CAPTAIN JAMES COOK is deservedly esteemed as a great seaman, and he must be acclaimed also in the more particular role of a great navigator. For although he made no specific contribution to the art of navigation as such, he advanced it by sheer force of character. It was, indeed, a task for the mathematicians and astronomers, not for the sailors, to lay down new principles and new observations or calculations by which a ship's position could be found and her course directed when at sea. And it was for the mathematical and optical instrument-makers to design and perfect the instruments by which such observations could be made. But, in the last resort, everything depended upon the ships' captains, the masters and the pilots. They alone could decide whether some novel principle should be mastered, some new instrument actually used. ‘We have piped unto you and ye have not danced’ is a cry which echoes through the ages. For the sailor was not alone in turning a deaf ear to the advice of public men, scientists and his own professional instructors. He was hostile to change, he preferred some old rule of thumb. And this is to be expected from all such men as learn the actual practice of their trade or craft by working beside an experienced master who in turn is passing on the traditions of an earlier generation.