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Captain Cook statue toppled in St Kilda on eve of 26 January (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I'm not interested in defending cook at all, but I've never heard the "child rapist" thing before. Can you elaborate?

I'm morbidly interested in naval expeditions of that era, and I can tell you the are punctuated by licentious debauchery. I think it would be difficult to find a seaman of that day who was not a child rapist by today's definition.

By all reports Cook was really a prude, not "engaging" with young women in the manner customary of the day.

As I said not trying to defend cook, it's just an odd assertion to make IMO.