Was Cook guilty of crimes against humanity?

Hero's reputation sails through storm Australian aborigines are preparing to sue Britain over crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the explorer Capt James Cook. In his home town yesterday the case for his defence was being put together. Denis McLoughlin reports

NEWS that the reputation of one of the North-East's greatest hero's was under attack was met with disbelief yesterday.

Australian aborigines have accused Captain James Cook and subsequent white settlers of "trespass and crimes against humanity".

The aborigines plan to sue the British Government in the International Court of Justice, more than 200 years after Capt Cook planted the British flag on the eastern coast of Australia in 1770, and white people began to settle there in 1788.

Capt Cook was born in October 1728 at Marton, near what is now Middlesbrough, in a thatched cottage of two rooms with walls of mud and thatch.

From those humble beginnings he developed a love for adventure and in 1768 he captained the Whitby ship, Endeavour, exploring the coast of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.

He was the first person to circumnavigate the world in both directions and to cross the arctic and antarctic without losing a member of the crew through scurvey.
His birthplace museum in Stewart Park, Middlesbrough, attracts 250,000 visitors a year and has received several major awards.

As scores of junior school children yesterday marvelled at scenes from his life and untimely death in Hawaii at the hands of natives, museum assistant Tommy Enerwich considered the controversy.

He said the thought of aborigines citing Captain Cook for crimes allegedy committed over 200 years ago was "comical".

"We get people visiting the Captain Cook museum from all over the world, including aborigines from Australia, and we've never heard a single suggestion that what he did was out of order." Hilary Wade, curator of Middlesbrough's museums, said they were very careful about the way in which Captain Cook's voyages and discoveries were displayed.

"We realise the aboriginal subject is a very sensitive one and we try to deal with it in a very sensitive way, especially with an educational approach. When Cook travelled up the coast of Australia he had very few contacts with aborigines and those that did occur were on a friendly basis.

"We see it from the viewpoint of 18th century England and how the Royal Navy saw it at the time but it is also essential to see it from the aboriginal point of view," she said.

Clare Nichols, of Hemlington, Middlesbrough, taking her four-year-old son Chrissie to the museum for the first time, said: "He is the most famous person in local history.

"When he captained the Endeavour he took with him a botanist, an artist and naturalists to record and collect rare species of plants.

"Whatever happened in Australia after he died bore no reflection on his actions and shouldn't belittle his great achievements." Capt Cook historian Fred Lumb, of Ventnor Road, Middlesbrough, pointed out that Cook didn't discover Australia, the Dutch were there long before him. Cook explored and charted the east coast of Australia and claimed it for Britain.

"Cook gets blamed for a lot of things, more often than not, unjustly," said Mr Lumb. "But if this latest claim by the aborigines is successful it could create an interesting precedent and the Welsh could also claim compensation from the Government." He said the claim by the aborigines showed they had a lot of confidence. "But, of course, it may be a big joke. They love pulling people's legs."

18/06/93