Cook in the PacificThen and Now

Three voyages. One question that won't let go: who was Captain James Cook? What did he make of the Pacific — and what did his voyages actually represent at the time - and today?

Three questions. A podcast to answer them.

Who was this man?

What did he actually discover?

What were the consequences?

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Episodes

Voyages

Launched

Jul '26

1768 — 1779

11 years

Cook at the chart table — visual reconstruction

Visual reconstruction · Veo 2026

About the series

Made in Suva, Fiji

I arrived in Fiji in early 2026 with two months, two books, and a question I'd been carrying since childhood: what did Captain James Cook actually do in the Pacific?

Cook never landed in Fiji. Yet the history of its capital Suva is a direct consequence of his voyages — traceable, step by step, historically verifiable. That's where the series begins — in Fiji — and over three episodes we recount Cook’s epic first voyage.

Three voyages. One question that won't let go: who was Captain James Cook, what did he make of the Pacific — and what did his voyages represent, then and now?

Series structure

The first voyage, in three episodes

The Man from the Moors

From a farm labourer's cottage in Yorkshire to the quarter-deck of the Endeavour. Who was Cook — and how did he get there?

Listen

The Honest Ship

The Endeavour, the transit of Venus, and what happened when the sealed orders were opened.

Coming

Matavai Bay

The return to Tahiti. What Cook found — and what he brought with him.

Coming