PAGE 12 • WINTER 2005 THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SAILING ASSOCIATION
ASA MEMBER BOOK REVIEW • BY BILL PAYNE
Title: Blue Latutudes
Author: Tony Horwitz
Publisher: Picadore Press 2002
Format: Paperback
B
lue Latitude jumped out to me at Mystic Seaport
Bookstore. It was one of four books I bought that
day and sent home to California. Mystic Seaport
Bookstore commands an extended time for browsing.
Tony Horwitz’s book is subtitled: ‘Boldly Going Where
Captain Cook Has Gone Before.’ It is advertised as a
combination Cook biography and travelogue. But it is
also a sailor’s delight. And for a sailor who is on the net,
it will expand your reading to all parts of the world.
Basically, Horwitz tells the story of Cook’s life by visiting
the places Cook discovered in his three voyages in the
Pacific. The three voyages take up the main portions of
the text; however, his childhood and married life is also
part of the story. Horwitz interweaves the discoveries of
Cook with visits to the same places and searches for
R
evidence of Cook’s legacy. It is a great read.
I was hooked with the first chapter subtitled ‘One Week
Before the Mast.’ I recalled my own short training on the
tall ship Akogare in Osaka, Japan, which awoke my
interest in sailing after a 20-year absence. I tucked that
little adventure in the back of my mind and read on. He
visits Tahiti, Bora Bora, New Zealand, Botany Bay and
the Great Barrier Reef from Cook’s first voyage.
Fascinating reading, a study in linguistics. But Botany
Bay shook loose another memory of years gone by; 46
years ago I sailed these waters as a seaman in the U.S.
event in the book. Your pleasure has just blossomed to
Navy. Not Tahiti or Bora Bora or Botany Bay, but Fiji and
cover the whole world. (Google offers about 42,800 sites
Melbourne. A pattern emerges. I’ve sailed in the Pacific
for Niue.) But again, Horwitz does not offer a very
off and on for 46 years. Where else did my course cross
desirable picture of these places.
those of Cook and Horwitz? Stop right here. If you have
ever sailed the Pacific, make a list of the ports, the
At this point, Horwitz takes to Cook’s childhood in North
vessels and the dates. They will add another dimension
Yorkshire and his lifestyle in London. I love both London
of pleasure to your experience …
and York. Haven’t been north of York to Cook country,
but I can feel the roads and see the skies Horwitz
One disturbing aspect of Horwitz’s travels is that the
describes.
pictures he gives us of the current status of the places
Cook discovered are not the same as the pictures we see
My wife and I visited London last year on our way to
in the travel magazine. But this will come clear in the
‘holiday’ on a narrow boat in Wales. Thus another path
end. Cook’s second voyage included his attempt to find
crossed … On Cook’s third voyage he is ordered to
the southern continent. He ventured to 70 degrees south
search for a northwest passage over America from the
but was frozen out at that point. Horowitz takes his
Pacific side. Horwitz takes us to Alaska and Hawaii for
reader to Niue (the Savage Island) and Tonga. I’ve never
this voyage. And the three paths meet again. Horwitz
heard of Niue. Stop again. You’re reading this while on
spends forty pages exploring the Aleutian Islands as
the net. Go to Google and search for Niue. From this
Cook saw and experienced them. Cook explored the north
page on (About 222), you will want to read this book at
your computer and cross-check every place and every
continued on page 18
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