This is John Batchelor, a happy conversation with Hampton Sides, the author of the spectacular

new story of Captain Cook's third voyage, the wide, wide sea, imperial ambition, first contact,

and the fateful final voyage of Captain James Cook.

Cook was talented, driving, inspired, and on the third voyage, haunted man.

It ended in tragedy.

However, here Hampton celebrates the skill that his own time recognized, couldn't explain.

We recognize it, can't explain.

Hampton calls it a knack. Captain Cook could find land where none existed before and could make certain that no land exists where people projected.

In the Pacific, what kind of land?

Well, for an example, Hawaii.

Here's Hampton Sides, the NAC by Captain James Cook.

More of this tomorrow night.

Yeah, it's like he has some sort of magnetic attraction to land,

places where they're not supposed to be something.

And, you know, he had spent much of his career actually looking for major land masses, including this supercontinent that was supposedly existed in the southern hemisphere. He didn't find, you know, he didn't find the supercontinent,

and he became famous for that, smashing this theory,

that there had to be this massive, massive continent, bigger than all of Asia.

So, you know, this is a man who has incredible luck at either finding land that no one knew existed or not finding land that the scientists all presumed was there.

They sometimes call him the negative discoverer.

But, yes, I don't know what it is.

He has this incredible knack. And it's something that all of historians and biographers have talked about.