[4] It was part of a series of historical radio plays by Park set at sea in Australia's past, the others including I'll Meet You in Botany Bay, Early in the Morning and Far from the Land.
They combine the presentation of factual incidents with a keen imaginative perception of character under stress, an ironical feeling for the tears and anguish and disillusionment of persons born to a place in history, an appreciation of pioneering courage balanced by a sense of the failure of life to fulfil its ultimate expectations.
These plays have the salt tang of the sea, the roll and pitch of wooden ships breasting through uncharted waters, as well as vivid personal emotions.
"[7] Reviewing the 1953 production the Adelaide Advertiser said the piece "rightly belonged to the Schools' Broadcast Department or Features, but not to Radio Repertory... Captain Cook was played as a cross between Horatio Hornblower, Lord Nelson and Gregory Peck...
"[8] However the Adelaide Mail thought there "was a fine simplicity about it, a lack of histrionics that made the play magnificently real... the subject was handled as well as it could have been.