Western science entered the Pacific with James Cook’s three expeditions commencing in 1768. These and those that followed were made possible by scientific advances, especially in relation to long-distance navigation at sea and the control of scurvy among ships’ crews. Partly prompted by dreams of national glory and imperial expansion, they were ostensibly undertaken for purely scientific purposes – to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun in 1768, to expand geographical understanding, to obtain information about a vast portion of the Earth’s surface little known to Europeans.