History is partly the trust between generations, a link through and through time that helps give identity and meaning to the present. As individuals, families, communities and as a nation we all have significance over time, something that was celebrated at last year’s Coronation. And that is why those who oppose these values and this nation are attacking our history and doing the same in other countries.
According to the attackers, Captain James Cook is currently ripe for demolition. In Australasia, and especially in Australia, the images of him have been bitterly criticized, which in Britain have also been the target of a ‘hit list’ drawn up by ‘anti-racism’ campaigners.
And now the vandals have struck. Not yet against the Cook statues in Great Britain, but again against those in Australia. In Melbourne, a bronze statue of Cook, erected in 1914, has been sawn off at the ankles and pushed off its plinth, which has been painted in red with the words ‘The Colony will fall’.
Red, on the other hand, is the color of choice of the vandals, as it suggests that there was blood on the hands of such figures. For Cook this is incorrect. Red paint was also sprayed over Melbourne’s Queen Victoria monument, which was defaced with the same message.
In Melbourne, the bronze statue of Cook, erected in 1914, was sawed off at the ankles and pushed off its pedestal, writes JEREMY BLACK
Captain Cook’s statue in St Kilda was cut down by anti-Australia Day protesters this week and is shown here being loaded onto a truck
Australia is, of course, a functioning federal democracy with peaceful changes of government and a well-established legal system and legal pursuit of disagreements.
But vandalism and the destruction of what gives meaning and identity are now part and parcel of the repertoire of those clamoring for what they call decolonization. This is at best a partial and problematic account of past, present and future. This is especially true of James Cook, who was stabbed to death by islanders in Hawaii in 1779.
Professor Jeremy Black
For the Europeans he was the key figure of what was for them the largely unknown side of the earth. As with the Polynesians who had previously explored much of the Pacific Ocean – although they did not go as far north as Cook – this was courageous navigation in difficult waters into largely or completely unknown territory. These voyages, carried out in wooden ships under the play of wind and tides and incredibly vulnerable to storms, were often fatal for ships and sailors. Furthermore, coasts and reefs had not yet been mapped, so groundings were a constant hazard.
Cook came from a humble background, his father was a Scottish farm labourer. Farm work for young James was followed by an apprenticeship, first as a shop boy and then on a colliery bringing Tyneside coal to London. Growing in proficiency, particularly in merchant navigation, Cook volunteered for the Royal Navy and served against the French in the Seven Years’ War. He played an important role in mapping and navigation in James Wolfe’s successful Quebec campaign of 1759. After the war, Cook charted the complex coasts of Newfoundland – Britain’s main cod source – and in the process increased his mastery of the investigate further.
This can all be seen as an imperialist plot, that of a dastardly colonial power bent on world domination and plundering the Earth’s resources. Well, the British would not have noticed that view at the time, because in 1759 they rightly feared the French invasion. Such a threat was only stopped in two major naval battles, Lagos and Quiberon Bay. The Navy saved Britain in what was the Trafalgars of the day. Cook should be viewed as a member of that service and regarded as such. Likewise, the British Empire from 1939-45 played a key role in Hitler’s defeat. How many of his statues will fall in the future in some foolish pursuit of ahistorical vandalism?
Born in the Marton area of Middlesbrough, Captain Cook was the first European explorer to set foot in Australia
Cook’s navigational skills led to his being chosen by the Admiralty in 1768 for his most dangerous mission into the uncharted waters of the Pacific Ocean. He would record the transit of Venus across the Sun, which it was hoped would help determine the Sun’s distance from Earth.
Cook was then to embark on a voyage of discovery to the Southern Continent – also known as Terra Australis – which was believed to exist in the South Pacific to balance the hemispheres. When Dutch explorer Abel Tasman glimpsed part of New Zealand in 1642, some thought it was the southern continent. It was hoped that Cook’s exploration could provide the basis for an important trading relationship.
Although Terra Australis turned out not to exist, Cook did indeed put a lot on the map, especially the coasts of New Zealand and eastern Australia. This was a major achievement during three major voyages in which he sailed more widely in the Pacific than ever before, including exploring access to both the Arctic and Antarctic. Together with another Briton, Charles Darwin, Cook was indeed the Westerner who most expanded knowledge of the Pacific Ocean.
A print of a painting showing Captain James Cook (1728 – 1779) taking possession of New South Wales
His statue today in Melbourne bears the brunt of the anger over subsequent British imperial rule, but that was not Cook’s quest or achievement and the vandals have shown little sympathy for the man or what he did. Unfortunately, this ignorance is widespread.
In Britain it gathers under the banner of decolonization and rests on an inability to understand the past, but also on a complacent reading of the present. Hostility towards the Western values of the Enlightenment is especially characteristic of decolonization. Unfortunately, nothing very credible has been offered instead.
Jeremy Black’s books include A Brief History of the Pacific, Imperial Legacies, Naval Power and A Brief History of History.