Featured in

The Polar Times

Captain James Cook and the Search for Antarctica is well researched and Hamilton’s exceptional historical investigation is noteworthy. Hamilton provides the readers with extensive excerpts from Cook’s and his scientist companions’ journals as well as from officers’ master log books. While these thorough accounts inspire the imagination and allow readers to perceive the journey and the search for the most elusive continent, the book is an academic read. I would recommend this book to scholars of maritime history and anyone who is interested in factual details of eighteenth-century seafaring.

Nautical Research Journal

An extremely well-researched book which will give hours of pleasure to all those interested in Cook and his voyages.

World Ship Society - Marine News, November 2020

Featured in

Mariners Mirror

This is the first detailed study of Captain Cook’s three voyages of exploration, searching for the unknown Southern Continent, Antarctica. The author has provided a key work on Captain Cook and this book is likely to remain the definitive work on the subject. – Most Highly Recommended

Read the full review here

Firetrench

Two hundred and fifty years ago Captain James Cook, during his extraordinary voyages of navigation and maritime exploration, searched for Antarctica – the Unknown Southern Continent. During parts of his three voyages in the southern Pacific and Southern Oceans, Cook narrowed the options for the location of Antarctica. Over three summers, he completed a circumnavigation of portions of the Southern Continent, encountering impenetrable barriers of ice, suggesting that in fact the continent existed, a frozen land not populated by a living soul. His Antarctic voyages are perhaps the least celebrated of all his remarkable travels: this book goes quite some way to remedying that.\r\n\r\nRead the full review here

Julian Stockwin

I was brought up reading books like With Clive in India, and even though that particular title and the others I read as a young boy were sanitised and heavily edited, the premise was the same, and I congratulate James Hamilton for turning in the kind of history book I was familiar with back in the 1950s. Superb.

Books Monthly

I loved this book. I have recently become interested in early Arctic exploration including the Franklin expedition and this was a great re-telling of Cooks expidition. I found it well researched and was happy to read it.

NetGalley, Dale Dewitt

A look at his three voyages and three ships, who he was and some of the people who backed him and worked with him. Maps of the three journeys and other trips. Very informational and have details of the voyages and day to day things or events.

NetGalley, Alexandra Roth

Cook's series of voyages toward, around, then in Antarctica told in a steady, albeit stiff documentarian writing style, i.e. you can almost hear the skid of a pointing stick against a map and/or chalkboard the further you go into the book. Beyond just the travels is his involvement in the Royal Navy, the outfitting of his ships, observations of animals and people, terrible inclement weather, and contributions to history’s voyagers, mapmakers, and even astronomers with his discovery.

NetGalley, Kristine Fisher

The passion Dr. Hamilton has for his subject is unmistakeable and his dedication to research is unarguable. There is an incredible level of detail in the book and it's focus on the three explorations of the Antarctic area allow for a very laser focused approach.

NetGalley, Jennifer Ruth