Book review: James Cook's Lost World, Graeme Lay

Graeme Lay has produced a grand finale in the Cook trilogy.

In this final volume of Graeme Lay's fictional trilogy on the life of James Cook, we confront a very different man to the legend or, for that matter, the first two books in the series.

The Cook we met before was calmly efficient, possessed of both good luck and wisdom, an outstanding seaman and navigator, who - by the standards of the time - treated his crew humanely and showed a sure touch in dealing with the natives of the places he visited.

Now, on his third voyage of discovery, we face an older Cook (he turned 50 on the voyage) who is sick, subject to intemperate outbursts, treats miscreants with brutality, makes crucial mistakes and has a run of ill fortune.

Even the tone of the private journal Lay has him keeping for his wife, Elizabeth, changes from matter-of-fact descriptions of events to querulous accounts of things gone awry, filled with complaints about a sore leg, constant pains in the stomach, constipation and sleeplessness.

Where did it all go wrong? The book points the finger at an event early in the voyage while the expedition was recuperating at Ship Cove in the Marlborough Sounds. The chief responsible for massacring a boatload of mariners from an earlier expedition came on board the Resolution and, instead of being punished, was given gifts, enraging the crew and earning the contempt of Maori.

In Lay's telling, Cook later decides he made a mistake and, determined not to show weakness again, overcompensates when dealing with subsequent challenges.

In fact, problems are apparent from the beginning of this story. Lay has Elizabeth Cook, previously accepting of her husband's need to sail away for years at a time, express anger at his decision to go on this third voyage. She even accuses him of becoming arrogant and, sure enough, we see signs of arrogance.

The expedition has scarcely set sail when the sloppy refitting of the two vessels by the notoriously corrupt naval dockyards produces the first of many gear failures. And the aim of the voyage, to discover the northeast passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, is beyond the vessels at Cook's disposal and destined for failure.

These strands come together almost inevitably to produce a final and fatal misjudgement in Hawaii, when he tries to take the native king hostage following the theft of a boat, leading the locals to kill and then ritually eat the mysterious visitor they worshipped as a god.

The result is a grand finale to what is unquestionably the most powerful book in this interesting trilogy. It would have worked even better if the Cook of the first two volumes was a little more human and that of the third a bit less accident-prone. But it's still a compelling account of the last days of this towering but enigmatic figure and is both insightful and a great read.

James Cook's Lost World
by Graeme Lay
(Fourth Estate $36.99)

- Canvas