Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. On the Big Island of Hawaii, where the waves roll into Kealakekua Bay, a white obelisk 27 feet tall looms over the shoreline. It's ...

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook; By Hampton Side; Doubleday; 432 pp., $35.00 Tales of Cook’s exploits have fallen out of favor.

In “The Wide Wide Sea,” Hampton Sides offers a fuller picture of the British explorer’s final voyage to the Pacific islands. The English explorer James Cook, circa 1765.Credit...Stock Montage/Getty ...

On the Big Island of Hawaii, where the waves roll into Kealakekua Bay, a white obelisk 27 feet tall looms over the shoreline. It's a tribute to the great circumnavigator Captain James Cook. It stands ...