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The Death of Captain Cook

60 second histories

This video covers:  A sailor recounts Captain Cook's last visit to Hawaii

We knew things weren’t right as soon as we landed, the natives were acting a bit strange and they weren’t as friendly as they’d been in the past. Some quarrels had broken out between some of our sailors and the locals; they even stole one of our boats and threatened to open fire on us. We tried to get our boat back but they led us a right merry chase so the Captain got the idea to kidnap the King and ransom him for our boat, but things went wrong. The Captain went to get the King who came along willingly enough, believing Cook to be his friend, but as he was being led to our boat one of his wives stopped him. Well, there was a lot of shouting and soon a hostile crowd had gathered. I was already at the oars when the Captain began to push it off the sand, but suddenly the villagers attacked him. He was clubbed over the head and stabbed to death. We never did get our boat back.
Eras: 
British Empire
Topics: 
Explorers
Character: 
British sailor
Key words: 
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