles Clerke, left the bay on February 23.

Though not a scientist by training, Cook was an astute observer of all that he saw. Countries such as Great Britain sponsored voyages such as a Cook’s Pacific expeditions for a variety of reasons. The underlying goal was to enhance and expand the political and economic power of European countries by expanding their geographical knowledge. Certainly science was important to Cook. He found to his delight that he could communicate with the Hawaiians in the languages learned on his earlier visits to Tahiti and other South Pacific islands. He took copious notes on the language of the various peoples he encountered, and developed from these observations the theory that all Polynesians had common ancestors who had spread across the Pacific by boat-a radical idea at the time, but now accepted by most anthropologists. Cook also took careful note of the edible plants he encountered and insisted that his crews consume some of them to help combat common diseases sailors suffered caused by nutritional deficiencies in their diet. He was particularly successful in reducing scurvy, caused by a lack of Vitamin C, among his crews. He was very interested in the economy and agriculture of the Hawaiians and was also concerned that his men might spread diseases among the peoples he encountered through sexual contact. Despite his apparent concern for and interest in the Hawaiians, he is said to have had a quick temper, and this was probably a factor in the events that led to his death.