"The Death of Cook, February 14, 1779"
Collection of Lyle Anderson
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This event became a popular subject of the European painters--each successive painting being more fanciful than the last. Even Webber, artist with the expedition, took license with the event. His oil painting, done after his return to England, depicts Cook dressed up for the event in formal breeches and hose, whereas an earlier sketch showed him wearing the more customary canvas trousers. Webber painted Cook being attacked while standing on a sandy beach; but Cook was struck down while striding toward the water across a broad shelf of lava.

This painting is an attempt to reconstruct the moment more accurately. It is based on the accounts of those who were present, a study of the weapons and dress of both sides, and estimates by scientists of the physical setting.

In this painting may be the first depiction of the Hawaiian battle mat. British journals refer to the bulky protective mats worn by Hawaiian warriors, but there are no existing mats, or drawings showing how they were fashioned and worn. The best clue was found in Lt. King's statement that these were worn in the same manner as the feather capes, and both Kink and Clerke described the feather capes as battle apparel.

Knowing that in close combat the cape was shifted from behind and carried over the left shoulder, with the bulk of the cape held foward by the left hand to take the impact of a sling stone or to snag the point of a spear or dagger, and leaving the right shoulder and arm exposed and free to wield a weapon, we may assume that the battle mat was worn the smae way.

Geologists believe that this coastline has subsided 28 inches in the last 200 years. The rock from which Cook fell is now submerged, but one may still locate it and study it through a diver's mask.

Marine Lt. Molesworth Phillips heard Cook's last shout, but then lost sight of Cook in the confusion. He was struck down and stabbed in the shoulder, but managed to raise himself and fire at his assailant before escaping. Witnesses saw a man with a fencepost or crude club strike Cook behind the head, while a chief in a feather cape rushed around a parked double canoe and stabbed him with one of the iron daggers the ship's blacksmiths had been forging as trade items.

This man was known to the British as "Nua" (probably Kanuha), a close relative of the king, who Surgeon's Mate Samwell described as a chief of "...great consequence ...tall and stout and one who united in his figure the two qualities of strength and agility in a greater degree, than I ever remembered to have seen before in any other man." Cook fell. Face down in the water, he was stabbed many times.

In the painting, at the far left, the old king is being taken away to safety. The boy fleeing in the foreground represents the king's son who happened to be sitting in one of the boats when the fracas began. The marine corporal, James Thomas, is depicted waist deep in the water, receiving a mortal wound from a dagger thrust. Resolution is shown with the foremast removed; it had been hoisted out and taken to the beach at the other side of the bay for repair.

Cook's hand was raised toward the boats. This gesture has been widely interpreted as a signal to his men to cease firing. However, J.C. Beaglehole, the most eminent of Cook scholars, found no justification for this belief. Cook was waving to the boats to come in closer to shore. Like so many mariners of his day, he could not swim.

Page 87, Voyagers