The Wide Wide Sea - Hampton Sides

Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

A New York Times bestseller, and with good reason. This was recommended by my wife and I agree.

On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. Cook's mission, given him in a secretive directive by the Admiralty, was to find the fabled Northwest Passage above North America; but from the western side, above what is now Alaska.

His trip around the south and arctic north Pacific is told as a fast-paced adventure on the high seas and follows the men and their first contact with native societies. That these societies were still naive and untouched is the wonder in this tale, as is the ignorance of the geography. Sides does a masterful job of bringing the reader along on a 18th century sailing ship with its achievements and challenges. Tidbit: without really understanding how or why, Cook made sure his men had a diet of foods that prevented them from getting scruvy - a routinely fatal condition at sea - and was the only commander that managed to do it.