On James Cook’s Third Voyage to the Pacific, he unsuccessfully searched for the Northwest Passage, but in route from wintering in Tahiti, Cook did discover the Sandwich Islands.
The painting shows the Resolution and Discovery reaching down the south coast of Kauai. After making a landfall at Kawai Point on January 19, 1778, Captain James Cook bore away and followed the coast in search of a secure anchorage. Cook describes it thus:
“Seeing no signs of an anchoring place at this eastern extreme of the island, I bore away to leeward and ranged along the southeast side at the distance of half a league from the shore. Canoes came off as we proceeded along the coast, bringing with them roasting pigs and some very fine potatoes. Several small pigs were purchased for a sixpenny nail, so that we again found ourselves in a land of plenty- and just at the time when the turtles we had procured at Christmas Island were nearly expended.
The inhabitants crowded to the shore and collected themselves on elevated places to view the ships. The land upon this side of the island rises in a gentle slope from the sea to the foot of the mountains which occupy the center of the island. We continued to sound without striking ground with a line of 50 fathoms till we came to the northwest end. Night now put a stop to any further researches, and we spent it standing off and on.”
from Seventy North to Fifty South- The Story of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage edited by Paul W. Dale
In particular the painting shows the Resolution off Shipwreck Cove. A number of canoes have come to see and follow these two amazing vessels. One canoe can be seen along the port side of the Resolution and from this canoe an Hawaiian is climbing the side of the ship with a small pig on his back. A sailor is kneeling in a position to help bring the pig aboard and give a nail as payment in trade. An officer is supervising this transaction. Behind the bartering, sailors are climbing the ratlines as they go about ship’s business. Only a fraction of the Resolutions’ 112 men compliment are shown. Some were working below and some were off watch below.
The figurehead of the Resolution can be seen to be a talbot , a large Irish hunting dog. In the foreground are two double hull canoes. On one is a minor Kauaian chief in a red feathered cape, who has come out to appraise these ships. The canoes have come together so they can communicate about this strange event. To the right of the chief’s canoe two Hawaiians in a small canoes display the large nail which they have traded for to some of the chief’s paddle men.
Image size: 22” x 33” ; unf...$4000.00 (low inventory)
