While I was in Melbourne I stayed just a few blocks from the famous Fitzroy Gardens, and everyone told me that I simply must go visit Cooks’ Cottage “where Captain Cook was born.” Exciting!  An 18th century house in Australia, and one so closely linked to one of the most famous and influential explorers ever. Wait, what? Captain Cook wasn’t born in Australia! And there weren’t European settlements in Australia until the 1780s!  How could there be a proper stone cottage from 1750? The answer is sad and prosaic. The cottage was built in 1750, but not in its current location.  It was built by Cook’s parents in England, sold in the 1930s, bought by a wealthy Australian, transported stone by stone to Melbourne, and re-assembled. So really, it’s only kinda an 18th century cottage. Darn. And the news gets worse. Despite what everyone in Melbourne (with the exception of the cottage staff) will tell you, Captain Cook wasn’t born in the cottage.  It was built by his parents, but it was built when he …