Surveying Greatness: James Cook and the Plains of Abraham

By Brick Billing, CD, M.A.

Introduction

While it is safe to say that Captain James Cook, Royal Navy, is best known for his Voyages of Discovery between 1768 and 1779 (culminating with his death at the hands of indigenous Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay on 14 February 1779), his role as a young sailing master in the siege of Quebec City, and his part in the famous battle on the Plains of Abraham have gone largely unnoticed. This is, in part, due to the fact that his role in the battle – while important – was wholly of a nautical nature, and hence tangential to the land battle itself. Further, the part played by the Royal Navy in the battle is frequently overshadowed by the more well-publicised actions of the Generals Wolfe and Montcalm. However, it is not an overstatement that the work he accomplished on the St. Lawrence was essential to the British defeat of the French in the Seven Years’ War.

Sailing Master

By the time he arrived below Quebec in 1759, James Cook was already an experienced mariner and well on his way to becoming an expert surveyor and chart maker. He had spent the early part of his life in and around Whitby, arguably the pre-eminent centre of shipbuilding and commercial naval traffic in Georgian England. Located at the mouth of the river Esk in North Yorkshire, Whitby was widely regarded as a place where young men went to learn to become commercial mariners. As an example of its importance as a training centre for commercial sailors, in 1748 the town’s official Ship’s Muster Rolls listed over 1200 apprentices (of which Cook was one) out of a total population of just 5000.

This was important for two reasons. The first was that, in the years following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, public education was not standardized in England, and without a wealthy benefactor to act as sponsor, there was little education for most people beyond basic grammar school. The appeal of Whitby was that apprentices were given higher education at the commercially oriented schools there, with an emphasis on mathematics and commerce due to its practical applications at sea.

The second was that the training associated with a commercial maritime life provided an excellent nursery for service in the Royal Navy. The experience of sailing commercial barks and colliers around the British Isles in all types of weather meant that the sailors of Whitby were among the most skilled in the British Isles. Speaking years later, 19th century historian George Young commented: “[the men of Whitby] have long been distinguished by their courage, activity, skill, and experience.”

This quotation could easily serve as a quick, thumbnail sketch of Cook himself, although, unlike his Whitby-trained brother sailors, he ultimately eschewed the life of a commercial sailor and volunteered for Royal Navy service in 1755. Historians have ascribed various motives to his decision – everything from a thirst for adventure on the high seas otherwise unavailable to a dull, coastal trader, to an “incident” ashore that caused him to flee into the safety and anonymity of the Royal Navy^[1]. Whatever the reason, his Whitby training in the world of commercial maritime sailing made him a valuable volunteer for His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Within a month of being assigned to his first ship – HMS Eagle – Cook was rated Master’s Mate^[2].

Surveying with Holland

James Cook, master of HMS Pembroke (60 guns), was part of the blockading British fleet that successfully captured the French port of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia in 1758. Following the French capitulation, the British surveyed and mapped the Cape Breton Island fortress, town, and surrounding countryside. During the survey of Kennington Cove, Cook met the Chief Surveyor Samuel Holland.^[3] Ever eager to increase his practical knowledge, Cook joined Holland the next day and on subsequent days, and in the process learned the basics of plane-table surveying and topographical mapping.

Plane-table surveying was a method for creating maps of prominent features and coastlines through direct observation and triangulation. A surveyor mounted a drawing board on a tripod and used an alidade, a straightedge fitted with sights, to plot directions to features such as a church spire or headland. Observations from stations a known distance apart allowed the positions of these features to be fixed on the drawing. While somewhat rough and ready by modern standards, the method helped Cook improve the accuracy of his mapping, and under Holland’s expert tutelage he quickly established a name for himself as a keen student and a surveyor of note.

Shortly thereafter, his surveying of the harbour of Gaspé, conducted while undertaking harassment raids on the French holdings along the river, and his publication of the resultant chart (produced by Mount and Page of London in 1759) placed Cook squarely in the spotlight as one of the preeminent surveyors in the Royal Navy fleet at Halifax.

The Quebec Campaign

In support of the British assault on Quebec by General Wolfe in 1759, sailing master James Cook, in HMS Pembroke, was assigned to the advance squadron under Rear Admiral Phillip Durell. Navigating the St. Lawrence was considered a risky endeavour, in part due to its many shoals and treacherous tides, but mainly due to the fact that the British lacked detailed firsthand knowledge of the river. This knowledge of the St. Lawrence was considered a strategic asset, and the information was closely guarded by the French; indeed they viewed the river itself, with its many hazards, as an intrinsic part of the defense of Quebec.

The main method of navigation on the river was through “Pilots” (sailors with specialized knowledge of various ports and parts of the river). Unfortunately, pilots were in critically short supply on the St. Lawrence, so much so that Admiral Durell instructed his captains to seek amongst the French prisoners of war capable pilots and to offer them “whole allowances of food and (naval) clothing [to] all such French prisoners whom…may be of Service to his Majesty, and will undertake to be pilots.” (Quoted in MacLeod, 33). This lack of pilots was exacerbated by a scarcity of reliable maps of the river itself.

That the St. Lawrence was a difficult river to navigate can be seen in a brief account by William Hunter, a master’s mate aboard HMS Northumberland:

Observing several canoes and a large launch on the beach, [Durrell] ordered three boats to be manned (sic) and armed, to destroy them; which I did accordingly; but, on returning to the beach, found them, to our surprise, all high and dry. The water had fallen six feet in the course of an hour!

(Hunter, 19)

Hence, it was quite necessary to have on board pilots who were familiar with the various tides, shoals, and safe passages. These pilots became even more valuable when paired with a surveyor like Cook. As they advanced closer to Quebec City the detailed charts he began to compile allowed the Royal Navy to build a working knowledge of the St. Lawrence, complete with current information about soundings, prevailing winds, tides, etc. This critical information proved to be nothing less than the key to unlocking the North American continent for the British.

“La Traverse”

Cook’s greatest challenge, however, lay downstream of the great fortress city itself. Just below Quebec City lay a narrow channel called by the French La Traverse. A narrow, swooping passage of navigable but uncharted water that slashed across the St. Lawrence from the eastern tip of the Île d'Orléans to the south shore of the river, the channel in some places was barely wide enough for the larger British ships of the line to pass.

The Traverse was subject to both tidal flow and strong river currents and was a formidable obstacle for the sailing ships of the time. Modern-day boaters with their large engines and the regularly dredged and marked river at their disposal have often disparaged or belittled the Traverse and its supposed utility as a defensive feature for the French. However, this fails to consider the significant effort a ship of Cook’s time would have – armed only with sail power – in merely navigating upriver – let alone the Traverse – without grounding or upset. When it is considered that Cook was attempting this feat without benefit of maps, channel markers, or any prior knowledge of the river itself, the feat becomes even more impressive.

Navigate the Traverse then, and British heavy artillery, troops, and supplies could be brought within reach of the city, and Wolfe’s campaign was a viable concern. Fail to clear it, however, and the campaign would be doomed. Wolfe would be forced to bring supplies and troops overland, an immense task, since it involved clearing the wilderness before them and laying down roads as they advanced. If his army was forced overland, the assault would inevitably either falter and fail outright, or at best settle into a stalemate under the cliffs of Quebec. This last alternative was particularly to be avoided since, with the harsh Canadian winter fast approaching, the river and woods would quickly become non-navigable, and Wolfe’s troops would starve or freeze to death, or both. Thus, while the rest of the British fleet waited at Île aux Coudres, downstream of the Traverse, James Cook and the advance squadron set out to survey the unknown.

“a-sounding of the channell of the Traverse”^[4]

By deploying the boats and small launches of the advance squadron, Cook’s teams took soundings^[5] of the river, and made observations between Cap Tourmente and Île d’Orléans of the wind and tide to better define the river and where within it La Traverse lay. However, this was not a survey without danger. If unexpected shoals, strong river currents, and powerful tides weren’t dangerous enough, boats that strayed too close to the shore were subject to musket fire from French irregulars who shadowed the British progress up the river.

With the help of a French-Canadian river pilot named Théodose-Matthieu Denys de Vitré^[6], Cook undertook to make a survey of the Traverse and mark it with buoys to ensure safe passage^[7]. The problem was that Vitré, although a skilled sailor, had limited knowledge of the span between Cap Tourmente and Île d’Orléans. Hence, Cook and his teams were forced to use ships’ longboats to “fill in the gaps.” Criss-crossing the river, taking soundings and compiling rough sketch maps as they went, the British fleet quickly advanced up the St. Lawrence. Along the way, Cook combined the various reports and returns of his men into a coherent whole to create a useable map of the river. It is significant to note that, within a week of arriving at Île aux Coudres, the entire stretch had been definitively mapped and charted.

With Cook’s sailors guiding them from longboats anchored close to the buoys, all 140 vessels of the British fleet successfully navigated the Traverse and were anchored in the basin below Quebec City by June 27, 1759, thereby setting the stage for the upcoming assault.

Nor did Cook’s part in the battle end there. Following his survey work, Cook in Pembroke joined the other ships in ferrying cannons and troops across the river to Pointe Lévis on the south bank, directly opposite the citadel. While not an integral part of the battle on the Plains of Abraham itself, Cook’s actions were integral to the success of the attack and were an important part of Wolfe’s overall strategy for the campaign.

That the French regarded the English navigation of the Traverse as a catastrophe for the French cause can be seen in the dismay with which they received the news of Cook’s successful survey. In fact, so confident were they in the natural obstacle provided by La Traverse that they focused their defensive efforts around Beauport and the north shore. This strategy later proved crucial in that, once Quebec City had fallen, the French were forced to retreat back to Montréal, which subsequently fell the following year.

Returning to Halifax in advance of the winter ice, Cook remained on the North American Station until 1762, continuing to survey the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River to such an extent that he was able to complete “A New Chart of the River St. Lawrence:” an immense work^[8] that aided substantially in the British control of the waterway before he left.

Conclusion

While largely overshadowed by his later Voyages of Discovery, James Cook’s survey work along the St. Lawrence during the summer of 1759 – in particular his lead in the surveying of the treacherous Traverse – allowed General Wolfe to land his troops in an advantageous position, and eventually scale the cliffs outside Quebec City and meet General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham on September 13 of that year. Without Cook’s efforts and expertise in plane-table surveying, the outcome of the Seven Years’ War could well have turned out quite differently.

© 2026 Brick Billing, CD, M.A.