Captain Cook - The Death of Cook

Captain Cook- The Death of Cook is an excerpt from Northwest Passage, the final episode of the 4 x one-hour series Captain Cook – Obsession and Discovery, produced in 2007.

Captain James Cook FRS RN (October 27, 1728 – February 14, 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. Cook made three epic voyages around the world.

In this excerpt the events leading up to Cook’s death on 14 February 1779 are dramatised in the documentary and analysed by Vanessa Collingridge. The commentators used throughout the series sum up his career that has led him to this point of time. He has created a legacy very few can match as a scientist, explorer and commander.

After six weeks in Hawaii Cook has set sail but has had to return when Resolution breaks a sail. The Hawaiians do not welcome him back, considering him to have overstayed his welcome. Now he and his crew are no longer treated as honoured guests there has been a spelt of thefts from the ship. On this day Cook wakes to learn that a boat has been stolen and Collingridge believes that he decided to pick a fight. He blockades the bay with the two ships

Students will learn:

• how documentaries represent their time of production through style and content
• how historical figures are represented in documentaries
• to critically anyalse the codes and conventions of contemporary documentaries
• to critically analyse the clip’s production values and point of view
• to create different texts using the clip as an inspiration

Curriculum links
National: The Statements of Learning for English- Year 9
Reading, viewing and interpreting information and argument texts

• Students read and view texts that entertain, move, parody, investigate,
  analyse, argue and persuade. These texts explore personal, social, cultural
  and political issues of significance to the students’ own lives.
• Students understand that readers and viewers may need to develop knowledge
  about particular events, issues and contexts to interpret texts.

Writing

• When students write information or argument texts, they make appropriate selections of information from a few sources and attempt to synthesise and organise these in a logical way.
• Students write imaginative texts in print and electronic mediums that contain personal, social and cultural ideas and issues related to their own lives and communities and their views of their expanding world.

This resource is also relevant to Media Studies- Documentaries, Australian History, Geography and Visual Arts.

These outcomes relate generally to English curricula across Australia. Teachers and students should consult their state’s curriculum and learning programs.

Go to The National Curriculum Statements for English

“I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go.” James Cook

In the series, best selling British author Vanessa Collingridge, a Geographer and Cook expert tells the story of the explorer James Cook. The series traces him from his origins as son of an English farm labourer, at the very bottom of Britain’s class-bound 18th Century society, through his rise as the best cartographer of the 18th Century, to his incredible voyages of discovery which resulted in Cook describing more of the globe than any other man.

The series relives what it was like to navigate uncharted and unknown waters in search of a legendary ‘Great Southern Continent’ and then a North West passage through the Arctic ice; as well as to be among the first Europeans to visit exotic Pacific islands like Tahiti. The harshness and danger of life on the sea is depicted graphically as well as the rigid social structure of the time. The series includes direct descendants of the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Hawaii who Cook met 240 years ago and the men of the Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure and Discovery, particularly the famous gentleman botanist Joseph Banks and the young William Bligh.

All of Cook’s major achievements are dramatised and analysed including his discovery of Hawaii, sailing the uncharted coast of New Zealand, proving it isn’t part of the ‘Great Southern Continent’ and the landing at Botany Bay as he claimed Australia for king and country, to death on a beach on the far side of the world.

A hero to some, a villain to others, Cook is depicted from different points of view: as an historic figure of the great stature to the British Royal Navy of the 18th Century and contemporary western culture, and as an exploiter of the Indigenous peoples he came across.

1. View the introductory segment several times that finishes with Vanessa Collingridge, and then discuss:
a) why the filmmakers have chosen the scenes that review the story to this point.
b) how Cook is represented overall in this introductory segment- consider framing (camera shot size and angle), lighting, the narration and the sequence of images.
c) the function of review sequences such as these in TV series and serials.
d) in groups create an alternative sequence of scenes from the series that emphasises other aspects of Cook’s life and personality. Each group could be allocated a different point of view, eg: Cook as family man, Cook as emissary of British Imperialism, Cook as obsessive, Cook as overly ambitious etc

2. Cook’s last day is represented in the clip in very fast contracted scenes, How do the filmmakers move the narrative along so that a whole day can be represented? Discuss:
a) the role of Vanessa Collingridge’s on camera narration. How effective is the use of location, props (the boat etc), in creating the representation?
b) the visual codes used and the hand held camera effects- do these speed up or slow down the action?
c) the language used, eg: “The beach erupts in a volley of stones’.
d) the style of the dramatisation of the events on the beach.

3. The clip finishes on part of a play performance of Cook’s last day. If possible, view the entire episode and discuss why the film makers decided to include this alternative form of representation in the episode.

Create a text
In groups create different short text versions of the death of Cook, eg: a poem, a song, a mock up of a computer game, a front page of a newspaper announcing the death, a death notice in a newspaper, an online article etc

For teachers notes and further information go to the Film Australia Captain Cook – Obsession and Discovery showcase.

For extensive historical information about Cook go to Aussie Educator and the Captain Cook Society

Go to Screen Education and Metro Magazine for excellent articles and study guides for studying Australian documentaries and how to produce media.

Read Media 1 by Roger Dunscombe, Melinda Anastasios- Roberts, Juliet Francis, Karen Koch, George Lekatsas and Nick Ouchtomsky and Media 2 by Roger Dunscombe, Melinda Anastasios-Roberts, Kevin Tibaldi and Andrew Hyde. Heinemann Harcourt Education, Port Melbourne, 2007. Two recommended texts for classroom use for discussing representation and video production as well as many other key media concepts that relate to this clip. Go to the books online at Heinemann Media for more detail.