HEADLINE: Captain Cook's Voyages and the Discovery of Pacific Sophistication AUTHOR NAME: Nicholas Thomas SUMMARY: Captain Cook's expeditions were funded by the Royal Society to observe the transit of Venus and by the Admiralty to search for a great sout
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
HEADLINE: Captain Cook's Voyages and the Discovery of Pacific Sophistication
AUTHOR NAME: Nicholas Thomas
SUMMARY: Captain Cook's expeditions were funded by the Royal Society to observe the transit of Venus and by the Admiralty to search for a great southern continent. Cook and scientist Joseph Banks documented the immense sophistication of indigenous boats, noting they were capable of distant navigation despite being made only with stone or shell tools. Cook immediately recognized the linguistic and cultural relatedness of the islanders.
1784 HAWAII
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| 0:29.3 | This is CBS. I in the world. I'm John Batchel. Visiting with Professor Nicholas Thomas. |
| 0:35.3 | His new book is Voyagers, The Settlement of the Pacific. He's a professor of historical anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and that's what we're doing here, history, but near history. |
| 0:40.1 | The mystery of Oceania begins with Captain Cook's first, second, and third voyage, |
| 0:48.8 | present mysteries to be solved. |
| 0:51.4 | Professor, who was Captain Cook? |
| 0:53.3 | Why was he in the Society Islands in 1768? |
| 0:58.7 | What was his mission? |
| 1:01.2 | So Cook was a naval man, but he was above all an exceptionally accomplished surveyor. |
| 1:09.8 | And that's why the Royal Society and the Admiralty selected him in the 1760s to lead an |
| 1:21.1 | expedition. |
| 1:22.1 | The ship was the endeavor. |
| 1:23.9 | They went to Tahiti. |
| 1:26.1 | And the core purpose, certainly the ostensible purpose, was the observation of the transit of Venus. |
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