Sharks That Walk On Land

Ron Palmer

Description

It is February 1779 Captain James Cook is on his last voyage to the Pacific. This is a fascinating fictionalised account of the sad events leading up to the demise of Captain James Cook. Although written as a novel the content has been thoroughly researched from the officers journals of Cook's last voyage of discovery to the Pacific, and in this respect is an authentic account of the events leading up to his tragic death at the hands of the Hawaiians. The names used in this work are of people who actually sailed on the two ships of this expedition although the actions attributed to these individuals have been somewhat embroidered by the imagination. Great effort has been applied to put across Cook's humane and compassionate understanding of his fellow man - particularly in the eighteenth century British Navy - this endeared him to the brutish men under his charge. Without doubt Cook was one of the greatest seamen and navigators the world had ever produced. His discoveries in the Pacific opened up this vast ocean to the western world so that it was no longer a mystery for the armchair theorists to speculate over.Book reviews online @ www.publishedbestsellers.com

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Pneuma Springs Publishing
• Date de parution: 26 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781782282068
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Sharks
That Walk On
Land

An account of the last days of Captain James Cook


Ron Palmer
Copyright

Published in 2011 by:
Pneuma Springs Publishing

Sharks That Walk On Land
Copyright © 2011 Ron Palmer

Kindle eISBN: 9781907728891 ePub eISBN 9781782282068 PDF eBook eISBN 9781782280736 Paperback ISBN: 9781907728051
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, save those clearly in the public domain, is purely coincidental.

Pneuma Springs Publishing E: [e-mail] W: www.pneumasprings.co.uk
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Published in the United Kingdom. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher.
Preface
There have been many books written about Captain James Cook. Some have been casual in their approach to writing about this great man, which in the eyes of this author shows disrespect unworthy of Cook. Other works have been thoroughly researched and do justice to his achievements. In this respect I refer to J.C.Beaglehole's magnificently researched The Life of Captain James Cook and his edited journals of Cook’s three voyages to the Pacific. It is on these journals which I leaned heavily for the writing of this book. In attempting to understand the Hawaiians' position in the events portrayed, I have used as a reference Abraham Fornander's Ancient History of the Hawaiian People.
Although my book, written in the novel format deals only with the events immediately prior to Cook’s death and the circumstances surrounding the eventual return of his remains for burial, the reader can rest assured that the sequence of events and the circumstances are truthful to eyewitness accounts.
It is remarkable that, being of humble beginnings and facing the society constraints of the 18th century, Cook came to be such a qualified and gifted seaman. One could almost suspect the intervention of a higher being leading him through his life and the circumstances that guided him from a rude, uneducated son of a farm labourer to a well respected and honoured man of his time and his place in history.
The intervention of Mistress Walker, in giving young James the basics of reading and writing at a time in England’s history when education was not generally available to the common people, was his springboard into his future life. He received the lessons in return for watering the horses and doing part time work around the farm. His years in the farming community taught the young boy animal husbandry which was to stand him in good stead in later years when his ships became miniature farmyards, bearing gifts from George III, ‘Farmer George’, to the people of distant lands. The kindness of his father’s employer, Thomas Scottowe, in paying for his schooling at the Postgate school in Great Ayton, projected him further along his pre-ordained path.
Mr. William Sanderson, the haberdasher of Staithes to whom James was employed as shop boy at seventeen, must have realised, too, that the young man’s talents were wasted in the restraints of his shop and so moved him on another step on the ladder to fame, to that kind, Quaker ship-owner, John Walker. Then, when James had reached a time in his career with Walker where he was offered a promotion to captain of Walker’s colliers, he left and joined the Royal Navy as an able seaman. It was a move that only Cook could explain. With dedication, he moved upwards through the ranks to Master and, at the time of the taking of Fortress Louisburg from the French by the British in 1758, acquired from the military surveyor, Samuel Holland, the science of surveying. Cook’s rising star was further helped by the intervention of Captain Hugh Palliser through whose influence he was appointed to survey the coast of Newfoundland. Cook’s expertise in chart making and surveying had come to the attention of his masters.
As Palliser’s star rose in the Royal Navy so did Cook’s. No doubt Palliser’s influence was instrumental in Cook being appointed to command the Endeavour for the expedition to Tahiti to witness the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. The first of his great Pacific voyages proved Cook’s invaluable worth as a scientific navigator. The accurate charting of New Zealand and the east coast of New Holland was the linchpin of his professional life. These surveys secured his value in the eyes of the Admiralty and he was appointed to the Resolution in command of the expedition to the Antarctic to prove or disprove the existence of a temperate land in that part of the world. His third and last voyage was also on the Resolution on an expedition to prove or disprove that a passage across the top of North America existed.
Cook and his expedition arrived at Kealakakua Bay during the season of Makahini. This was a time, following the harvest, which commenced when the constellation of Pleiades rose above the horizon in October and lasted for a period of four months. During Makahini all warlike activity ceased, sporting competitions took place between villages, taxes were collected and festive events commenced. In the Hawaiian religion, the god, Lono, presided over the season of the winter solstice. At this time of year, the winter brought clouds, thunder, lightening, and heavy rains, which regenerated the earth, preceding the coming growing season.
One of the images of Lono was a long stick about twelve feet in length with a cross-piece, from which lengths of tapa cloth were hung, much like the sails of Cook's ships. With Cook's coincidental arrival at Lono's sacred harbour of Kealakakua Bay during the Makahini season, it is small wonder that the Hawaiians thought that Lono had returned to the island as had been foretold in the early religious traditions.
This author speculates as to whether "Lono's" return coinciding with a time when no warlike acts could take place could have been instrumental in Cook's murder, as the overwhelming welcome he received could have only placed him in position of false security. The Hawaiians were a warlike people and it could be argued that had the ships arrived outside of the season of Makahini, a situation similar to Wallace's arrival at Tahiti might have arisen. When Tahiti was discovered by Wallace, he and his crew were resisted fiercely. Good relations were only established by the devastating force of the ship's guns subduing the unwelcoming Tahitians.
On leaving Kealakakua Bay, Cook was still regarded as the god, Lono, and had promised to return the following year. But his return, only a week later, for much needed repairs to the foremast, caused great resentment in the Hawaiians. The season of Makahini had passed and they were no longer restrained by the restrictions of that special time.
During the ten years of exploration in the Pacific, Cook's charting of that vast unknown ocean dispelled the theories that temperate lands existed in the southern part of the world and opened up the primitive people of the Pacific region to European colonisation. Given only the rudimentary principals of navigation that existed at that time, complicated and involved as they were, of fixing a position on the earth's surface, one can only marvel at Cook's professionalism. The fixing of longitude by chronometer was only available for his second voyage. Previous to the invention of the chronometer, longitude could only be determined on land by measuring angles and distances between known stars and the moon. Today, using satellite fixing, it can be established that Cook's calculations were remarkably accurate.
Given the conditions he was to labour under, sailing a virtually unknown ocean knowing only the places he himself had established on the Pacific map, it is small wonder that during his third and last voyage Cook was so bad tempered. Ten years of poor food, cramped living conditions and the stress of uncertainty in his travels would surely have been responsible for his mood swings. Counseling is a modern day invention and was not available in the eighteenth century navy.
I have used as a premise that Cook's temperament towards the end of his life, coupled with his inherent pride, were responsible for his murder at the hands of the Hawaiians. However, this premise does not detract from Cook's greatness and should not be assumed by the reader. The second part of this book relates to the circumstances which occurred after Cook's death and the negotiations by his successor Captain Charles Clerke for the return of his remains for burial.

Ron Palmer.
Pender Island, B.C. May 2003.
Book One
1. Monday, 8th February 1779
The summer had been unusually hot. The old people were claiming that they had known nothing like it in living memory. For weeks now, the temperatures had been extremely high during the day with precious little relief at night. There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky for more than two weeks and the air was so clear and still as to allow the sounds of the farm workers harvesting the corn to be carried for great distances across the fields. Hot it might be but as country folk often do, they could see the advantages as well as the downside in these matters. In this particular case, the harvest could be brought in and stacked. The weather was ideal for that at least. After the harvest, the rain and the cooler weather would be welcome.
Jamie had heard the squeaking of the two-wheeled farm cart long before it turned the corner and came into view. He was sitting on the grass verge watching the heat waves shimmering above the hawthorn hedge bordering the lane, waiting impatiently at the junction of the two lanes for the cart to come up to him.
In his excitement, he had been running, bur