James Cook

The famous English navigator and explorer James Cook was born in 1728 in Marton, Yorkshire. The son of a farmer, he entered the service of a shipowner and merchant in Whitby at a very young age. James quickly demonstrated strong navigational skills, and in 1755 his employer offered him command of a ship. However, the young man chose to enlist in the Royal Navy instead.

Cook was sent on a mission to North America in 1758, where he took part in the siege of Louisbourg and the capture of Quebec. The navigator mapped the Saint Lawrence River, a major North American river forming part of the border between Canada and the United States, as well as Newfoundland, and deepened his knowledge of geometry and astronomy.

In 1766, James sent a report to the Royal Society in London concerning a solar eclipse observed in Newfoundland.

Two years later, in 1768, the Society entrusted him with command of a ship sent to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun. Cook crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn, explored the Tuamotu Archipelago, and reached Tahiti on March 11, 1769. He stayed there for four months, built an observatory, and enabled the naturalists Banks and Solander to conduct important research.

On July 13, he left the island and set out to chart the coast of New Zealand. In 1770, he completed a full circumnavigation of New Zealand and discovered the east coast of New Holland (Australia), where he landed near present-day Sydney and claimed the territory for Britain.

Cook then sailed through the Torres Strait, which separates Australia from New Guinea and connects the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. He reached Java and returned to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope in July 1771.

In 1772, Cook set sail on a second expedition. He commanded two ships, the “Resolution” and the “Adventure.” For three years, he navigated the Antarctic regions, reaching as far as 70 degrees south latitude. Finding no continent, he concluded that no land existed at those latitudes.

In 1774, Cook charted an archipelago which he named the New Hebrides. He then sailed north, revisited New Zealand, and discovered the Marquesas Islands, New Caledonia, and many other smaller islands.

In 1775, the English navigator returned home, where he was elected to the Royal Society and promoted to captain. He was awarded the Society’s medal for successfully combating scurvy during his voyages. After three years of expedition, he brought back his crew of 118 sailors “with the loss of only one man, who died of dysentery.”

In 1776, Cook embarked on a third voyage to discover a passage north of America. He sailed across the Pacific, discovered some of the Hawaiian Islands, followed the coast of Alaska, and passed through the Bering Strait. He did not go beyond 70°44′ north latitude and then turned south.

Cook rediscovered the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) in 1778.

On February 14, 1779, at the age of 51, the renowned navigator was killed during a conflict with indigenous people in the Sandwich Islands.

In Oceania, many places bear the name of James Cook in honor of his achievements:

• Mount Cook rises to 3,764 meters in New Zealand.
• The Cook Strait separates the two main islands of New Zealand.
• The Cook Islands are associated with New Zealand.