James Cook |
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James Cook was born on October 27, 1728, in Marton-in-Cleveland,
Yorkshire, England. He was the son of a farmer
of Scottish decent. As a young teenager, Cook
was apprenticed to a seafaring family. In
1755, he joined Great Britain's Royal Navy
and soon proved himself an expert navigator.
Just after making officer rank, Lieutenant
Cook was chosen by the Royal Society of London
to undertake a scientific journey to Tahiti
to observe and document the planet Venus as
it passed between the earth and the sun. These
observations would help scientists calculate
the distance of the earth from the sun. |
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On August 25, [1768], Cook departed England aboard
the Endeavour with 94 crewmen and scientists.
He was carrying secret orders from the Royal Navy
to be opened upon completion of his scientific
mission.
Cook was determined to keep his crew healthy.
He insisted his men eat onions and pickled cabbage
every day, and made sure that the ship kept fresh
fruit and vegetables on board. He ordered his
men to bathe every day, to clean their clothing,
and to air out their bedding. He did not know
the scientific reasons behind these measures,
but he knew they worked to prevent scurvy and other diseases in his crew.
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On April 11,
1769, the Endeavour arrived on
the shores of Tahiti, seven weeks early.
After viewing the passing of Venus between
the earth and sun for several weeks, Cook
opened a sealed envelope with the Royal
Navy's orders. He was to seek out the fabled
southern continent and claim it for England.
Early mapmakers in the 1570s assumed there
were two major continents at each of the
earth's poles. Dutch explorers searched
for the southern continent in the seventeenth
century. Since the continents had not yet
been found, the Royal Navy trusted that
Cook would find the southern one if it existed.
He left Tahiti on July 13 and headed southwest |
When Cook reached New Zealand on October
6, the native Maori people proved to be
unfriendly and his crew was forced to fire
on them. The Endeavour spent a
few months exploring New Zealand and proved
it was not part of the great southern continent.
On April 9, [1770], Cook explored and documented
the location of Australia. While sailing
around this great continent, the Endeavour ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef (extending
150 miles from Australia's northeast coast
and the largest reef in the world) on June
11. It took a day to free the ship after
the crew threw fifty tons of ship's ballast,
iron cannons, firewood, and barrels overboard.
Once free, the crew quickly made repairs
to the badly leaking ship to keep it from
sinking. After months of exploring the coastline
of Australia, Cook concluded that this continent
was not the great southern continent. |
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The Endeavour made its way to Java in
the East Indies in October, 1770. Once there,
Cook's men became very ill with Malaria and dysentery.
Despite all his efforts to keep his crew safe
and healthy, they were no match for these diseases.
He lost 30 men and had to sign on new crew in
South Africa in order to make it back home to
England. The Endeavour made it back to
Dover, England, on July 13, 1771, after a three-year
voyage. Cook was formally presented to his majesty, King
George III following the historic journey
and made a naval commander.
See
a map of James Cook's voyages.
Cook's Second Voyage
Cook's second voyage began on July 13, 1772 from
Plymouth, England. He took two Whitby colliers (refitted coal ships), the Resolution and the Adventure. The Adventure measured
97 feet in length with 80 crewmen and scientists
aboard. The Resolution, Cook's flagship,
was 111 feet in length with 110 crewmen and scientists
aboard. His orders were to find the southern continent.
He plan was to search for the continent and circumnavigate
the globe. He was bound to find the fabled continent
this way.
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Prior to Cook's
day, an accurate measurement of longitude
was virtually impossible. There was no way
to determine the exact time of day, the
ship's position, and the exact time at a
fixed point on shore. After 1735, a device
invented by Englishman John
Harrison made this possible.
He invented a sea clock called a chronometer,
which kept perfect time under rough sea
conditions. Because of this instrument,
Cook was one of the first ship's commanders
to know his exact position on the globe
while sailing uncharted seas. He carried
four chronometers aboard the Resolution and the Adventure.
The ships headed south around the Cape
of Good Hope and toward Antarctica. They
crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first
time in January 1773. Too much ice blocked
Cook's way to find the continent of Antarctica
and eventually his ships headed for warmer
waters to the east. |
After stops in New Zealand and Tahiti, Cook
discovered more islands in the south Pacific.
By November 1773, the Resolution was
underway once again in search of the southern
continent. After reaching the Antarctic Circle
in January 1774, Cook had sailed farther south
than any other explorer. But he never sighted
the continent of Antarctica. Having been separated
from its sister ship, the Adventure made
its way back to England. Cook returned to warmer
waters and continued explorations of the Pacific.
He arrived back in England on July 29, 1775.
See
a map of James Cook's voyages.
Cook's Final Voyage
Cook's final voyage
began on July 12, 1776. He was aboard the Resolution with a crew of 112. His
sister ship was the Discovery with 70 men
aboard. The purpose of his third voyage was
to find the fabled Northwest Passage. Unlike
other explorers who attempted to find this
area of the world, Cook attempted a route
from the Pacific side. Cook visited some of
his favorite islands in the Pacific and made
stops in New Zealand and Tahiti. |
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On January 18,
[1778], Cook sighted the Hawaiian Islands
for the first time. He named them the Sandwich
Islands after his friend, the Earl
of Sandwich. The natives rowed out to
meet his ships and were very friendly. After
discovering so many islands in the Pacific
where the people had a common language and
similar customs, Cook marveled at how the
Polynesian people had spread themselves from
island to island. Europeans were not the only
ocean-faring people. Indeed, the Polynesians
had made their own explorations thousands
of years before. The Hawaiians thought that
Cook was a god and that his men were supernatural
beings. |
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After two weeks of trading and good relations, the
ships departed heading north. By March 7, Cook reached
the coast of present-day Oregon and followed the
coastline north to Alaska and west through the Bering
Strait. By August, Cook concluded there was no Northwest
Passage and decided to head for warmer waters for
the winter.
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By
January 17, [1779], the two ships once again
landed off the shores of the Hawaiian Islands.
The Englishmen appeared to have worn out
their welcome with the natives. Tensions
were increasing as Captain Cook decided
to depart the islands on February 4. As
fate would have it, a storm broke the foremast
of the Resolution and Cook was
forced to return to the Hawaiian Islands
on February 11 to make repairs. The natives
were not happy to see the visitors once
again. One of the ship's boats was stolen,
and Cook took a Hawaiian chief as hostage
until the boat was returned. |
On February 14, Cook was heading back to his
ship with his hostage when he and his men were
surrounded by shouting, angry natives. As Cook
signaled his boats off shore to come in to assist,
he was stabbed in the back by one of the natives.
As he fell, dozens of natives attacked his body
with knives and clubs.
The contributions of James Cook were extraordinary.
He was the first explorer to map the coastline
of Australia. He charted much of the Pacific Ocean
and discovered several island groups. He used
a chronometer to chart his exact position on the
globe. He was one of the first sea captains to
discover the cure for scurvy. He sailed farther
south than any other explorer before him, and
he proved once and for all that there was no Northwest
Passage.
See
a map of James Cook's voyages. |