Potatow

This engraving, after drawings by William Hodges, is shown in John Hawkesworth's 1773 account of the voyages of Captain James Cook, Joseph Banks and Captain John Byron.

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) made three separate voyages to the Pacific (with the ships Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure, and Discovery) and did more than any other voyager to explore the Pacific and Southern Ocean. Cook not only encountered Pacific cultures for the first time, but also assembled the first large-scale collections of Pacific objects to be brought back to Europe. He was killed in Hawaii in 1779.

Hodges was the artist on Cook's second voyage.

Potatow (Tahitian) was 'one of the tallest men we had seen upon the island, and his features were so mild, comely, and at the same time majestic, that Mr. Hodges immediately applied himself to copy from them, as from the noblest models of nature. His portrait is inserted in captain Cook's own account of this voyage. His whole body was remarkably strong and heavily buily, so that one of his thights nearly equalled in girth our stoutest sailor's waist. His ample garments, and his elegant white turban, set off his figure to the greatest advantage, and his noble deportment endeared him to us, as we naturally compared it with the diffidence of O-Too.' September 1773

Mounted in album with PAI3938-PAI4030, PAI4032-PAI4076.; Page 80.

Object Details

ID: PAI4031
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Cadell, Thomas; Hall, John Strahan, William
Date made: 1 Feb 1777
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Sheet: 545 x 347 mm; Plate: 312 x 255 mm
Parts: Atlas to Cook's Voyages Vol I 1773-1777. (Illustrations are from Hawkesworth's 'Voyages to the Southern Hemisphere', all volumes, and Cook [ed. Douglas] 'A Voyage towards the South Pole... ' [1773-75], page 70 onwards) (Album)