Captain James Cook was born in Marton, England in 1728. He has been sailing since childhood. He is not only proficient in sailing and drawing, but also leaves many journals for future generations. He participated in the Royal Navy’s siege of Quebec City, showing his talents in surveying and drawing. He mapped the main entrance to the St. Lawrence River and the map of the Newfoundland coastline, which played a great role in the battle.
After the war, Cook led the crew three times to the sea to the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to land on the east coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. At that time, scurvy was most feared during ocean voyages. If you have scurvy, your gums will rot, your teeth will fall off, and your hair will fall off. If there is a trauma, the wound will not heal, and it will easily become infected and even die. This disease is a deadly killer for seafarers and people have been at a loss for a long time. At that time, medicine was not well developed and people did not understand vitamin C.
Later, Cook gradually discovered that eating oranges, lemons, and oranges could help alleviate the condition, and those with scurvy could even recover. However, according to the conditions at that time, it was almost impossible to keep a large amount of fresh fruits on long-distance voyages. What should I do? Cook’s investigation found that the same voyage had very few patients with scurvy on the Dutch. He was surprised: how did the Dutch do it? He inspected the Dutch ship and found that there were many wooden barrels filled with sour pickles. Although he didn’t understand why, he thought at the time, “If I go further, sour kimchi may be useful.”
So while on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Cook ordered the removal of a large amount of pickles on board. But he encountered another problem: how to make the crew eat sour kimchi? At the time, British sailors were used to British food and drinks, and no one wanted to eat sour kimchi. If you tell them directly that eating sour kimchi is to prevent scurvy, then no one will believe it; secondly, they know that there will be another voyage immediately, and the resistance will be even worse, which will make things worse.
After a few sleepless nights, Cook finally came up with a coup. He gathered all the officials to eat sour kimchi, and ate it under the eyes of all sailors, and told the sailors that these sour kimchi can only be eaten by officials, and ordinary sailors cannot. If someone steals food, he is punished. At this point, the sailors were very dissatisfied and felt unfair to everyone. But after this incident, sailors gradually felt that being able to eat sour kimchi was a symbol of status and power.
After a while, Captain Cook suddenly summoned all the crew members and said, “Considering the hardships of everyone, starting today, ordinary sailors are allowed to eat sour kimchi once a week.” Although sour kimchi is terribly sour, it does not meet the taste of the British. , But everyone eats with interest. Sailors may feel that they have been valued, not only without complaints, but also especially proud of eating sour kimchi every week. In this way, Cook managed to get the crew to eat sour kimchi, thereby preventing the occurrence of scurvy, and the voyage became smoother.
The Pacific expedition lasted nearly three years, and none of the crew had scurvy. After returning home, Cook wrote his experience into a report and submitted it to the Royal Society, which was later promoted, which saved many seafarers’ lives, and Cook was commended for it.
Captain Cook’s cleverness is that he quickly finds differences from the Dutch voyage and directly transfers the Dutch experience to his own ship. Then, through predictive reasoning and using psychological effects, the established goal is successfully transformed into the secondary goal, and the primary goal is easily achieved by achieving the secondary goal. That is to give some groups, especially those who represent an advantageous position to give priority to trials. Trialists feel that they have been preferentially treated, appear to have status and status, and let others enjoy the same treatment in a small amount, both to maintain differentiation and apply hunger marketing. .