James Cook’s first voyage circumnavigated the globe in the ship Endeavour, and gave scientific members of the expedition an opportunity to collect specimens from previously unexplored habitats.

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Voyage of Captain James Cook Hampton Sides. Doubleday, $35 (432p) ISBN 978-0-385-54476-4.

In January 1779, when the British explorer James Cook sailed into a volcanic bay known by Hawaiians as “the Pathway of the Gods,” he beheld thousands of people seemingly waiting for him on shore.

An excellent new book draws on Cook’s letters and notebooks to tell the story of his third and final trip. Cook was almost 50 when he set off on HMS Resolution in July 1776.Among the crew he ...