Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook (27 October 1728 – 14 February 1779), British naval captain, explorer and cartographer is famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 that significantly impacted history and the world.
His mapping (land features) and charting (navigation on water) of vast areas of the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand paved the way for British colonization and expanded European knowledge of previously uncharted territories contributed to a broader understanding of geography, oceanography and indigenous cultures.
Captain James Cook is considered one of the greatest navigators and explorers of all time claiming various territories for Great Britain and is celebrated as a British national hero and icon.
Captain Cook's expeditions included scientists who collected flora and fauna that contributed to scientific understanding and also documented indigenous cultures in the new territories.
He disproved the existence of a hypothesized landmass in the Southern Hemisphere (Terra Australis Incognita) by charting the Pacific.
Captain Cook also demonstrated the effectiveness of citrus fruit, particularly lemons and oranges, in preventing scurvy caused by vitamin C deficiency.
He included in every sailor's diet citrus fruit, sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) and vegetables to maintain the health of his crews.
Sauerkraut offers numerous health benefits due to its probiotic content support a healthy gut by reducing inflammation.
He also emphasized cleanliness and ventilation in the crew's quarters for combating disease.

Early Life

Captain James Cook
James Cook was born in the village of Marton in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the second of eight children of James Cook (1693–1779), a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, and his wife, Grace Pace (1702–1765) from Thornaby-on-Tees and was baptised in the parish church of St Cuthbert.
In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton where his father worked as a foreman.
In 1741, after five years of schooling, he began work for his father who had been promoted to farm manager.
In 1745, Cook was sent to the fishing village of Staithes to be apprenticed as a shop assistant to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson where he first felt the lure of the sea gazing out of the shop window.
Merchant Navy
In 1746, Cook travelled to the port town of Whitby to be apprenticed to Quaker shipowners, John Walker and his brother Henry who engaged in the coal trade between the North-East and London.
His first assignment was aboard the collier, Freelove in 1747 sailing between the Tyne and London.
As part of his apprenticeship, Cook studied algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy; knowledge that would one day lead to commanding his own ship.
After his three-year apprenticeship, Cook began working on merchant ships in the Baltic Sea.
After passing his examinations in 1752, he progressed to mate aboard the collier brig, Friendship.
Royal Navy
James Cook realised his career would advance more quickly in military service so, he entered the Royal Navy at Wapping on June 17, 1755 when Britain was re-arming for the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763).
Seven Years' War
During the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763 (also known as the French and Indian War) Cook served on the warship, HMS Pembroke, taking part in major operations including
the captures of Louisbourg and Quebec in 1759 marking the turning point in British efforts to conquer New France (North America).
He also surveyed and mapped the entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec (1759).
After the war, he mapped the coastline of Newfoundland and surveyed astronomical observations there.
His military and mapping endeavours brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society which led to his commission in 1768 as commander of HMS Endeavour for the first of his three Pacific voyages.
Marriage
James Cook married Elizabeth Batts (4 February 1742 – 13 May 1835) at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex on 21 December 1762 and had six children.
Elizabeth Batts was the daughter of Samuel Batts, a keeper of the Bell Inn at Execution Dock, Wapping who was one of Cook's mentors.
When not at sea, the Cook family lived in the East End of London and attended St Paul's Church, Shadwell.

First Expedition (1768 to 1771)

Captain James Cook
A combined Royal Navy and Royal Society of London expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771 was Lieutenant James Cook's first expedition on August 26, 1768 to the South Pacific to observe the 1769 transit of Venus (between the Sun and the Earth) and explore unknown regions of the Pacific.
The British were eager to discover and annex the Great South Land in the uncharted waters of the Pacific.
The Admiralty authorised the voyage with 73 sailors and 12 Royal Marines while King George III made available the necessary resources of the Royal Navy.
Once Cook completed his work on the transit of Venus, he then proceeded to New Zealand where he mapped the coast.
He then continued to Australia which was already known as New Holland.
New Zealand
Cook reached the islands of New Zealand on October 6, 1769 and a landing party went onshore on October 7 at Poverty Bay in the north-east of the North Island.
He then circumnavigated both the North and South Islands, confirming they were separate landmasses.
Abel Tasman (1603 – 10 October 1659), a Dutch seafarer and explorer is officially recognised as the first European to chart the western coastline of New Zealand in 1642.
Captain Cook's voyage and charting led to the establishment of New Zealand as a British colony.
Australia
Sunday 29th April 1770 is foundational moment in Australian history.
While charting the east coast of Australia in HMS Endeavour, Captain Cook and his crew arrived at Botany Bay.
Dutch navigators charted the northern, western and southern coasts of Australia during the 17th Century this newly found continent and named it 'New Holland.
Captain Cook gave the area the name Botany Bay because of the "great quantity of plants" discovered by botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander.
The bay's rich flora, including abundant trees, grasses, and other plants had scientific significance for the pursuit of botanical knowledge.
Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks (24 February 1743 – 19 June 1820) an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences was on board the ship to study the local plants and animals and is credited with introducing the eucalyptus, acacia, and the genus of around 170 species of flowering plants (in the family Proteaceae) named Banksia after him, to the Western world.
During this time, they explored the area, collected botanical specimens, and attempted to interact with the local Gweagal people.
On August 22, 1770, Captain Cook climbed the highest point of Possession Island, north of Cape York (Queensland, Australia) and claimed the eastern portion of the Australian continent, New South Wales for the British Crown.
He also named Cape York at the northernmost tip of Australia in the state of Queensland after the Duke of York.
This set the stage for the establishment of a British penal colony for transporting convicts due to its remoteness and resources in 1788.
Great Britain also expanded its empire after the loss of their American colonies and gained strategic and economic advantages.
Captain Cook and his crew departed on May 7, 1770.
Captain James Cook
The First Fleet
The First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay on January 18, 1788, 18 years after Captain Cook's voyage in 1770 consisting of 11 ships carrying around 1400 people, including convicts, soldiers and free settlers.
They established a settlement at Sydney Cove (Port Jackson and also known as Sydney Harbour) on January 26, 1788.
The first governor of the colony of New South Wales, was Captain Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) who had been appointed by Lord Sydney as the commander of the First Fleet.
On 26 January, 1788 the Union Jack was raised, and possession of the land was taken formally in the name of King George III.
Captain Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer was the first person to circumnavigate Australia
and who led the first inshore circumnavigation of the mainland.
The name "Australia" was officially used around 1824, after Matthew Flinders suggested the name in 1804.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie, (British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland) who served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, endorsed the name on December 12, 1817.
The British Admiralty officially adopted the name in 1824.

Second Expedition (1772-1775)

Captain James Cook's second expedition (1772-1775) on HMS Resolution, along with HMS Adventure were commissioned by the British government to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to determine whether there was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis (a hypothetical continent first mentioned in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries).
Its existence was based on the idea that continental land in the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the Southern Hemisphere.
Captain James Cook had disproved this on his first voyage when he circumnavigated New Zealand and he had charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia so, Terra Australis (Antarctica) was believed to lie further south.
On January 17, 1773, Captain James Cook's expedition was the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle and it was the first to circumnavigate it. - an epic feat of seamanship and endurance in the Southern Hemisphere.

Third Expedition (1776-1779)

Cook's third and final voyage aimed to find the Northwest Passage through an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in the hope of finding a shorter trade route between Europe and Asia.
Captain James Cook commanding the Resolution and Charles Clerke commanding Discovery explored and mapped extensive sections of the North American Pacific coastline, particularly in Alaska and the Bering Sea region.
On January 18, 1778, the expedition discovered the Hawaiian Islands landing at Waimea on the island of Kaua'i which he named the Sandwich Islands after the British Earl of Sandwich and charted parts of the Pacific Ocean.
He is credited with being the first European to make contact with the Hawaiian Islands.
He stopped here for repairs and provisions but tragically, he was killed in a confrontation with the indigenous people.

Captain James Cook - Legacy

Captain James Cook was killed in Hawaii on February 14, 1779, at Kealakekua Bay, due to a violent confrontation with native Hawaiians.
The theft of a longboat from Cook's expedition and his subsequent attempt to get it back by taking chief, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, hostage and the Hawaiians attempts to rescue their leader, resulted in multiple deaths on both sides.
In the chaos, Captain James Cook was fatally stabbed to death with the dagger used to kill him had been obtained by trade during the same visit.
Legacy
Captain James Cook rose from humble beginnings in Yorkshire to become a national hero.
He rose from obscurity to command ships, sailing first in the coal trade and then, after excelling as naval cartographer in eastern Canada, leading three 18th century Pacific expeditions with unparalleled results in geographical knowledge to many fields than all his predecessors had done together.
As a captain in the British Navy, he was an exceptional leader and renowned for his precise surveying and innovation in keeping his crew healthy.

Earlier European Contact

Captain James Cook
Earlier documented European encounters of the Australian coastline occurred with Dutch explorers working for the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
They did not lay claim because they thought it lacked necessary resources and that the soil was too arid for crops needed establish a permanent settlement.
Willem Janszoon (1570 – 1630)
During his voyage of 1605–1606, on his ship, the Duyfken, Janszoon and his crew became the first Europeans known to have seen and landed on the coast of Australia near the present-day town of Weipa on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula finding the land filled with swamps and the people inhospitable.
They charted 320 km of the coastline.
Dirk Hartog (baptised 30 October 1580 – 11 October 1621)
Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia on October 25, 1616 where they came upon "various islands, which were, however, found uninhabited."
He made landed off the coast of Shark Bay, Western Australia, which is now called Dirk Hartog Island and left a pewter plate (Hartog Plate) describing his voyage, his ship's name.
Abel Tasman (1603 – 10 October 1659)
Abel Tasman was the first European to reach New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt.
After leaving Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) on August 14, 1642 Tasman reached the coast of Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land after his patron, Anthony van Diemen (Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1636 to 1645).
He also explored the southern part of Australia, which he called "New Holland" and charted parts of the west and north coasts of Australia.
Willem de Vlamingh ((baptized 28 November 1640 – after 7 August 1702)
In 1696, Vlamingh explored the western coast of Australia and named the Houtman Abrolhos (Abrolhos Islands), a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia about 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Geraldton, Western Australia.
On 29 December 1696, de Vlamingh's party landed on Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia and located 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of Fremantle and saw numerous quokkas (a native marsupial), and thinking they were large rats.
He named the island 't Eylandt 't Rottenest ('Rats' Nest Island').
On 10 January 1697, he ventured up the Swan River and were the first Europeans to see black swans.
On 4 February 1697, he landed at Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia, and replaced the pewter plate left by Dirk Hartog in 1616 with a new one that bore a record of both of the Dutch sea-captains' visits.
The original plate is preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

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