AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE QUANTA

“JAMES COOK” by PETER FITZSIMMONS How Does a Man in a Headscarf Map the World of Australian History? CLEAN TO READ and MOST ENJOYABLE: How does a man in a headscaf consistently lead forward in mapping Australian History? "JAMES COOK" - The Story Behind the Man Who Mapped the World is clean in its absence of visible distractions on the page. He leaves out once obligatory footnotes - in the practice of my Professor, the iconic Manning Clark, a sign of mastery. Making the endnote super-numerals feint and unobtrusive, Peter Fitsimmons has exercised a style of printed history which takes Manning Clark’s philosophy of readable history to a final refinement. Then, he constructs from verifiable archives an epic story which is alive, vivid and believable. I dip into Chapter 10 “Escapades on the East Coast”. Sheer luck… page 322: A crisis involving a hole in the hull. Four feet of water in the hold. All ranks must man the pumps, and do so with life or death British determination. The barque “Endeavour” starts to float. Then a young midshipman, 19 year old Jonathan Monkhouse – made a pariah by Cook after Monkhouse hasty firing at natives in Tahiti - has an idea. He gingerly approaches the Captain. Cook tells him “at once and in haste: out with it man”. Monkhouse’s solution is called “fothering”. Using a sail to bag up wool, stones and even sheep excrement, lowered carefully over the side where the hole is, aim to have the sea push the bag into the hole. The young midshipman had left Virginia on a ship which had smashed a hole in its hull and even as a “hopeless ship” yet made it all the way to London!” “Mr Banks notes that the worsening crisis makes ‘all hands impatient for the trial to begin.” Cut to the chase, page 327 “the fothering holds …. for the following 3 days while Cook looks for a suitable harbour in which to beach his ship.” And so on, in the manner that Peter Fitsimmons has apparently perfected. You can be sure that if you read this tome, A: you will enjoy what you read. It is like reading a novel. Fitzy puts you on the Whitby Cat, the barque “Endeavour”. You get to know the people on board. ALSO: B: You will learn as much as you like by referring to the End Notes. By using a bookmark for the page your on and one for the Endnotes for the Chapter, you can find out where Pete got his stuff. If you can make it to London or Canberra and other places where the sources are held, you can become truly knowledgeable on Cook and his epic adventure of 1770. I have long held that Australian historians should wear an Akubra – as did Manning Clark. However, will I now wear a headscarf in the manner of a rock star of the 1970’s or 80’s? Nobody would recognize me! -Bluey Quilty MA(Australian History, ANU) BLUE MOUNTAINS