# Is "Voyages (the official accounts of the three voyages)" by Captain James Cook (with Hawkesworth, and King) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Voyages (the official accounts of the three voyages) by Captain James Cook (with Hawkesworth, and King) (First voyage: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1773. Second voyage: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1777. Third voyage: printed by W. & A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, London, 1784, 1773) is identified by: The census imprint is wrong for the third voyage — the set does not carry a uniform Strahan/Cadell imprint. All three official accounts are London originals, so no UK-versus-US or translation precedence applies — but 'first published account' and 'official first edition' are different things for every voyage, and the unofficial account came first each time.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The census imprint is wrong for the third voyage — the set does not carry a uniform Strahan/Cadell imprint
- FIRST VOYAGE: Hawkesworth, 'An Account of the Voyages undertaken... in the Southern Hemisphere', London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773, 3 vols 4to (approx
- 292 x 232 mm), 51 engraved plates, maps and charts, 41 folding
- Beddie 648
- A second edition appeared in the same year (Beddie 650); the early issue of the first lacks the large folding chart of the Strait of Magellan and the 'Preface to the second edition' in which Hawkesworth answers Alexander Dalrymple, both of which belong to the second edition, and first-edition copies are found with them supplied
- SECOND VOYAGE: 'A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World', London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1777, 2 vols 4to, with the engraved portrait of Cook by J. Basire after William Hodges and 63 engraved plates, charts and maps (many folding) plus a folding letterpress table
- Publisher imprint reads First voyage: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1773. Second voyage: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1777. Third voyage: printed by W. & A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, London, 1784

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Captain James Cook (with Hawkesworth, and King) |
| Publisher | First voyage: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1773. Second voyage: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1777. Third voyage: printed by W. & A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, London, 1784 |
| Year | 1773 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The census imprint is wrong for the third voyage — the set does not carry a uniform Strahan/Cadell imprint |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The census imprint is wrong for the third voyage — the set does not carry a uniform Strahan/Cadell imprint. FIRST VOYAGE: Hawkesworth, 'An Account of the Voyages undertaken... in the Southern Hemisphere', London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773, 3 vols 4to (approx. 292 x 232 mm), 51 engraved plates, maps and charts, 41 folding; Beddie 648. A second edition appeared in the same year (Beddie 650); the early issue of the first lacks the large folding chart of the Strait of Magellan and the 'Preface to the second edition' in which Hawkesworth answers Alexander Dalrymple, both of which belong to the second edition, and first-edition copies are found with them supplied. SECOND VOYAGE: 'A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World', London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1777, 2 vols 4to, with the engraved portrait of Cook by J. Basire after William Hodges and 63 engraved plates, charts and maps (many folding) plus a folding letterpress table; Beddie 1216 (Hill p.61; Rosove 77A1; Sabin 16245; PMM 223). A second edition also carries the 1777 date and the same Strahan/Cadell imprint (Beddie 1217), so the date alone does not identify the first — collate against Beddie. THIRD VOYAGE: Cook and King, 'A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean', London: printed by W. & A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, 1784, 3 vols 4to ([8], xcvi, 422; [xii], 550; [xii], 558 pp.; 24 engraved maps, coastal profiles and charts, some folding; one folding letterpress table) plus a folio Atlas of 63 engraved plates, plans and maps (one double-page, one folding); Beddie 1543 (Forbes 85; Hill 361; Lada-Mocarski 37; Sabin 16250). Third-voyage editions dated 1785 are not firsts.

## Is this the true first?
All three official accounts are London originals, so no UK-versus-US or translation precedence applies — but 'first published account' and 'official first edition' are different things for every voyage, and the unofficial account came first each time. The Endeavour voyage reached print anonymously as 'A Journal of a Voyage round the World, in His Majesty's Ship Endeavour' (London: for T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, 1771), attributed to James Magra (later Matra), published less than three months after the ship's return and two years before Hawkesworth; its first issue carries a dedication leaf that was suppressed during publication after the Admiralty, Banks and Solander publicly disavowed the book, and the second issue lacks that leaf. Georg Forster's 'A Voyage Round the World' (London, 1777) was published on 17 March 1777, six weeks before Cook's own second-voyage account, making it the first published account of the second voyage. Rickman's anonymous 'Journal of Captain Cook's last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean' (London: E. Newbery, 1781) preceded the official third-voyage account by three years. Where a collection holds both, name the official first edition and the unofficial precursor separately.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issues exist for these titles. The reprint tells that matter: later editions of each voyage reuse the same or a closely similar London imprint — the second voyage's second edition is even dated 1777 like the first (Beddie 1217 versus 1216) — while the third voyage's second and third editions are dated 1785, the second in four volumes. Abridgements, composite 'authentic narrative' compilations and made-up sets assembled from mixed editions are common in this market, so collate each voyage independently rather than judging the set as a unit; a complete first-edition set requires the third voyage's folio Atlas, which is frequently separated from the text volumes.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Voyages (the official accounts of the three voyages)* by Captain James Cook (with Hawkesworth, and King) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/voyages-the-official-accounts-of-the-three-voyages
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.