Cook’s statue should remain, reflecting his positive legacy

When I see the likeness of Captain Cook, whose statue looks west over Cook Inlet from its place on the bluff where Third Avenue and L Street meet, I see the embodiment of man’s quest for knowledge. His third voyage brought him to the bays and inlets of Alaska.

James Cook was a common working man of the late 18th century, a seaman, a navigator and a keeper of meticulous records. His voyages resulted in a list of accomplishments that have benefited all Alaskans profoundly. In today’s terms, Cook had the “right stuff.”

First, Cook addressed the navigational problem of measuring longitude around the Earth by carrying a chronometer accurate to one second per month, making it possible to precisely locate the points on the Earth he visited, creating the first accurate charts of the Pacific Ocean. Incidentally, this was also an important step in astronomical calculation, opening the door to the accurate measurement of distances in space which played their parts in bringing us satellites, WiFi, the internet and cellphones.

Cook’s maps, including depth soundings along Alaska’s coasts, provided charts used for shipping trade goods to and from the North Pacific. Alaska’s Native people benefited greatly from this trade. At first, we think of tools of steel — axes, saws, knives, firearms — which replaced traditional tools of stone, bone, ivory, wood and copper. Men could make lumber now. One log could be sawn into many boards.

There were also important goods for women. Rope, string, thread. Pots, pans, candles and knives. Decorative beads, combs and mirrors. And most important, fabric. Canvas for tents and shelter. Cotton and wool replaced skin in garments. Imagine what the ladies thought about not having to trap, skin, tan and sew everything their families wore? How about boiling stew in an iron pot over the fire instead of tediously lowering hot rocks into tightly knit, fragile grass baskets until the water boiled? Small wonder that the Yupik Eskimos of Nelson Island decamped and moved, lock, stock, and barrel, across the Bering Sea to St. Michael Island to be close to the Russian trading post at St. Michael.

From this contact came the exchange of knowledge. Herbal medicines, traditional cures, preparation and storage of seasonal, nutritional northern foods, for example. Designs for sophisticated watercraft, specifically the kayak, are in use across the world today. The geodesic dome, the igloo, is the template for the warmest, most efficient cold-weather shelters yet. Blocks of snow, the building bricks of the igloo, provide shelter to mountaineers from the Alaska Range to the Himalayas.

For the Indigenous people of the North, the time needed for subsistence living was shortened, leading ultimately to freedom from starvation. Improvements in health care led to significant drops in infant mortality, and life expectancy increased dramatically.

Captain James Cook’s quest for knowledge touched Alaska and improved the world for us all. We owe much to men like Cook, whether sailing the seas in wooden ships or setting out alone in a skin kayak with an ivory-tipped harpoon and courage, wondering what was beyond the horizon.

Captain Cook is a keeper.

Keith Tryck, a third-generation Alaskan, author, miner and consultant, lives in Anchorage.

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