Lying for the Admiralty

Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage

Margaret Cameron-Ash

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English

01 October 2022

History; Australasian & Pacific history

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Never have Cook’s journals and charts been subjected to such unbiased, forensic examination. The doubts, puzzles and queries raised by J C Beaglehole - Cook’s renowned editor and biographer - are answered. Cook’s discoveries had to remain secret until Britain could afford to send an occupation force to fortify the place and keep out the French, hence the publication of Cook’s censored journal and charts.

Throughout the voyage of the Endeavour 1768-1771, Captain James Cook hid his important strategic discoveries, including Bass Strait and Sydney Harbour, in order to deny their existence to the French who at the same time also wanted to colonize the lands of the Pacific Ocean and Eastern Australia. Margaret Cameron-Ash reveals Cook's strategic goals and accomplishments through a re-examination of Cook's original journals and charts.

From the Foreword by John Howard

“The author mounts a strong circumstantial case that Cook both discovered Bass Strait, and actually gazed upon Sydney Harbour. Her proposition is that Cook and some of his party walked overland from Botany Bay to the Harbour... Her case is based on documentary and circumstantial evidence gleaned after meticulous research. She argues that deliberate obfuscation and distortion were tools of trade for the British Admiralty - then effectively run by its long-serving and very able Secretary Philip Stephens. Such was the colonial rivalry of the time that paranoia about Admiralty leaks were an incentive for deliberate inaccuracies to be included in formal reports of voyages and exploration."

See more in HISTORY HERALD

See also BEATING FRANCE TO BOTANY BAY

By: Margaret Cameron-Ash
ISBN: 9780648996132
ISBN 10: 0648996131
Publication Date: 01 October 2022
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active