As you know, I head to the movies twice a year - in the
cold, dark days after the Christmas holiday, and in the warm, lazy days of
summer. I seek out movies where plants are the stars, and this year is no
exception. In 2014, I became completely involved in researching several
"Linnaeus Apostles," and ended up wanting to learn more about the
whole experience of traveling the world by ship in the 1700s to discover new
lands, new people, and new plants. Granted, much of the exploration was done
for king and country, to claim new lands, and to fill the court coffers. But I
do believe the botanists involved were genuinely interested in plants, science,
and the craze to categorize everything they discovered. This year my winter movies center
on exploration and the idea of plants on the move.
Captain James Cook (British Broadcasting Corporation)
My first movie, where plants are the stars, is the BBC mini-series
"Captain James Cook," which aired in 1987. The series documents
Captain Cook’s three expeditions—first to observe the transept of Venus, and
then explore the Southern Hemisphere; second to continue combing the Southern
Hemisphere for a phantom continent (a warm one, not the cold Antarctica); and
third to look for the Northwest Passage. Cook is interesting in our context,
because one of our Apostles—Daniel Solander, and his sponsor, Sir Joseph Banks—accompanied
Cook on his first voyage on the HMS
Endeavor for its three year journey. Their scientific team made
observations, and collected plant specimens throughout the journey.
The mini-series documents Cooks rise from obscurity in the
British Navy, to captain of the Endeavor,
despite his low social status and lack of finances. He was an enlightened
leader – embracing the new navigational technologies of the day; forcing his
men to eat sauerkraut to avoid scurvy; and mapping the world to such perfection
that some of his maps were used into the early 20th century. He was aware of
the impact their encounters would have on the native populations; understood the
natives as people; and treated his crew firmly but fairly (many of them signed
up for multiple journeys with him).
I was initially interested in the scientists, artists, and
botanists that Banks brought on the journey (see disk 1, 27:17). You can learn
more about the scientific crew that joined Cook on his first journey – Sir
Joseph Banks (botanist from England and sponsor), Daniel Solander (botanist
from Sweden), Charles Green (astronomer), and Alex Bucker and Sidney Parkinson
(artists). You can also learn more about their time collecting plants at
various sites, including Botany Bay in Australia (see disk 2, 47:14). Solander
and Banks do not accompany Cook on his second journey, but a new group of
scientists join him (see disk 3, 30:00). I soon became interested in Captain
Cook as a leader, navigator, and map maker. This mini-series is a fun way to
learn more about this era of exploration.
You can rent or buy the entire series:
- Captain James Cook – I
- Captain James Cook – II
- Captain James Cook – III
- Captain James Cook – IV
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