Capt Cook Log

Would it be possible, to every day show a page from Capt Cooks log, and 200 yrs(?) ago this is where he was and what doing. I,m thinking for the next 5yr or so you have a daily report from him. Doable? Any interest?

What did Captain cook ?

He got cooked in the Philippines.

It was Hawaii

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At Mactan/Cebu (the Philippines) they cooked Magellan.

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Dear Honorable Moderators: I beg you to transfer this conversation to the "Cooking at Sea" thread.

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Yes in my haste, I transposed Magellan and Cook.

Having been to Cebu the Filipinos say they are great navigators because there is a bit of Magellan in them.

So why does Magellan get credit for circumnavigation when he only made it half-way? No one ever mentions Juan Sebastian de Elcano.

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I think they have a folk song regarding that event. Old boat i worked on we had a portugese capt that the filipino deck crew didn’t care for and they would sing it often.

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The corner stone of Magellan’s expedition was to cross westbound from the Atlantic to Southeast Asia. He did this by finding the (now) Magellan Strait.

Elcano was a member of Magellan’s expedition, mutinied against Magellan at Puerto San Julián (Patagonia, Argentina), passed the Magellan Strait in chains and took over after Magellan’s death in the Philippines, after months of changing commanders.

Then he sailed home to Spain westbound and arrived with 1 ship and 17 men.

Yes, Elcano and his men were the first to circumnavigate the earth, but with Magellan’s ship and only because Magellan did not execute the mutineer, and after the expedition’s objective was achieved.

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The monument to Magellan was looking pretty shabby when I was last in Cebu. You have to anchor well out in the bay in deep water because of the height restrictions around the airport.

Schools are still teaching that Christopher Columbus discovered America but he landed in the Bahamas thinking he was in Asia and went south from there. Leif Erickson landed in North America centuries earlier.

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And he had an old viking map that showed that there were land in the north so he sailed a southern route to avoid it on his way to India. (He was no flatearther)

Magellan gets credit on a technicality. He was in the East Indies and sailed from there to Europe where he drummed up support for a circumnavigation. When he was killed he had reached a point west of where he began sailing - although not on the same vessel or even the same voyage. But he did sail around the world. Maybe an asterisk next to his name like in baseball stats. I agree that El Cano should get more credit. No asterisk.

I read some of Cook’s log once looking for an entry about the day he discovered Australia. I looked at a couple month’s entries while I was there. It was pretty boring. If I remember right most days was just a weather observation and a noon position.

The log so called is actually The report of proceedings and 50 years ago when I had to write it as Commanding Officer we had to send one in each month and it was hard to come up with something each day. I can’t imagine writing something that gripped the imagination each day for two years.

This was an enjoyable book about Cook’s Polynesian navigator

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Yes that is true but the Vikings had no effect on history to speak of. Also the Bahamas are part of the Americas as island appendages of the “Americas” both north and south and are found on the American continental shelf.

You mean that from a purely American perspective, I’m sure??

In Europe they did have profound effect on history, not only as raiders but as traders and settlers. They established the York Rules of trading that is still the base of modern trading rules.

The Viking and their descendants establishing settlements as far away as Sicily, Russia and Greenland. They also acted as bodyguards to the Byzantine Emperor:

They conquered England, where their decedents are still the Royal family.

So yes, they did have an effect on history.

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