The Cook Islands remember Captain Cook. Well I should hope so. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Cook Islands are administered by New Zealand and the majority of people whose heritage is traced to Cook now live in New Zealand. These people are Maori. That does not mean the stamp issues are not full bore British Commonwealth. Collectors are taught to scoff at stamps made specially for collectors but check out the artwork and use of gold trim on todays stamp. The collector then got his penny worth and the collector today is still getting a visual treat for his 25 cents. Cook Islands have this decade experimented with stamp issues from Rarotonga, the biggest island. These are to have a more Maori flair, perfect for all the Maori stamp collectors.
Todays stamp is issue A39 a one penny stamp issued by the Cook Islands then an independent state in free association with New Zealand. The UN frowned on colonies and New Zealand could point to lots of costs that make the association far from free, but this is the words arraigned to please. The stamp was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations that recognized the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook’s first voyage of discovery on HMS Endeavor. This stamp shows a painting of Cook’s ship off Huahine Island in Tahiti by the painter John Clevely. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.
As can be gathered from the stamp, Captain Cook set out on HMS Endeavor in 1768. The ship had been bought second hand to serve as a scientific vessel having been designed as a collier, a coal transport ship. Cook’s mission was to find the then hypothetical continent of terra Australis, Latin for south land. The area had been hypothesized as far back as Aristotle. The theory was that if the planet Earth was in balance with all the land mass near the North Pole, there must be a similar land mass near the South Pole. They were not talking about what is now known as Australia, it was known and referred to as New Holland. The idea to rename New Holland Australia came later from British Explorer Matthew Flinders proposed the renaming of New Holland as Australia. In doing so he was proposing giving up on the mythic 6th continent. Antarctica, the real terra Australis was spotted a few years later.
The voyage was the first to map the east coast of Australia and discovered New Zealand. HMS Endeavor had first restocked in Tahiti and took on Tupaia, a priest and star mapper from the Society Islands. He brought native knowledge of distances between islands, spoke Maori and knew names of native chiefs. Interestingly the discoveries were not at first claimed for Great Britain. This was revised mid journey when Captain Cook learned that French explorer Louis de Bougainville was also exploring the Pacific at the same time and making claims for France. Cooks first journey of discovery was cut short when much of his crew, including Tupaia, died in Batavia of malaria. Batavia is modern day Jakarta, Indonesia. The journey did not make it far enough south to spot Terra Australis/Antartica.
In their lifetimes, Captain Cook had a much worse fate then French Captain de Bougainville. After both had distinguished service on opposite sides during the American Revolutionary war, de Bougainville had a long retirement in France where Napoleon made him a Count. Cook had worse luck. He failed to find a northwest passage around North America he was looking for and then while passing through Hawaii again on the way back, he was murdered, disemboweled, baked to remove skin, and some say, partialy eaten. One too many bites at the apple of discovery?
The HMS Endeavor also came to a sad end. After again being on Captain Cook’s second journey, the ship changed hands and was employed as a cargo ship based out of the Falkland Islands. It was later lost when supporting a British naval blockade during the American Revolutionary War off Rhode Island. In 2018, undersea explorers claim to have found the wreck.
Well my drink is empty and so I will wait patiently till tomorrow when I will discover and present another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.