Captain Cook's return to the South Seas, 1772-1775
By Tony Rice
Grey-headed kingfisher, Halcyon leucocephala action, from the Cape Verde Islands
Captain Cook's expedition to the South Seas in 1772 continued his search for a southern continent. During the voyage, which left just a year after the return of his Endeavour expedition across the Pacific, he came dangerously close to death but was lucky to recover and to continue completing detailed surveys of coastlines and adding to his extensive collection of ethnographic and natural materials. Tony Rice outlines how Cook coped with both the physical hardships of the trip and the difficult personality of his fellow scientist Johann Reinhold Forster.
Captain Cook's return to the South Seas PDF (93.9 KB)
Until 1938 whale carcasses were buried in the Museum grounds so that their flesh would decay leaving only the skeletons.