Statue of Captain James Cook, The Mall, 1914
This statue on The Mall, London, was created by Thomas Brock and was proposed by Joseph Carruthers, the former prime minister of New South Wales in Australia.
The inscription reads:
‘Captain James Cook, RN FRS, born 1728, died 1772.
Circumnavigator of the globe, explorer of the pacific ocean, he laid the foundations of the British Empire in Australia and New Zealand, chartered the shores of Newfoundland and traversed the ocean gates of Canada, both east and west.
Unveiled by H. R. H. Prince Arthur of Connaught on behalf of the British Empire League, 7th July 1914.’
- How do each of these sources compare to the eyewitness accounts that you read? What are the differences, and what are the similarities?
- How do you think Europeans who saw these depictions might have viewed Captain Cook? How might they have remembered him?
- Look at the newer depictions of Cook listed below – how do they differ from the depictions you have looked at so far? How do they affect Cook’s legacy?
- Captain James Crook (2013) by Jason Wing
- James Cook – with the Declaration(2014) by Vincent Namatjira
- Cook’s Folly (2017) by Lisa Reihana. This is a still image from a longer video work, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] (2015-17). You can read a description of the scene in which Cook dies here (Track 4, ‘Disruption’).