S1-E39: Marquesas Islands : Blood for Iron

Podcast 24 September 2025

After weeks of hunger, illness, and bitter disappointment at Easter Island, Captain Cook and his crew pin their hopes on the long-lost Marquesas—rumored in old Spanish maps and cloaked in tropical mist. The islanders they meet offer kava roots and breadfruit in peace, their language and customs echoing those of Tahiti and New Zealand. At first, cautious friendship seems possible.

But as trade begins and curiosity grows, a small act of theft—a dislodged iron bar—leads to a tragic overreaction. A shot is fired. A man dies. Within minutes, the beach erupts in drums and shadows of armed men.

A moment of irreversible consequence: from the deck of HMS Resolution, a musket is fired in haste—below, a fallen islander drifts in silence. The price of a stolen iron bar becomes a fracture between worlds. – Click on the image to listen to this episode on YouTube.

Georg Forster, still young but deeply observant, records it all: the despair, the guilt, the contrast between so-called civilization and the empathy of the Polynesians—who give even in scarcity, and mourn with dignity.

This episode lays bare the razor-thin line between diplomacy and disaster, and the lasting scars left not by storms, but by human hands.