Captain Cook
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2023
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dan tells the extraordinary tale of Captain James Cook. Born a labourer's son, he would rise to become one of history's greatest explorers. He went about as far as it was possible to go, sailing the Pacific Ocean and arriving on the shores of Australia and New Zealand.
For these voyages, he assembled an A-Team of maritime explorers - marines, scientists, and a Polynesian explorer who had memorised the constellations of the stars. So what trials did he face on these epic voyages? Which peoples did he come across? And how did it all end? Tune in to today's Explainer to find out more.
Written by Dan Snow and edited by Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you ever wondered what beautiful British edifice overtook the great pyramid as the |
| 0:06.0 | world's tallest building? |
| 0:08.4 | Or what Stalin did before he became leader of the Soviet Union, well you can find the |
| 0:11.8 | answer. |
| 0:12.8 | To these questions and hundreds more like them in our new book, The History Hit and Miss |
| 0:17.1 | Celeny. |
| 0:18.1 | It's the perfect present for any history fan. |
| 0:19.8 | It's available to buy now from your favourite bookshop or visit historyhit.com slash book. |
| 0:30.0 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. |
| 0:36.7 | I'm going to tell the story of how the son of a labourer who grew up pretty far away |
| 0:41.6 | from the ocean became one of history's greatest naval officers, sailors and explorers. |
| 0:49.3 | Captain James Cook. |
| 0:54.2 | As a thrusting young naval officer, James Cook once said, My ambition leads me not |
| 1:01.0 | only further than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for |
| 1:07.8 | man to go. |
| 1:09.8 | Well in 18th century context, he went pretty much as far as he could go. |
| 1:15.8 | I think he was talking about his status, social status, as well as his voyaging and he |
| 1:23.2 | triumphed on both counts. |
| 1:26.8 | When I was a kid, we studied a topic in primary school that changed my life. |
| 1:30.2 | I was about seven and we used to spend whole terms, whole semesters for my North American |
| 1:34.5 | audience studying one particular thing, whether it's castles or the Anglo-Saxons. |
| 1:40.1 | And through that topic we'd learn our maths and our English and sciences and other subjects. |
... |
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