Waters, Colin.
The Untold Story of Captain James Cook: Revelations of a historical researcher.
Pen & Sword History.
2023.
ISBN 978-1-39905-696-0.
198 pages.
This book comes with a colourful dust jacket featuring Nathaniel Dance’s portrait of Captain James Cook. However, the reader soon discovers that this book focuses not on this Captain James Cook (1728-1779), but on his son Captain James Cook (1763-1794).
The author relates two quite separate stories relating to James Cook Jnr. First comes the circumstances of his drowning in 1794. Secondly, there is a tale that he did not drown, but moved to North Yorkshire to live out his days. These two events are in stark contrast to each other, as documents show that the alleged drowning was officially investigated twice. However, the return of James Cook Jnr to North Yorkshire is a legend with no documentation to support the claim. In this book, the author tries to convince the reader that these two stories form a continuum, and does his best to weave these two stories into one.
Let us first consider the story of the alleged drowning of Captain James Cook Jnr. In short, he is thought to have drowned when his small boat overturned in bad weather en route from Poole Harbour to HMS Spitfire moored out in Poole Bay. Or was it in Studland Bay? Or off the Isle of Wight? The reader is given a wide choice in this matter. The dead body of a naval officer was certainly found on Saturday, 25 January, 1794, washed ashore on the west coast of the Isle of Wight. It was subsequently presumed to be that of Captain James Cook Jnr. Four hundred yards from the dead body lay the upturned remains of a small boat, suggesting that the two may have been together until they encountered the rocky shore. However, where were the bodies of the other six or seven sailors who had also been aboard the boat? While several hats were found nearby, there was only Cook’s body! Customs stations along the coast reported that no bodies had been washed ashore elsewhere in the vicinity. Why had Cook died if the seamen with him had survived?
It is here that Waters starts to sow the seeds of conspiracy, as he correctly points out that nobody formally identified the body as being that of Captain James Cook Jnr. “Could it be that...” writes the author as he wonders if the body washed ashore was one of the missing seamen from the boat, thus enabling Cook to fake his own death prior to seeking a new life elsewhere.
The author traces the body to its burial in the Cook family vault inside the church of St Andrew the Great at Cambridge. However, Waters queries whether or not there was really a body inside the coffin, and, if there was, whether it was that of Captain James Cook Jnr.
If Cook had arranged for his apparent drowning as a subterfuge for his desertion from the Navy, such news would have brought great shame on the names of his late father and widowed mother Elizabeth. It is here that the author wonders whether Elizabeth Cook was complicit in the story of the drowning in order to protect the family name and reputation.
The book contains a full transcript of the official enquiry into the death of Captain James Cook Jnr. This allows the readers to reach their own conclusions about how he came to lose his life.
Which brings me to the second part of the story. We are told that Captain James Cook Jnr deserted his naval career in order to “return to his family roots in the rural surroundings of Sheriff Hutton area, near Malton”. In my 50 years of studying the life and times of Captain James Cook (1728-1779) I have never come across anything that connects him or his family with the Sheriff Hutton or Malton area of North Yorkshire. Hence, I find the author’s reference to there being “family roots” in that area quite puzzling.
In searching for some documentation to validate the legend of James Cook Jnr, I resorted to using the genealogical website Ancestry,1 Unfortunately I could not find a James Cook of the right age. According to the author; this is because I was looking for a James Cook; not realising that, according to the legend, he had cunningly changed his name to avoid being found by Admiralty officials, and charged with desertion.
In a stroke of deceptive genius (?) the 31 year old James had decided to retain his surname, and merely changed his Christian name to John. Or was it George? Or possibly Robert? The name in the legend varies, admits the author!
Those Yorkshire residents who believe that they are descended from James Cook Jnr trace their ancestry back to a Robert Cook (1791-1881). I was pleased to find some family trees for Robert Cook on the Ancestry website, and even more delighted when one of the family trees said that Robert Cook’s father was James Cook Jnr (1763-1794). This looked promising!
The promising start soon disappeared when I read the family tree in more detail. It stated that James Cook Jnr had married a Grace Fleek at Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1774. Oh dear! Even James Cook Jnr would not have been allowed to marry aged only 11 years. Unfortunately, not all family trees posted by members of the public on Ancestry are 100% accurate.
If the author is correct in his claim that Captain James Cook Jnr had returned to North Yorkshire, and some of his descendants are alive, then there are descendants of his parents James and Elizabeth Cook alive today! This situation would be contrary to the long held belief that none of their children lived to marry and have children of their own.
There have been numerous people over the years who have been brought up believing that they are direct descendants of Captain James Cook (1728-1779). The author devotes a chapter to some of the better known claimants. These include Commander Frank Wild who comes from the Cleveland area of North Yorkshire. His lineage can be traced back to Robert Cook (1791-1881), as can some of Wild’s relatives. However, having a large number of descendants is not enough to validate a genealogical claim.
“I have always believed that my Mother – was a direct descendant of the explorer” said Wild. I wish I had a £1 for every letter and email I have received over the years from somebody claiming descent from Captain Cook, after whom our Society is named. It is quite possible that some of them do have a person called Captain Cook among their ancestors. After all, there were three officers named James Cook serving in the Royal Navy in the late 18th century,2 and goodness knows how many more namesakes have served in the Merchant Navy over the years. So, it is quite possible for people to be descended from a Captain Cook, but was that person the Captain James Cook (1728-1779)?
The book is well presented, and the author’s writing style shows his experience as a journalist. I would have preferred the author to have reined in his enthusiasm for repeating sensational theories by other writers. He should have assessed the standing of those authors before deciding to quote them. For example, the suggestion that Captain James Cook (1728-1779) could have been the illegitimate son of Thomas Skottowe of Great Ayton. This speculation was made by Frank McLynn, whose reputation and biography of Cook were shredded in a review in Cook’s Log.3
Finally, I think that the author intended to include amongst his illustrations an image depicting the murder of Captain Cook at Kealakekua Bay, Hawai`i. Unfortunately, the image used in the book shows the “martyrdom” of the missionary Rev. John Williams on the island of Erromango, Vanuatu, in 1839.
Cliff Thornton
References
- www.ancestry.co.uk
- Robson, John. Captain Cook’s War and Peace: The Royal Navy Years, 1755-1768. Seaforth Publishing. 2009.
Cook’s Log. 2004. Vol. 27, no. 3. Pages 36–37.
- Cook’s Log. 2011. Vol. 34, no. 3. Pages 42–44.
Originally published in Cook's Log, page 29, volume 47, number 4 (2024).