In the Wake of Captain Cook
Gordon Cowley and Les Deacon; Published by Richard Kay PublicationsAn entertaining and detailed account of Charles Clerke who sailed, as Capt. James Cook’s apprentice, aboard The Endeavour. He was a close friend of Joseph Banks to whom he wrote his last letter. Clerke also sailed as second in command to Cook on HMS Discovery, taking command when Cook was killed in Hawaii on 4th Feb 1779, until he himself died six months later from tuberculosis (contracted in the King’s Bench Prison, where he was held as guarantor for his brother’s debt) within sight of Kamchatka, aged just 38 years.