Captain Cook's Accuracy

Abstract

Apropos of your article on the centenary of Capt. Cook's death in NATURE, vol. xix. p. 334, it may be interesting to call attention to his remarkable accuracy in determining the positions of places laid down in his charts. There is a great contrast between his accuracy and the evident carelessness of some more recent navigators. Some years ago when I was sailing in the Pacific we were one day approaching the recorded position of an island which no one on board our vessel had seen. I was conversing with the captain, and asked him whether he expected to find it in its recorded place. To this he replied: “It is sure to be there, for Capt. Cook determined its position; and although I have been now a good many years in the Pacific, I have never yet found him wrong. Had it been the United States Exploring Expedition which determined its place, I should have thought the chances just about equal as to whether it is right or wrong”.