James Cook

"Captain Cook" redirects here. For other uses, see Captain Cook (disambiguation) and James Cook (disambiguation).

James Cook FRS
Portrait of James Cook by Nathaniel Dance-Holland, c. 1775
Born	(1728-11-07)7 November 1728 Marton, Yorkshire, England
Died	14 February 1779(1779-02-14) (aged 50) Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii
Education	Postgate School, Great Ayton
Occupation(s)	Explorer, cartographer and naval officer
Spouse	Elizabeth Batts ​ (m. 1762)​
Children	6
Military career
Branch	Royal Navy
Service years	1755–1779
Rank	Captain
Battles / wars	Seven Years' War Conquest of New France
Signature

Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the main islands of New Zealand and was the first known European to visit the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands.

Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager before enlisting in the Royal Navy in 1755. He served during the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. In the 1760s, he mapped the coastline of Newfoundland and made important astronomical observations which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society. This acclaim came at a crucial moment in British overseas exploration, and it led to his commission in 1768 as commander of HMS Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages.

During these voyages, he sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped coastlines, islands and features across the Pacific from Hawaii to Australia in greater detail than previously charted. He made contact with numerous indigenous peoples, and he claimed many territories for Britain. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.

In 1779, during his second visit to Hawaii, Cook was killed when a dispute with indigenous Hawaiians turned violent. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge that influenced his successors well into the 20th century. Numerous memorials have been dedicated to him worldwide. However, he remains a controversial figure due to his occasionally violent encounters with indigenous peoples, and there is ongoing debate regarding his role in facilitating British colonialism.

Early life

James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in the village of Marton in the North Riding of Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November in the parish church of St Cuthbert. He was 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. In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years of schooling, he began work for his father who had been promoted to farm manager. For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude.

In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles (32 km) to the fishing village of Staithes to be apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson. Historian Vanessa Collingridge speculates that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.

After 18 months, Cook, not proving suited for shop work, travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby and was introduced to Sanderson's friends John and Henry Walker. The Walkers were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. 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.

His three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on merchant ships in the Baltic Sea. After passing his examinations in 1752, he soon progressed through the merchant navy ranks, starting with his promotion in that year to mate aboard the collier brig Friendship.

In 1755, Britain was re-arming for what was to become the Seven Years' War. Cook realised his career would advance more quickly in military service, so he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, despite the need to start at the bottom of the naval hierarchy. He entered the Navy at Wapping on 17 June 1755.

Family

Elizabeth Cook, wife (16 years) and widow (56 years) of James Cook, by William Henderson, 1830.

On 21 December 1762, Cook married Elizabeth Batts, the daughter of Samuel Batts – keeper of the Bell Inn in Wapping and one of Cook's mentors – at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex. The couple had six children: James (1763–1794), Nathaniel (1764–1780, lost aboard HMS Thunderer which foundered with all hands in a hurricane in the West Indies), Elizabeth (1767–1771), Joseph (1768–1768), George (1772–1772) and Hugh (1776–1793, who died of scarlet fever while a student at Christ's College, Cambridge). Cook has no direct descendants – all of his children died before having children of their own. When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London. He attended St Paul's Church, Shadwell, where his son James was baptised.

David Samwell, a Welsh surgeon who accompanied Cook on the third voyage, described him as: "... above six feet high, and though a good looking man, he was plain both in address and appearance. His head was small, his hair, which was dark brown, he wore tied behind. His face was full of expression, his nose exceedingly well shaped, his eyes which were of a brown cast, were quick and piercing: his eyebrows prominent, which gave his countenance altogether an air of austerity."

Royal Navy

Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years' War

Cook's first posting was with HMS Eagle, serving as able seaman and master's mate under Captain Joseph Hamar for his first year aboard, and Captain Hugh Palliser thereafter. In October and November 1755, he took part in Eagle's capture of one French warship and the sinking of another, following which he was promoted to boatswain in addition to his other duties. His first temporary command was in March 1756 when he was briefly master of Cruizer, a small cutter attached to Eagle while on patrol. In June 1757, Cook passed his master's examinations at Trinity House, Deptford, qualifying him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's fleet. He then joined the sixth-rate frigate HMS Solebay as master under Captain Robert Craig.

Canada

During the Seven Years' War, Cook served in North America as master aboard the fourth-rate Navy vessel HMS Pembroke. With others in Pembroke's crew, he took part in the major amphibious assault that captured the Fortress of Louisbourg from the French in 1758, and in the siege of Quebec City in 1759.

The day after the fall of Louisbourg, Cook met an army officer, Samuel Holland, who was using a plane table to survey the area. The two men had an immediate connection through their interest in surveying, and Holland taught Cook the methods he was using. They collaborated on developing preliminary charts of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River, with Cook most likely the author of sailing directions for the river, written in 1758. The combination of Holland's land-surveying techniques and Cook's hydrographic skills enabled the latter, from that time onwards, to produce nautical charts for coastal areas that substantially exceeded the accuracy of such Admiralty charts of the time. As General Wolfe's advance on Quebec progressed in 1759, Cook and the other masters of ships in the English fleet worked to chart and mark the shoals of the river, particularly near to Quebec itself. The close approach by the ships of the Royal Navy through these shallow waters allowed General Wolfe to make his successful stealth attack during the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

A 1775 chart of Newfoundland, made from James Cook's Seven Years' War surveyings.

Cook's surveying ability was also put to use in mapping the jagged coast of Newfoundland in the 1760s, aboard HMS Grenville. He surveyed the northwest stretch in 1763 and 1764, the south coast between the Burin Peninsula and Cape Ray in 1765 and 1766, and the west coast in 1767. At this time, Cook employed local pilots to point out the "rocks and hidden dangers" along the south and west coasts. During the 1765 season, local pilots were engaged to assist with mapping Fortune Bay, Connaigre Bay, Hermitage Bay, the Bay d'Espoir and the coast west of St. Lawrence.

While in Newfoundland, Cook also conducted astronomical observations, in particular of the eclipse of the sun on 5 August 1766. By obtaining an accurate estimate of the time of the start and finish of the eclipse, and comparing these with the timings at a known position in England, it was possible to calculate the longitude of the observation site in Newfoundland. This result was communicated to the Royal Society in 1767.

Cook's hydrographic surveys in Newfoundland – conducted over five seasons – produced the first large-scale, accurate maps of the island's coasts. They were the first large-scale surveys to use precise triangulation to establish land outlines. They also gave Cook his mastery of practical surveying, achieved under often adverse conditions, and brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society at a crucial moment both in his career and in the direction of British overseas discovery. Cook's charts were used for over 100 years.

At the end of the 1767 surveying season, while HMS Grenville was returning to her home port of Deptford, Cook encountered a storm at the entrance to the Thames. He anchored Grenville off the Nore lighthouse and prepared the ship to ride out the weather. One anchor cable broke, and the ship went aground on a shoal. Despite efforts to improve the situation, Cook and his crew were obliged to abandon ship. They returned when the storm eventually abated, lightened and re-rigged the ship and continued into Deptford.

First voyage (1768–1771)

The tracks of Captain James Cook's voyages. The first voyage is shown in red, second voyage in green, and third voyage in blue. The track of Cook's crew following his death is shown as a dashed blue line.

Main article: First voyage of James Cook

Cook's first scientific voyage was a three-year expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, conducted from 1768 to 1771. The voyage was jointly sponsored by the Royal Navy and Royal Society. The publicly stated goal was to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti. Additional objectives – outlined in sealed orders not to be opened until Cook reached Tahiti – were searching for the postulated Terra Australis Incognita (undiscovered southern land) and claiming lands for Britain.

In early 1768, the Admiralty asked shipwright Adam Hayes to select a vessel for the expedition; he chose the merchant collier Earl of Pembroke, which the Royal Navy renamed Endeavour. On 5 May 1768 – based on the recommendation of Hugh Palliser – Cook, age 39, was selected by the Admiralty to lead the voyage. The next day, he took his examination for the rank of lieutenant – a rank that was required for the captain of a ship armed with the number of guns planned for Endeavour.

Like most colliers, Endeavor had a large hold, a sturdy construction that would tolerate grounding, was small enough to be careened for repairs, and had a small draft that enabled navigating in shallows. Upon completion of the first voyage, Cook wrote "It was to these properties in her, those on board owe their Preservation. Hence I was enabled to prosecute Discoveries in those Seas so much longer than any other Man ever did or could do." When selecting ships for his second voyage in 1772, Cook chose the same type of ship, from the same shipbuilder.

The Admiralty authorised a ship's company of 73 sailors and 12 Royal Marines. Cook's second lieutenant was Zachary Hicks, and his third lieutenant was John Gore, a 16-year Naval veteran who had circumnavigated the world in 1766 aboard HMS Dolphin. Also on the ship were astronomer Charles Green and botanist Joseph Banks. Banks provided funding for seven others to join the journey, including naturalists, artists, a secretary, and two servants.

Transit of Venus

Further information: 1769 transit of Venus observed from Tahiti

The expedition departed England on 26 August 1768. Cook and his crew rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific, arriving at Tahiti on 13 April 1769, where the observations of the transit were made. However, the result of the observations was not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped. Once the observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders, which instructed him to search for the postulated southern continent of Terra Australis.

New Zealand and Australia

Cook landing at Botany Bay, artist unknown.

See also: European maritime exploration of Australia

Cook then sailed to New Zealand and landed near the Tūranganui River. Encounters with the Māori on the first two days were violent: a Māori was shot and killed on each of the days. Cook then sailed around both of New Zealand's main islands, mapping the complete coastline. With the aid of Tupaia, a Tahitian priest who had joined the expedition, Cook was the first European to communicate with the Māori. Despite Cook's attempts to establish peaceful relations, several more encounters turned violent, and nine Māori were killed during the voyage.

The expedition then voyaged west, reaching the southeastern coast of Australia near Point Hicks on 19 April 1770. In doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline. On 23 April, Cook saw Aboriginal Australians for the first time at Brush Island near Bawley Point. Endeavour continued northwards along the coastline, keeping the land in sight, while Cook charted and named landmarks along the way. On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the continent in Botany Bay, at the east end of Silver Beach. In the expedition's first direct encounter with Aboriginal Australians, two Gweagal men of the Dharawal / Eora nation opposed the landing, and one of them was shot and wounded by Cook's crew.

Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, exploring the surrounding area and collecting water, timber, fodder, and botanical specimens. Cook sought to establish relations with the Indigenous population without success. Their first landing site was later to be promoted, particularly by Joseph Banks, as a suitable candidate for situating a settlement and British colonial outpost.

Cook deliberately beached the Endeavour to repair damage received when running aground on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770. Drawing by ship artist Sydney Parkinson.

After departing Botany Bay, they continued northwards, hugging the coast and charting it. They stopped at Bustard Bay on 23 May 1770, then proceeded north through the shallow and extremely dangerous Great Barrier Reef. On 11 June Endeavour ran aground on the reef at high tide. The ship was stuck fast, so Cook ordered all excess weight thrown overboard, including six cannons and some of the ship's ballast. She was eventually hauled off after 27 hours, on the second high tide after the grounding. The ship was leaking badly, so the crew fothered the damage (hauled a spare sail under the ship to cover and slow the leak). Cook then careened the ship on a beach at the mouth of the Endeavour River for seven weeks while repairs were undertaken.

The voyage continued northward until they reached the northeast tip of Australia: Cape York. Searching for a vantage point to look for a route forward, Cook saw a hill on a nearby island. On 22 August 1770, he stood atop the island and claimed the entire Australian coast that he had surveyed as British territory, and named the island Possession Island. The expedition then turned west and continued homeward through the shallow and dangerous waters of the Torres Strait.

Return to England

In October 1770, Cook stopped in Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia), where the Dutch dockyard facilities were used to inspect and repair the damage from running aground on the Great Barrier Reef. While in Batavia, seven of his crew died from malaria, and 40 were sickened. From Batavia, he sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, then to the island of Saint Helena, arriving on 30 April 1771. The ship finally returned to England on 12 July 1771, anchoring in the Downs, and Cook disembarked to go to the town of Deal in Kent.

Shortly after his return, Cook was promoted in August 1771 to the rank of commander. A book based on the journals of Cook and Banks of the voyage was published in 1773. Banks received accolades from the press and the scientific community. Banks planned to travel with Cook in the second voyage, but his excessive demands for modifications to the ship conflicted with the Admiralty's constraints, so he removed himself from the voyage before it departed.

Second voyage (1772–1775)

Portrait of James Cook c. 1775. By William Hodges, who accompanied Cook on the second voyage.

Main article: Second voyage of James Cook

In 1772, Cook was commissioned to lead another scientific expedition on behalf of the Royal Society, with the goal of determining whether or not the hypothetical landmass Terra Australis existed.

This voyage would have two ships and, unlike the first voyage, Cook selected them himself: HMS Resolution commanded by Cook, and HMS Adventure, commanded by Tobias Furneaux. Resolution began her career as the North Sea collier Marquis of Granby, launched at Whitby in 1770. She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including an azimuth compass, ice anchors, and an apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water.

Crew included astronomer William Wales (responsible for the new K1 chronometer carried on the Resolution), lieutenant Charles Clerke, artist William Hodges, and naturalists Johann Reinhold Forster and his son, Georg Forster.

The search for Terra Australis

After departing England, the ships travelled south to South Africa and stopped at Cape Town in November 1772. From there they sailed eastward, planning to circumnavigate the globe roughly between 50°S and 70°S latitude. In late November 1772, the ships sighted the first icebergs and Cook performed an experiment: his crew chopped blocks of ice from ice flows and melted them onboard the ships, producing good quality fresh water, proving that drinking water could be obtained from sea ice. On 17 January 1773 the crews became the first recorded Europeans to cross the Antarctic Circle. Despite his mission to find Terra Australis, Cook never sighted Antarctica in any of his voyages; but on 18 January – unbeknownst to him – the ships approached within 75 miles (121 km) of Antarctica.

The Resolution and Adventure retrieving ice to melt for drinking water. By expedition artist William Hodges, 1773.

In February 1773, in the Antarctic fog, Resolution and Adventure became separated. Furneaux made his way, via Tasmania, to a pre-arranged rendezvous point to be used in the event of separation: Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand. Cook arrived in May, after Furneaux. The crews traded with the Māori people, and in his journal, Cook lamented the fact that Europeans were possibly transmitting diseases to the indigenous people and encouraging prostitution.

In June, the ships departed New Zealand – in the southern winter – to resume their eastward search for Terra Australis. About a month after leaving New Zealand, 20 crewmen of the Adventure contracted scurvy because Furneaux had failed to follow Cook's dietary instructions. The ships proceeded in a small anti-clockwise loop, visiting Tahiti and Tonga, planning to return to New Zealand together. Before reaching New Zealand, in the night of 29-30 October, the ships became separated for a second time – this time caused by a storm. Cook proceeded to the rendezvous point, and waited three weeks, then departed to continue the voyage alone.

The ships become separated

A Māori and Pākehā man trading a crayfish. Drawing by Polynesian interpreter Tupaia, made c. 1769 during Cook's first voyage.

Delayed by storms, Furneaux arrived at the rendezvous point in Queen Charlotte Sound five weeks after they separated, missing Cook by four days. While on the island gathering supplies, eleven members of the crew of Adventure fought with some Māori, resulting in the deaths of all eleven crew and two Māori. Furneaux later discovered the bodies of the crew members, partially burned in preparation for cannibalism.

Many members of the Adventure's crew wanted to exact revenge on the Māori, but Furneaux thought it prudent to avoid additional violence, so they left New Zealand and quickly returned to Britain, alone. When learning about the deaths much later, Cook wondered if Furneaux's crew was at fault, writing "I must ... observe in favor of the New Zealanders that I have always found them of a brave, noble, open and benevolent disposition".

After the missed rendezvous, Resolution made a large anti-clockwise loop in the south Pacific: heading far south, then visiting Easter Island, Tofua, Melanesia, and New Zealand. In the first stretch of the large loop, the Resolution continued her search for Terra Australis by heading southeast, reaching her most southern latitude of 71°10′S in January 1774. When his ship reached that southernmost point, and progress was blocked by impenetrable pack ice, Cook wrote in his private diary: "I will not say it was impossible anywhere to get in among this Ice, but I will assert that the bare attempting of it would be a very dangerous enterprise and what I believe no man in my situation would have thought of. I whose ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go...".

When Cook returned to Queen Charlotte Sound, the Māori were apprehensive because they believed that Cook would take revenge for the deaths of the eleven men from the Adventure, but Cook was unaware of the killings.

Return to England

A south-up map of South Georgia prepared in 1777 by Cook. Track of the Resolution is drawn as straight line segments around the islands.

Leaving New Zealand, the Resolution proceeded home, sailing south of Tierra del Fuego, and stopping at South Georgia Island, where Cook charted the coast and claimed the island group in the name of his king. From there, they travelled to South Africa, then north back to Britain.

The primary purpose of the second voyage was to determine if the hypothesized Terra Australis existed. After the trip, the general conclusion was that it did not exist, because it was imagined to extend into the temperate latitudes, and Cook demonstrated that no polar landmass reached beyond about 50°.

Cook was promoted to the rank of post-captain and given an honorary retirement from the Royal Navy, with a posting as an officer of the Greenwich Hospital. He reluctantly accepted, insisting that he be allowed to quit the post if an opportunity for active duty should arise. His fame extended beyond the Admiralty: he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded the Copley Gold Medal for completing his second voyage without losing a man to scurvy. Nathaniel Dance-Holland painted his portrait; he dined with James Boswell; and he was described in the House of Lords as "the first navigator in Europe".

Third voyage (1776–1779)

Resolution and Adventure in Tahiti, painted by William Hodges, 1776.

Main article: Third voyage of James Cook

The primary purpose of Cook's third expedition was to search for a Northwest Passage from the north Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. To keep this goal secret, the Admiralty publicly stated that the aim of the mission was to return Polynesian native Omai to his home in Tahiti.

On this voyage, Cook again commanded the Resolution, while Captain Charles Clerke commanded HMS Discovery. Cook's lieutenants included John Gore and James King. William Bligh – who would later command HMS Bounty – was the master. William Anderson was surgeon and botanist, William Bayly served as astronomer, and John Webber was the official artist. Among the midshipmen was George Vancouver, who would later lead the Vancouver Expedition.

Hawaii

The third voyage began by sailing south from England, around South Africa, then into the Pacific Ocean. After stopping in New Zealand, the expedition returned Omai to his homeland of Tahiti.

Cook then travelled north and – after a brief stop at Kiritimati Atoll – he became the first recorded European to encounter the Hawaiian Islands. They made landfall twice on this visit to Hawaii: at Waimea harbour on the island of Kauai – to replenish water and food – and at the island of Nihau. When he first stepped ashore, the Hawaiians prostrated themselves in front of Cook. Cook and his scientists observed remarkable similarities between the cultures of Hawaii and Tahiti, including language, marae structures, religion, and treatment of the dead. He named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich—the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.

North America

HMS Resolution and Discovery in Matavai Bay, Tahiti. By John Cleveley the Younger.

From Hawaii, Cook sailed northeast to reach the west coast of North America and begin his search for a Northwest Passage. He sighted the Oregon coast at approximately 44°30′ north latitude, naming it Cape Foulweather, after the bad weather which forced his ships south to about 43° before they could begin their exploration of the coast northward. He unwittingly sailed past the Strait of Juan de Fuca and soon after entered Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. Cook's two ships remained in Nootka Sound from 29 March to 26 April 1778, in a cove at the south end of Bligh Island. After leaving Nootka Sound, Cook explored and mapped the coast all the way to the Bering Strait, on the way identifying what came to be known as Cook Inlet in Alaska.

By the second week of August 1778, Cook had sailed through the Bering Strait, crossed the Arctic Circle, and sailed into the Chukchi Sea. He headed northeast up the coast of Alaska until he was blocked by sea ice at a latitude of 70°44′ north. Cook then sailed west to the Siberian coast, and then southeast down the Siberian coast back to the Bering Strait. During this voyage, Cook charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gap between earlier explorations of the north Pacific – the Russian (from the west) and the Spanish (from the south). By early September 1778, he was back in the Bering Sea on his way to return to Hawaii.

Cook became increasingly frustrated and irritable on this voyage, and sometimes exhibited irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they considered inedible.

Return to Hawaii

Cook returned to Hawaii in late November 1779. The ships sailed throughout the archipelago for eight weeks, surveying and trading. After stops in Maui and Kauai, Cook made landfall at Kealakekua Bay on Hawai'i Island, the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago.

On the large island, Cook met with the Hawaiian king Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who treated Cook with respect, and invited him to participate in several ceremonies. The king and Cook exchanged gifts, and the king presented Cook with a feathered cloak. Several members of the expedition concluded that the Hawaiians considered Cook a deity, and that interpretation (specifically, that Cook was considered to be the Polynesian god Lono) has been endorsed by some scholars. Academic Gananath Obeyesekere, however, states that the Hawaiians did not consider Cook to be a deity.

Death

The Death of Captain Cook by Johan Zoffany, c. 1795. One of several paintings of this event.

Main article: Death of James Cook

After a month on the largest island, Cook set sail to resume his exploration of the northern Pacific, but shortly after departure a strong gale caused Resolution's foremast to break, so the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay for repairs.

Relations between the crew and the Hawaiians were already strained before the departure, and they grew worse when the ship returned for repairs. Numerous quarrels broke out and petty thefts were common. On 13 February 1779, a group of Hawaiians stole one of Cook's cutters.

The following day, Cook attempted to recover the cutter by kidnapping and ransoming the king, Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Cook and a small party marched through the village to retrieve the king. Cook led Kalaniʻōpuʻu away; as they got to the boats, one of Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favourite wives, Kānekapōlei, and two chiefs approached the group. They pleaded with the king not to go and a large crowd began to form at the shore. News reached the Hawaiians that high-ranking Hawaiian chief Kalimu had been shot (on the other side of the bay) whilst trying to break through a British blockade – this exacerbated the already tense situation. As the Europeans launched the boats to leave, Cook was struck on the head by the villagers and then stabbed to death as he fell on his face in the surf. Cook collapsed and died on the shore, and Hawaiian warriors crowded around the corpse to bludgeon it.

Aftermath

Marker at the shoreline of Kealakekua Bay, near the spot where Captain Cook was slain.

Following the death of Cook and four marines, the bodies were taken inland to a village by Hawaiians. King took a boat to the opposite side of the bay, and was approached by a priest who offered to intercede and ask for Cook's remains to be returned; King consented. Some crewmen returned to the location of the attack, and skirmishes broke out, resulting in the death of several Hawaiians. The following day, some of Cook's remains were returned to the Resolution, including some charred flesh, several bones, the skull, and the hands with the skin still attached. The crew placed the remains in a weighted box, and buried their captain at sea.

Clerke assumed leadership of the expedition and sailed north to again try to locate the Northwest Passage. He stopped in Kamchatka and entrusted Cook's journal, with a cover letter describing Cook's death, to the local military commander, Magnus von Behm. Behm had the package delivered, overland, from Siberia to England. The Admiralty, and all of England, learned of Cook's death when the package arrived in London – eleven months after he died; the package had arrived in England before the surviving crew.

Continuing north, the expedition made it to the Bering Strait, but was again blocked by pack ice, and unable to discover a Northwest Passage. Clerke died of tuberculosis on 22 August 1779 and John Gore, a veteran of Cook's first voyage, took command of the Resolution and the expedition. James King replaced Gore in command of Discovery. The ships returned home, reaching England on 4 October 1780. After their arrival in England, King completed Cook's account of the voyage.

Legacy

Navigation

The K1 chronometer used on Cook's second and third voyages, which enabled accurate computation of longitude. The cost was £500, equivalent to £87,635 in 2023.

Cook's three voyages to the Pacific Ocean vastly expanded Europeans' knowledge of the area. Several islands, including the Hawaiian group, were encountered for the first time by Europeans, and his accurate navigational charting of large areas of the Pacific contributed to the fields of hydrographic and geographic knowledge.

On his second and third voyages, Cook carried the K1 chronometer, a copy by Larcum Kendall of John Harrison's H4, to test if it could accurately keep time for long spans of time while withstanding the violent motions of a ship. It performed well and thus made a key contribution to solving the longitude problem that had plagued mariners for centuries. Cook praised the timepiece profusely.

Leadership

Several officers who served under Cook went on to have distinguished careers. William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, was given command of HMS Bounty in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and return with breadfruit. Bligh's crew mutinied, and placed him and 18 others into an open boat 23 feet (7 m) long. Bligh successfully navigated 3618 miles (5822 km) to Timor, arriving with all men alive. He later became Governor of New South Wales. George Vancouver, one of Cook's midshipmen, led a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Coast of North America from 1791 to 1794. George Dixon, who sailed under Cook on his third expedition, later commanded a commercial vessel that circumnavigated the globe.

Science

Cook was a pioneer in the prevention of scurvy. He succeeded in circumnavigating the world on his first voyage without losing a single man to scurvy, an unusual accomplishment at the time. He tested several preventive measures, most importantly the frequent replenishment of fresh food. For presenting a paper on this aspect of the voyage to the Royal Society he was presented with the Copley Medal in 1776.

Cook became the first European to have extensive contact with various people of the Pacific. Cook and Banks identified similarities in the languages spoken in the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia, and suggested that they may have originated in Asia.

A replica of the Endeavour in Cooktown Harbour, near where the original ship was beached for seven weeks in 1770 for repairs.

Significant observations and discoveries were made by the scientists that Cook carried on each his voyages. Two botanists, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, sailed on the first voyage and collected over 3,000 plant species. Banks subsequently promoted British settlement of Australia, leading to the establishment of New South Wales as a penal settlement in 1788. Artists also sailed on Cook's first voyage. Sydney Parkinson was heavily involved in documenting the botanists' findings, completing 264 drawings before his death near the end of the voyage. The drawings, many published in Banks' Florilegium, were of immense scientific value to British botanists. Cook's second expedition included artist William Hodges, who produced landscape paintings of many locations, including Tahiti, Easter Island, and New Zealand.

Cook's contributions to knowledge gained international recognition during his lifetime. In 1779, while the American colonies were fighting Britain for their independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote to captains of colonial warships at sea, recommending that if they came into contact with Cook's vessel, they were to "not consider her an enemy, nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her, nor obstruct her immediate return to England by detaining her or sending her into any other part of Europe or to America; but that you treat the said Captain Cook and his people with all civility and kindness ... as common friends to mankind."

Memorials

United Kingdom

Memorial to James Cook and family in the church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge.

Cook's obituary in the The Norwich Chronicle read, in part:

This untimely and ever to be lamented fate of so intrepid, so able, and intelligent a sea-officer, may justly be considered as an irreparable loss to the public... for in him were united every successful and amiable quality that could adorn his profession; nor was his singular modesty less conspicuous than his other virtues. His successful experiments to preserve the healths of his crews are well known, and his discoveries will be an everlasting honour to his country.

One of the earliest monuments to Cook in the United Kingdom is located at The Vache, erected in 1780 by Hugh Palliser, a friend of Cook. The inscription reads, in part:

The ablest and most renowned navigator this or any country hath produced... Cool and deliberate in judging, sagacious in determining, active in executing, steady and persevering in enterprising from vigilance and unremitting caution, unsubdued by labour, difficulties, and disappointments, fertile in expedience never wanting presence of mind... Mild, just, but exact in discipline... Traveller! Contemplate, admire, revere and emulate this great master in his profession, whose skill and labours have enlarged natural philosophy [and] have extended nautical science.

A large obelisk was built in 1827 as a monument to Cook on Easby Moor overlooking his boyhood village of Great Ayton, along with a smaller monument at the former location of Cook's cottage. There is also a monument to Cook in the church of St Andrew the Great, St Andrew's Street, Cambridge, where his sons Hugh, a student at Christ's College, and James were buried. Cook's widow Elizabeth was also buried in the church and in her will left money for the memorial's upkeep.

The 250th anniversary of Cook's birth was marked at the site of his birthplace in Marton by the opening of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, located within Stewart Park (1978). A granite vase just to the south of the museum marks the approximate spot where he was born. Other tributes in Middlesbrough include a primary school, shopping square and the Bottle 'O Notes, a public artwork by Claes Oldenburg, that was erected in the town's Central Gardens in 1993.

The Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby is located in a building where Cook sometimes stayed during his naval apprenticeship.

Also named after Cook is James Cook University Hospital, a major teaching hospital which opened in 2003, near to the James Cook railway station. The Royal Research Ship RRS James Cook was built in 2006 to replace the RRS Charles Darwin in the UK's Royal Research Fleet, and Stepney Historical Trust placed a plaque on Free Trade Wharf in the Highway, Shadwell to commemorate his life in the East End of London. A statue erected in his honour can be viewed near Admiralty Arch on the south side of The Mall in London. In 2002, Cook was placed at number 12 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

Australia

Annual re-enactment of James Cook's visit in Cooktown, Queensland.

Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, Australia, having been moved from England at the behest of the Australian philanthropist Russell Grimwade in 1934. The first institution of higher education in North Queensland, Australia, was named after him, with James Cook University opening in Townsville in 1970. There are statues of Cook in Hyde Park in Sydney, and at St Kilda in Melbourne.

In 1959, the Cooktown Re-enactment Association first performed a re-enactment of Cook's 1770 landing at the site of modern Cooktown, Australia, and have continued the tradition each year, with the support and participation of many of the local Guugu Yimithirr people. They celebrate the first act of reconciliation between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous people, when a Guugu Yimithirr elder stepped in after some of Cook's men had violated custom by taking green turtles from the river and not sharing with the local people. He presented Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering, thus preventing possible bloodshed.

United States

The site where Cook was killed in Hawaii was marked in 1874 by a white obelisk. The small plot of land surrounding the marker was purportedly deeded to Britain in 1877 by Princess Likelike and her husband, Archibald Scott Cleghorn. NASA named several craft after Cook's ships, including the Apollo 15 Command/Service Module Endeavour, the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and the Space Shuttle Discovery. There is a statue of Cook at Resolution Park in Anchorage, Alaska. A U.S. coin, the 1928 Hawaii Sesquicentennial half-dollar, carries Cook's image.

Canada

A statue of James Cook in Victoria, BC, Canada – which was constructed in 1976 – was destroyed on Canada Day in 2021 by protestors drawing attention to the effects of the Canadian Indian residential school system.

Ethnographic collections

Hawaiian ʻAhu ʻula (feather cloak) held by the Australian Museum.

See also: James Cook Collection: Australian Museum

The Australian Museum in Sydney holds over 250 objects associated with Cook's voyages. The objects are mostly from Polynesia although there are also artefacts from the Solomon Islands, North America and South America. Many of the artefacts were collected during first contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples of the Pacific. The largest collection of artefacts from Cook's voyages is the Cook-Forster Collection held at the University of Göttingen.

Places named after Cook

Cook's name has been given to the Cook Islands, Cook Strait, Cook Inlet, Cooktown, and Cook crater on the Moon. Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest summit in New Zealand, is named for him. Another Mount Cook is on the border between the U.S. state of Alaska and the Canadian Yukon territory. Hawaii has a town named Captain Cook, near his place of death.

Culture

Cook has been a subject in many literary creations. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, a popular poet known for her sentimental romantic poetry, published a poetical illustration to a portrait of Captain Cook in 1837. In 1931, Kenneth Slessor's poem "Five Visions of Captain Cook" was the "most dramatic break-through" in Australian poetry of the 20th century according to poet Douglas Stewart. Cook has been depicted in numerous films, documentaries and dramas.

Cook appears as a symbolic and generic figure in several Aboriginal myths, often from regions where Cook did not encounter Aboriginal people. Cook is usually portrayed as the bringer of Western colonialism to Australia and is presented as a villain who brings immense social change.

Controversy

Statue of James Cook, Hyde Park, Sydney. The rear inscription reads: "Discovered this territory, 1770".

See also: Indigenous response to colonialism

The period 2018 to 2021 marked the 250th anniversary of Cook's first voyage of exploration. Several countries, including Australia and New Zealand, arranged official events to commemorate the voyage, leading to widespread public debate about Cook's legacy and the violence associated with his contacts with Indigenous peoples. In the lead-up to the commemorations, various memorials to Cook in Australia and New Zealand were vandalised, and there were public calls for their removal or modification due to their alleged promotion of colonialist narratives. There were also campaigns for the return of Indigenous artefacts taken during Cook's voyages. Attacks on public monuments to Cook continued in Canada and Australia.

Alice Proctor argues that the controversies over public representations of Cook and the display of Indigenous artefacts from his voyages are part of a broader debate over the decolonisation of museums and public spaces and resistance to colonialist narratives. A number of commentators argue that Cook enabled British imperialism and colonialism in the Pacific. Robert Tombs has defended Cook, arguing: "He epitomized the Age of Enlightenment in which he lived" and in conducting his first voyage "was carrying out an enlightened mission, with instructions from the Royal Society to show 'patience and forbearance' towards native peoples".

Arms

Coat of arms of James Cook

Notes Cook's coat of arms was granted to his widowed wife, the only known example of a posthumous grant. Elizabeth Batts Cook petitioned for the grant six years after his death to preserve the memory of her late husband and to be placed on any monuments and memorials. Adopted 3 September 1785 Crest On a Wreath of the Colours, An Arm embowed, vested in the Uniform of a Captain of the Royal Navy, in the Hand the Union-Jack on a Staff proper; the Arm encircled by a Wreath of Palm and Laurel. Escutcheon Azure, between the two Polar Stars Or, a Sphere on the plane of the Meridian, North Pole elevated, Circles of Latitude for every ten degrees and of Longitude for fifteen, showing the Pacific Ocean between fifty and two hundred and forty West, bounded on one side by America, on the other by Asia and New Holland, in memory of his having explored and made Discoveries in that Ocean so very far beyond all former Navigators; His Track thereon marked with red Lines. Motto Nil Intentatum Reliquit (He left nothing unattempted) and Circa Orbem (Around the world).

See also

• Death of Cook – Paintings depicting Cook's death
• European and American voyages of scientific exploration
• List of Australian places named by James Cook
• List of places named after Captain James Cook
• New Zealand places named by James Cook

References

Sources

• Beaglehole, John, ed. (1968) [1955]. The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery. Vol. I: The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771. Cambridge University Press. OCLC 223185477. Retrieved 23 May 2025 – via Hakluyt Society.
• Beaglehole, John (1974). The Life of Captain James Cook. Stanford University Pres. ISBN 978-0-7136-1382-7. Retrieved 23 May 2025. Sometimes titled The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery Vol. IV: The Life of Captain James Cook.

• Blainey, Geoffrey (2020). Captain Cook's Epic Voyage: the strange quest for a missing continent. Viking. ISBN 978-1-76089-509-9. Retrieved 30 May 2025.

• Dibble, Sheldon (1843). History of the Sandwich Islands. Press of the Mission Seminary.

• Collingridge, Vanessa (2003). Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-188898-5.

• Edwards, Philip, ed. (2003). The Journals of Captain Cook. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-043647-1. Abridged version of the journals, based on the original three volumes of manuscripts by John Beaglehole 1955–67.

• Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe (2006). Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06259-5. Retrieved 23 May 2025.

• Fisher, Robin (1979). "Cook and the Nootka". Captain James Cook and his times. Taylor & Francis. pp. 81–98. ISBN 978-0-7099-0050-4. Retrieved 27 May 2025.

• Fornander, Abraham; Stokes, John F. G. (1880). An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian people up to the time of Kamehameha I. Vol. II. Trubner. OCLC 4888555.

• Hayes, Derek (1999). Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery. Sasquatch Books. ISBN 978-1-57061-215-2.

• Horwitz, Tony (October 2003). Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-6455-3. Retrieved 28 May 2025.

• Hosty, Kieran; Hundley, Paul (June 2003). Preliminary Report on the Australian National Maritime Museum's Participation in the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project's Search for HMB Endeavour (Report). Australian National Maritime Museum. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.182.5880. Retrieved 29 May 2025.

• Hough, Richard (1994). Captain James Cook. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-82556-3. Retrieved 30 May 2025.

• Kippis, Andrew (1788). Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook; with an Account of His Life During the Previous and Intervening Periods. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2012.

• McLintock, Alexander Hare (1966). "Ships, Famous". In A.H. McLintock (ed.). An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage/Te Manatū Taonga, Government of New Zealand. Retrieved 5 May 2009.

• McLynn, Frank (2011). Captain Cook: Master of the Seas. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11421-8. Retrieved 29 May 2025.

• Obeyesekere, Gananath (1992). The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-05680-7. Retrieved 22 May 2025. Originally published in 1992, with a new Afterword (pp. 197-250) called "De-Sahlinization" added in the 1997 reprint, which discusses the Sahlins controversy.

• Rigby, Nigel; van der Merwe, Pieter (2002). Captain Cook in the Pacific. National Maritime Museum, London. ISBN 978-0-948065-43-9. Retrieved 29 May 2025.

• Robson, John (2009). Captain Cook's War and Peace: The Royal Navy Years 1755–1768. University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-74223-109-9. Retrieved 23 May 2025.

• Sahlins, Marshall (1985). Islands of history. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-73358-6.

• Samwell, David (1893) [1779]. "An Account of Cook's Death (Some Account of a Voyage to South Seas in 1776, 1777, 1778 Written by David Samwell, Surgeon of the Discover)". In Bladen, Frank (ed.). Historical Records of New South Wales: pt.1. Cook, 1762-1780. C. Potter, Government Printer. pp. 450–478. Retrieved 2 June 2025. The original journal of David Samwell, written during the third voyage.

• Samwell, David (1786). "A Narrative of the Death of Captain Cook". In Cartwright, Bruce (ed.). Hawaiian Historical Society Reprints. Hawaiian Historical Society. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2015. Book about the third voyage, written several years after the expedition.

• Sparks, Jared (1847). Life of John Ledyard, American Traveller. Charles C. Little and James Brown. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2018.

• Stamp, Tom and Cordelia (1978). James Cook Maritime Scientist. Caedmon of Whitby Press. ISBN 978-0-905355-04-7. Retrieved 29 May 2025.

• Sykes, Bryan (2001). The Seven Daughters of Eve. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02018-2.

• Thomas, Nicholas (2003). The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook. Walker & Co. ISBN 0-8027-1412-9. OCLC 1030721339.

Further reading

• Aughton, Peter (2002). Endeavour: The Story of Captain Cook's First Great Epic Voyage. Cassell & Co. ISBN 978-0-304-36236-3. Retrieved 27 May 2025.

• Beaglehole, John, ed. (1961). The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery. Vol. II: The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure 1772-1775. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 23 May 2025 – via Hakluyt Society. Reprinted in 2017 by Taylor & Francis.

• Beaglehole, John, ed. (1967). The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery. Vol. III Part I: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 23 May 2025 – via Hakluyt Society. Reprinted in 2017 by Taylor & Francis.

• Fagan, Jim (1970). Captain Cook: His Artists, His Voyages. Australian Consolidated Press. OCLC 896726172. A picture book with a wide variety of works by artists that accompanied Cook.

• Forster, Georg, ed. (1986) [1777]. A Voyage Round the World. Wiley-VCH. ISBN 978-3-05-000180-7. First published in 1777 as A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5

• Banks, Joseph; Byron, John; Wallis, Samuel; Carteret, Philip; Cook, James (1773). Hawkesworth, John (ed.). An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of his Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: Drawn Up from the Journals Which Were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq. W. Strahan and T. Cadell. OCLC 9299044. Volume I; Volume II–III.

• Kippis, Andrew (1904). The Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook. George Newnes Ltd.; Charles Scribner's Sons. OCLC 1836297.

• Moorehead, Alan (1966). Fatal Impact: An Account of the Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767–1840. H Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-90757-3.

• Richardson, Brian (2005). Longitude and Empire: How Captain Cook's Voyages Changed the World. University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-1190-0. OCLC 58930493.

• Robson, John (2004). The Captain Cook Encyclopædia. Random House Australia. ISBN 978-0-7593-1011-7. Retrieved 30 May 2025.

• Sahlins, Marshall David (1995). How "Natives" Think: About Captain Cook, for example. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-73368-5.

• Sides, Hampton (2024). The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. Doubleday. ISBN 9780385544764. OCLC 1416012934. Retrieved 30 May 2025.

• Withey, Lynne (1987). Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific. William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0688051154. OCLC 15488483.

• Wharton, W. J. L. (1893). Captain Cook's Journal during his first voyage round the world made in H.M. Bark "Endeavour" 1768–71. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2012.

External links

• Works by or about James Cook at the Internet Archive - Digitised books and documents
• Works by James Cook at Project Gutenberg - Digitised books and documents
• Works by James Cook at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Journals

• Journal from Cook's second voyage - High-resolution digitised version at the Cambridge Digital Library
• Searchable version of the Endeavor journal = Held by the National Library of Australia
• The South Seas Project - Maps and online copies of journals, including Banks' journal. Includes John Hawkesworth's account of Cook's first voyage.

Collections and museums

• American Geographical Society Library - Collection of maps made by Cook
• "Archival material relating to James Cook". UK National Archives.
• Captain Cook Birthplace Museum Marton
• Captain Cook Memorial Museum Whitby
• Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa - Collection of items related to Cook
• National Museum of Australia - Cook-Forster - Artefacts collected during the voyages of Cook