From a farm labourer's cottage in Yorkshire to the quarter-deck of the Endeavour.
When podcast producer Phil Reevell arrived in Fiji for a three month stay, he decided to use the opportunity to research a subject that had interested him since childhood — the voyages of Captain James Cook in the Pacific. He was born close to where Cook was born, and being in Fiji meant he could discover what it was like for Cook to explore in such an unfamiliar environment.
This first episode of the podcast looks at Cook's birth and upbringing, how he came to learn his skills as a navigator — and why he was selected to lead an expedition to the Pacific.
Phil interviews Peter Moore, author of the definitive book, Endeavour: the ship and the attitude that changed the world.
Cook never reached Suva. But in July 1774, on the Second Voyage, he passed close enough to sight what is now Fijian territory — the island of Vatoa, far to the south of the main archipelago. Four lines in the journal. The entry that connects this series to the city where it begins.
Suva lies at the heart of the Fiji group. Vatoa — marked south — is the outermost island Cook sighted in 1774.