She looked over to where young James and Nathaniel were eagerly piling his sea chests up at the front of the house. ‘It’s been so hard,’ Elizabeth said. ‘Don’t leave us again.’
Smiling down at her, remembering the Greenwich Hospital position, James said firmly, ‘No.’
Acknowledgements
ALTHOUGH JAMES COOK’S NEW WORLD is, like its predecessor The Secret Life of James Cook, primarily a work of fiction, it has a factual framework. The facts pertaining to Cook’s second voyage were provided for me by several accounts. Of these, the most helpful were: The Life of Captain James Cook by J.C. Beaglehole (Stanford University Press, 1974), Captain Cook, the Seaman’s Seaman by Alan Villiers (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1967), The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond (Penguin, London, 2003), Captain James Cook by Richard Hough (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1994), James Cook and New Zealand by A. Charles Begg and Neil C. Begg (A.R. Shearer, Government Printer, Wellington, 1969) and Cook by Rob Mundle (HarperCollins, Sydney, 2013). The Villiers and Mundle accounts of Cook’s voyages carry additional authority from the fact that their authors themselves have had considerable ocean sailing experience.
The publication Fish and Ships! Food on the Voyages of Captain Cook (catalogue to the exhibitions 2011–2012 in the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Foreword by Glyndwr Williams, Whitby, 2012) provided practical information regarding the victualling of Royal Navy vessels, while The Captain Cook Encyclopaedia by John Robson (Random House New Zealand, 2004) was a useful work of reference.
Occasionally in the text, brief excerpts from the official journals of Cook appear, to illustrate the explorer’s vigilant eye for weather conditions and his laconic writing style. I selected these extracts from The Three Famous Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co., London, 1889) and The Journals of Captain James Cook On His Voyages of Discovery, The Voyage of Resolution and Adventure, 1772–1775, edited from the original manuscripts by J.C. Beaglehole (Cambridge University Press, published for the Hakluyt Society, 1959). The Thomas Perry poem ‘The Antarctic Muse’ appears in Appendix VI of this edition of Cook’s journals. I am grateful to the Hakluyt Society for permission to include extracts from Cook’s journals and the Perry poem.
I am grateful to the experienced maritime writer Joan Druett for providing me with specialist nautical advice, while Tahiti authority Professor Alex Frame supplied me with information with regard to the Society Islands’ kingfisher. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of Ian Boreham, editor of Cook’s Log, published quarterly in England by the Captain Cook Society, for his expert advice.
Once the text had been written, Stephen Stratford carried out the editing with meticulousness and an unerring eye for anachronism. I am again indebted to the media knowledge of my experienced publicist, Sandra Noakes, the continued enthusiasm, loyalty and professionalism of my agent, Linda Cassells, and the support and good humour of HarperCollins’ publisher in Auckland, Finlay Macdonald.
The Secret Life of James Cook by Graeme Lay
A fictionalised account of the famous navigator’s early life, The Secret Life of James Cook Cook’s youthful ambitions, his early naval career, his marriage to Elizabeth and their family life.
Drawing on his personal knowledge of the South Pacific and Australasia, novelist Graeme Lay recreates the peerless navigator’s life up to, and including, his first circumnavigation of the world. In particular, Graeme examines the relationship between James and his equally remarkable wife, Elizabeth, the woman he married when he was 34 and she 21, and by whom he had six children, all born while he was away at sea.
The Secret Life of James Cook also depicts the often-stormy relationship between the self-made English naval commander and the dashing, privileged naturalist Joseph Banks, who accompanied Cook on his first world voyage.
‘a good read and it rings true … what more can anyone ask?’
Weekend Herald, Auckland
About the Author
Graeme Lay was born in Foxton, New Zealand, and grew up in coastal Taranaki, which imbued him with a lifelong love of the sea. After graduating from Victoria University of Wellington in 1967 he lived overseas for some years, then returned to New Zealand to live on Auckland’s North Shore. First published in 1978, he has written novels for adults and young adults, as well as collections of short stories and travel writing and several non-fiction works. Many of his books are set in the islands of the South Pacific. A past secretary of the Frank Sargeson Trust, he writes from his home in the marine suburb of Devonport. He is married to Gillian and they have three adult children.
Other Books by Graeme Lay
Novels and Short Story Collections
The Mentor
The Fools on the Hill
Temptation Island
Dear Mr Cairney
Motu Tapu: Stories of the South Pacific
The Town on the Edge of the World
Alice & Luigi
The Secret Life of James Cook
Young Adult Novels
The Wave Rider
Leaving One Foot Island
Return to One Foot Island
The Pearl of One Foot Island
The Jacket
Children
Are We There Yet? A Kiwi Kid’s Holiday Exploring Guide
Nanny Potaka’s Birthday Treat
Non-fiction
The Cook Islands (with Ewan Smith)
Pacific New Zealand
In Search of Paradise: Artists and Writers in the Colonial South Pacific
Travel
Passages: Journeys in Polynesia
New Zealand: A Visual Celebration (with Gareth Eyres)
Samoa (with Evotia Tamua)
Feasts & Festivals (with Glenn Jowitt)
The Globetrotter Guide to New Zealand
The Best of Auckland
New Zealand: The Magnificent Journey (with Gareth Eyres)
The Miss Tutti Frutti Contest: Travel Tales of the South Pacific
The Globetrotter Travel Atlas of New Zealand
Inside the Cannibal Pot
Copyright
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollins HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2014
This edition published in 2014
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
harpercollins.co.nz
Copyright © Graeme Lay 2014
Graeme Lay asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. This work is copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Cover images by Richard Jenkins
Map by Map Illustrations
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