Cooktown, except not
Well, this morning we were supposed to dock in Cooktown. However, the sea outside of Cooktown where were supposed to drop anchor were too rough to do so. We did get to see a great deal of the Great Barrier Reef. There are thousands of small islets or atolls. Cooktown doesn’t have docking, which means we were going to tender to shore. In order to do that you need relatively calm waters. Today will be another day floating around in the Coral Sea.
Once we got a couple hours away from Cooktown the sea appeared very calm. A blessing that is. A whole day with what the captain reported as 3-to-4-meter seas would have been quite unbearable. Honestly one more botanical garden and there would been no more.
The day was anything but a waste. We went to breakfast at La Veranda. Brian Unger gave a lecture at 11 on the Japanese attack on Darwin in World War II. It was really interesting. So much so that Mary thought we might want to consider changing our excursion to the one that included the Military Museum in Darwin!
The lecture presented the raid on Darwin as Australia’s Pearl Harbor. The raid took place on the 19th of February 1942. Seventy-two days after Pearl Harbor. This is another one of those things that isn’t taught in American history classes. While Pearl Harbor had substantially more loss of life, Darwin was hit with more bombs and more ships were damaged and sunk than at Pearl Harbor.
A fictionalized version of the raid features prominently in the 2008 film Australia staring Nichole Kidman and Hugh Jackson. We are going to need to watch that. What will the parallels be between this and the 2001 Pearl Harbor movie? There is also a 2017 book called Darwin 1942: The Japanese Attack on Australia by Bob Alford. It covers the two air raids on Darwin in the Northern Territory in Australia. Probably have to read this as well.
After Brian’s lecture we went to lunch in the Compass Rose. After lunch there was the Speaker Series lecture by Carol Baxter entitled Be Careful What You Wish For. It was the story of Jessie Miller a celebrity aviator in the early days of flight. Carol Baxter is the author of many highly acclaimed books about fascinating people including An Irresistible Temptation, Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady, Black Widow and The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable, published in the United Kingdom and around the world. She lives in Sydney and is a fellow of the Society of Genealogists. She also has written a book on Writing Family Histories. Maybe she will be able to give us some hints on writing our family history.
After this lecture there was a short nap before going off to attend the 6 pm show Cameo Rascale. Cameo Rascale is an internationally acclaimed circus variety act. It is husband and wife team who preformed a variety of high-energy acrobatics, juggling and dance. It was a really wonderful show. After the show we went upstairs to Sette Mare for a light dinner before turning in for the night.
It was really a very nice day. Got two new books to read and a movie to watch. The next two days are at sea as we head to Darwin.
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