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Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Sailing both eastwards and westwards around the world, Cook and his crews explored parts of the world no European had sailed before, and like Magellan 258 years earlier, his life ended in a battle on the shores of the Pacific.
Born in 1728 in the village of Marton in North Yorkshire, when he was 16 (1745) Cook moved to the fishing village of Staithes, to be apprenticed as a shop boy. After 18 months, not proving suited for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby and was introduced to John and Henry Walker, who were Quakers, and prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove , and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London . As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy—all skills he would need one day to command his own ship.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1755, and saw action in the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763), surveying and mapping much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec City , which fell to the British on 13 September 1759. This brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society, which led to his commission in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for a scientific expedition, his first voyage (1768–1771) to the Pacific Ocean, to observe and record the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun from Tahiti . This data, when combined with observations from other places, would help to determine the distance of the Earth from the Sun. Cook, at age 39, was promoted to lieutenant to grant him sufficient status to take the command. For its part, the Royal Society agreed that Cook would receive a one hundred guinea gratuity (£105) in addition to his Naval pay.
The expedition departed England on 26 August 1768, rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific, arriving at Tahiti on 13 April 1769, where the observations of the Venus Transit were made, proving not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped. Once these were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders from the Admiralty for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated rich southern continent of Terra Australis . Cook then made the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand . Having aboard Tupaia, an exceptionally accomplished Tahitian aristocrat and priest, who helped guide him through the Polynesian islands, he mapped the complete coastline, making only some minor errors. Next, he sailed west for the first recorded European contact and waypoint naming on the eastern coastline of Australia, famously starting on 29 April 1770 with Botany Bay , named after the many first unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander.
On 22 August 1770, Endeavour reached the northernmost tip of the coast and, without disembarking, Cook named it Cape York . Leaving the east coast, Endeavour turned west and nursed her way through the dangerously shallow waters of Torres Strait. Searching for a vantage point, Cook saw a steep hill on a nearby island, from the top of which he hoped to see "a passage into the Indian Seas". He disembarked, named the island "Possession Island", and claimed the entire coastline that he had just explored for the British crown , naming it New South Wales . He returned to England via Batavia , where many in his crew succumbed to malaria, the Cape of Good Hope , the island of Saint Helena on 30 April 1771, and anchored at The Downs on 12 July 1771. Cook's journals were published upon his return, and he became something of a hero among the scientific community. However, the aristocratic botanist Joseph Banks was a greater hero among the general public, and even attempted to take command of Cook's second voyage, but removed himself from it before it began.
From 1772 to 1775, on the ships HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure , commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, he went to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great Terra Australis. On 17 January 1773, Resolution was the first ship to venture south of the Antarctic Circle, which she did twice more on this voyage. The final such crossing, on 3 February 1774, was to be the most southerly penetration, reaching latitude 71°10′ S at longitude 106°54′ W. Cook almost encountered the mainland of Antarctica, but turned towards Tahiti to resupply his ship. He then resumed his southward course in a second fruitless attempt to find the supposed continent. On this leg of the voyage, he brought a young Tahitian named Omai, who proved to be somewhat less knowledgeable about the Pacific than Tupaia had been on the first voyage. On his return voyage to New Zealand in 1774, Cook landed at the Friendly Islands , Easter Island , Norfolk Island , New Caledonia , and Vanuatu . Before returning to England, Cook made a final sweep across the South Atlantic from Cape Horn and surveyed, mapped, and took possession for Britain of South Georgia , which had been explored by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Cook also discovered and named Clerke Rocks and the South Sandwich Islands ("Sandwich Land"). He then turned north to South Africa , and from there continued back to England. His reports upon his return home put to rest the popular myth of Terra Australis. Cook's second voyage marked a successful employment of Larcum Kendall's K1 copy of John Harrison's H4 marine chronometer, which enabled Cook to calculate his longitude with much greater accuracy. Cook's log was full of praise for this chronometer, which he used to make charts of the southern Pacific Ocean that were so remarkably accurate that copies of them were still in use in the mid-20th century.
His third and final voyage (12 July 1776 – 4 October 1780)'s ostensible purpose was to return his second voyage's young Tahitian passenger Omai to his homeland, but this was but a cover for the Admiralty's plan to send Cook on a voyage to discover the Northwest Passage. HMS Resolution , to be commanded by Cook, and HMS Discovery , commanded by Charles Clerke, were prepared for the voyage which started from Plymouth in 1776. After dropping Omai at Tahiti, Cook travelled north and in 1778 became the first European to begin formal contact with the Hawaiian Islands, making landfall in January 1778 at Waimea harbour and Kauai afterwards. Cook named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich, the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.
The expedition then sailed west to the Siberian coast, and then southeast, back through the Bering Strait. He made a few other attempts to sail through it, and became increasingly frustrated on this voyage, perhaps suffering from a stomach ailment; it has been speculated that this led to irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they found inedible. From the Bering Strait, the crews went south to Unalaska in the Aleutians, where Cook put in on 2 October to again re-caulk the ship's leaking timbers. They then headed back to the Sandwich Islands. Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay on 14 February 1779, in a conflict with locals. The expedition returned home, reaching England in October 1780.
Some ascribe Cook's success to his observation that certain foods — among them lime — prevented scurvy. The term "limey" for an Englishman dates to that era. However, the discovery of the connection between certain foods and the prevention of scurvy was made multiple times by multiple people and forgotten almost as often as discovered. He surely mapped lands and oceans in greater detail and on a scale not previously charted by Western explorers, surveying and naming features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
There are over 100 memorials to Cook around the world. We only list some of these here, the Captain Cook Society have longer lists .
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James Cook's three Pacific voyages. James Cook (born October 27, 1728, Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England—died February 14, 1779, Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii) was a British naval captain, navigator, and explorer who sailed the seaways and coasts of Canada (1759 and 1763-67) and conducted three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean (1768-71 ...
Captain James Cook FRS (7 November [ O.S. 27 October] 1728 - 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during ...
The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun (3-4 June that ...
Captain James Cook Print of James Cook, famous circumnavigator who explored and mapped the Pacific Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1938.0345.000001 Introduction Captain James Cook is known for his extensive voyages that took him throughout the Pacific. He mapped several island groups in the Pacific that had been previously discovered by other explorers. But he was the first European we know of to ...
The map shows the three voyages of Captain James Cook. The first voyage is in red, the second voyage is in green and the third voyage is in blue. Following Cook's death, the route his crew took is in the blue dashed line. (Credit: Andre Engels) The map shows the three voyages of Captain James Cook.
Enter James Cook, who had just returned from surveying Newfoundland, had recently observed an astronomical event, and who had years of navigational and marine experience; moreover, he was a naval man who had the backing of Philip Stephens, secretary of the Admiralty, who admired Cook's charting work and naval service, and Sir Hugh Palliser, governor of Newfoundland, a longtime Cook mentor ...
James Cook and his voyages. The son of a farm labourer, James Cook (1728-1779) was born at Marton in Yorkshire. In 1747 he was apprenticed to James Walker, a shipowner and master mariner of Whitby, and for several years sailed in colliers in the North Sea, English Channel, Irish Sea and Baltic Sea. In 1755 he volunteered for service in the ...
Captain James Cook's voyages of discovery. Captain James Cook (1728-1779) was born in Yorkshire. At the age of about 17, Cook joined the merchant navy in the coastal town of Whitby and spent his apprenticeship and early career working on trading ships along the English coast and in the Baltic. After 10 years in the merchant navy, Cook entered ...
First Voyage of Captain James Cook. (1768 - 1771) James Cook's first voyage circumnavigated the globe in the ship Endeavour, giving the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander the opportunity to collect plants from previously unexplored habitats. Although the Endeavour voyage was officially a journey to Tahiti to observe the 1769 transit ...
Book: Cook, James. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Undertaken, by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere, to Determine the Position and Extent of the West Side of North America; Its Distance from Asia; and the Practicability of a Northern Passage to Europe. Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook ...
As captain on three voyages of discovery in the late eighteenth century, James Cook became the first European to define the outline of New Zealand. Thanks to Cook's detailed charts, and his gentlemen passengers' scientific and artistic documentation, accurate knowledge of New Zealand was available in Europe for the first time from the 1770s.
LibriVox recording of The Third Voyage of James Cook, Volume 1 by James Cook. Read in English by David Cole. Only months after his return from his mammoth Second Voyage, the Admiralty ordered Cook back to the Pacific, ostensibly to return Omai, a young man from Raiatea, to his homeland, but in fact to attempt the discovery of the Northwest Passage (a proposed route from the Pacific to the ...
British navigator James Cook charted New Zealand and Australia's Great Barrier Reef on his ship HMB Endeavour and later disproved the existence of the fabled southern continent Terra Australis.
Captain James Cook timeline Follow the key events in Captain Cook's life of adventure from a simple start to global fame and a grisly death.
Third voyage of James Cook. The route of Cook's third voyage shown in red; blue shows the return route after his death. James Cook 's third and final voyage (12 July 1776 - 4 October 1780) took the route from Plymouth via Tenerife and Cape Town to New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands, and along the North American coast to the Bering Strait .
Two ships were secured, the Resolution for Captain Cook and the Adventure for Captain Tobias Furneaux (1735-1781), who had served under Wallis. Cook, James. A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World: Performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774 and 1775. 1st ed. 2 vols. London, 1777.
A British explorer and navigator, Captain James Cook led three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean. His voyages took him south to the Antarctic Circle and north to the Bering…
Explore the fascinating adventures of Captain James Cook, the renowned British explorer and navigator, in this free online book. The voyages of Captain James Cook contains two volumes of his journals, maps, illustrations, and historical context. Learn about his discoveries, encounters, and challenges in the Pacific Ocean and beyond.
Between 1768 and 1779, British Captain James Cook undertook three historic voyages in the Pacific before he was killed in Hawaii.
Voyages of James Cook. Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Sailing both eastwards and westwards around the world, Cook and his crews explored parts of the world no European had sailed before, and like Magellan 258 years earlier, his life ended in a battle on the shores of the Pacific.
Cook, James, 1728-1779, Great Britain. Royal Navy, Voyages around the world, Oceania -- Discovery and exploration, Pacific Coast (South America) -- Description and travel Publisher