Captain Cook's Canadian Travels

On April, 1, 1778, Captain James Cook and his crew arrived at present-day Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island with the ships Resolution and Discovery. The English explorer was on his third and last voyage around the world (he would be killed in Hawaii the following year). Here’s some of what took place during Cook’s journey up the coast:

Greeted by the locals

At Nootka Sound, the crew set to work cutting wood, setting up an iron forge and making repairs to the ship. Local inhabitants — the Nuu-chah-nulth — were quick to greet them. James Burney, the first lieutenant on the Discovery, noted that on April 4, “several of the larger Canoes saluted us, by making a Circuit round the ships and giving three Halloos at their departure. They paddle in most excellent time, the foremost man every third or fourth Stroke making flourishes with his paddle. The halloo is a single note in which they all join, swelling it out in the middle and letting the Sound die away.”

Making small beer

While most of the crew worked on ship repairs, some brewed beer. David Samwell, the ship surgeon’s first mate on the Resolution, called it “small beer” and noted it was served to the ship’s company in place of brandy.The beer was actually an antiscorbutic made from spruce needles and tea leaves and meant to prevent scurvy.

While in New Zealand, Cook described how the beer was made: “First make a strong decoction of the small branches of the spruce and tea-plants, by boiling them three or four hours, or until the bark will strip with ease from the branches; then take them out of the copper, and put in the proper quantity of molasses, ten gallons of which is sufficient to make a ton, or two hundred and forty gallons of beer. Let this mixture just boil; then put it into casks, and to it add an equal quantity of cold water, more or less according to the strength of the decoction, or your taste. When the whole is milk-warm, put in a little grounds of beer, or yeast if you have it, or anything else that will cause fermentation, and in a few days the beer will be fit to drink.” By April 23, Samwell had made enough spruce beer to last the company for two or three months.

Keeping a silent watch

At one point, Cook’s crew went into the woods to take down a tree and make a mizzen mast. The reaction of the local people was unusual enough that James King, second lieutenant on the Resolution, remarked in his journal: “Many of the Natives were alongside who regarded this piece of duty with an attention and astonishment that is far from common with them… I have observed half a dozen canoes close together and not heard a single word spoken by any for an hour or more. This silent conduct of theirs is apt to strike us the more, as being so very diff[erent] from the behaviour of the Islanders we have visit[ed] whose perpetual din is the most tiresome and vexatious circumstance of our intercourse with them.”

Taking a break

By April 19, most of the heavy work was out of the way and Cook decided an excursion was called for and set off in a couple of small boats to explore the area around Nootka Sound. James Trevenen was one of the midshipmen who rowed the boats. “We were fond of such excursions, altho’ the labour of them was very great, as, not only this kind of duty, was more agreeable than the humdrum routine on board the Ships, but as it gave us an opportunity of viewing the different people & countries, and as another very principal consideration we were sure of having plenty to eat & drink, which was not always the case on board the Ship on our usual allowance. Capt. Cooke also on these occasions, would sometimes relax from his almost constant severity of disposition, condescend now and then, to converse familiarly with us. But it was only for the time, as soon as we entered the ships, he became again the despot.”

Sailing north to Alaska

After about a month, Cook and his crew began making their way north as part of their mission to find the Northwest Passage. On May 4 they spotted Mount St. Elias — on the boundary of present-day Alaska and Yukon — the second highest mountain in North America. Cook landed on a nearby island and left behind a bottle containing a note on which he wrote an account of the ships’ reaching the place. He also left two silver penny pieces dated 1772 and named the island after Reverend Richard Kaye, the chaplain to the king. Today it is called Kayak Island.

Meeting a “very happy race”

On May 12, the crew reached Prince William Sound. Some local inhabitants appeared and came aboard the ships. Charles Clerke, the captain of the Discovery, gave them a glass bowl “with which they seemed much delighted.” In return, the indigenous people gave Clerke a waterproof coat made out of bird skin “exceedingly well calculated, to keep out both Wet & Cold; then, both Boats put off and made for the Shore, paddling and singing with all the Jollity imaginable. We either found these good folks on [one] of their Jubilee Days, or they are a very happy Race,” wrote Clerke.

Hitting the wall

The crew continued northward, hoping to a find an open across the top of the continent. They followed a promising arm leading into Cook’s Inlet in the Gulf of Alaska but were once again disappointed, as it proved to be a river.

On June 6, they encountered some local people — the Aleut — who paddled to their ships and handed over a small box. Expedition member Heinrich Zimmerman described what happened next: “We opened the box and found therein a small piece of paper on which were written five lines in Greek letters. We could understand nothing of it but recognized the dates 1776 and 1778 and concluded from these circumstances that Russians had been wrecked on this island.” Russians had been trading in the area since 1759.

Cook sailed on until he hit a wall of ice at Icy Cape, above seventy degrees north, in mid-August. With no Northwest Passage presenting itself, Cook turned around. On a return stop at Unalaska Island, Cook met Russian fur trade post factor Gerassim Ismailov, who provided him with valuable map information.

His search for the Northwest Passage concluded, Cook slowly made his way back across the Pacific to Hawaii, where, on February 14, 1779, he met his final end in a skirmish with Islanders.