Captain Cook's Cabbage and New Zealand

'We were all hearty seamen no cold did we fear
 And we have from all sickness entirely kept clear
 Thanks be to the Captain he has proved so good
 Amongst allthe Islands to give us fresh food.'

(Song by T. Perry, from H.M.S. Resolution) 

As I stumble about in cabbage's past, getting tripped up by this or that historical root of the cabbage story, I keep being confronted with people I know from other historical circles.

Captain James Cook is the second important seaman from the great voyages who has cabbage ties, Jacques Cartier was the first.  Cartier established cabbage in the New World in 1541, while Cook was determined in his second voyage to get cabbage accepted and grown in New Zealand in 1773.  Cook introduced the southern Maori people to various root crops that he gauged appropriate for the cooler climate, cabbage, carrot, potato, turnip among other cool weather crops.

Below: Resolution and Adventure in Matavai Bay, by Hodges; Cabbages by Emma.

Cooks attempt was successful, for it seems both the cabbage was happy with New Zealand and dispersed seeds naturally, as well as the Maori were happy with cabbage and appeared to have made sure it was growing near their villages.  The ships now were able to get supplies of the effective antiscorbutic that could be shipped as sauerkraut.

There are some good reading books available from the New Zealand Electronic Text Collections! The following is from Exotic Intruders -The introduction of plants and animals into New Zealand
by Joan Druett. " When Commander Bellinghausen visited Motauro in 1820, he was able to gather 'such a quantity of wild cabbage that we had sufficient for one meal of cabbage soup for all the servants and officers.' Major Cruise, also writing in 1820, said, ' ... the excellent plants left by Captain Cook, viz., Cabbages, turnips, carrots, etc., are still numerous but very degenerated.' The botanist Dieffenbach, who visited the area in 1839, wrote,'... the cabbage, which now abounds in Queen Charlotte Sound, and which grows wild, was in blossom, and covered the sides of the hills, with a yellow carpet.' He found cabbages growing wild all over the Cook Strait area, and plantations of cabbages  PAGE 13thriving on Kapiti Island. The early settler Bidwill, when travelling in the Tauranga area found that the Maoris gathered wild cabbages, which they boiled as a vegetable. Turnips were almost as successful, the Maoris growing them in their gardens and taking them around the country."

Great Link: PDF - CAPTAIN COOK AND SCURVY, By EGON H. KODICEK, Director, Dunn Nutritional Laboratory,University of Cambridge and Medical Research Council, and FRANK G. YOUNG, F.R.S.