James Cook

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(Redirected from Captain Cook)

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

James Cook

FRS

Portrait by Nathaniel Dance-Holland, c. 1775

Born 7 November [O.S. 27 October] 1728

Marton, Yorkshire, Kingdom of Great Britain

Died 14 February 1779 (aged 50)

Kealakekua Bay in present-day Hawaii, U.S.

Nationality British

Education Postgate School, Great Ayton

Occupation(s) Explorer, cartographer and naval officer

 Elizabeth Batts
Spouse

(m. 1762)

Children 6

Military career

Branch Royal Navy

Service years 1755–1779

Rank Captain (Post-captain)

 Seven Years' War

Battles/wars
o Conquest of New France

Signature

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 which he achieved the first recorded
European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian
Islands and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined 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, which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal
Society. This acclaim came at a crucial moment for the direction of British
overseas exploration, and it led to his commission in 1768 as commander
of HMS Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages.
In these voyages, Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted
areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific
Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously charted by Western
explorers. He surveyed and named 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.
During his third voyage in the Pacific, Cook encountered the Hawaiian islands in
1779. He was killed while attempting to take hostage Kalaniʻōpuʻu, chief of the
island of Hawaii. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge that
influenced his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials
worldwide have been dedicated to him. He remains controversial as an enabler
of British colonialism and for his occasionally violent encounters with indigenous
peoples.
Early life and family
James Cook was born on 7 November [O.S. 27 October] 1728 in the village
of Marton in the North Riding of Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November (N.S.)
in the parish church of St Cuthbert, where his name can be seen in the church
register.[1][2] He was the second of eight children of James Cook (1693–1779), a
Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, and his locally born wife,
Grace Pace (1702–1765), from Thornaby-on-Tees.[1][3][4] 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' schooling, he began work for his father, who had been promoted to farm
manager. Despite not being formally educated, he became capable in
mathematics, astronomy and charting by the time of his Endeavour voyage.
[5]
For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the
opportunity for solitude.[6]
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.[1] Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure
of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.[4]

Elizabeth Cook, wife and for 56 years widow of

James Cook, by William Henderson, 1830
After 18 months, not proving suited for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby
port town of Whitby to be introduced to Sanderson's friends John and Henry
Walker.[7] The Walkers, who were Quakers, were 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.[4]
His three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading 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.[8] In 1755, within a month of being
offered command of this vessel, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy,
when Britain was re-arming for what was to become the Seven Years' War.
Despite the need to start back at the bottom of the naval hierarchy, Cook
realised his career would advance more quickly in military service and entered
the Navy at Wapping on 17 June 1755.[9]
Cook married Elizabeth Batts, the daughter of Samuel Batts, keeper of the Bell
Inn in Wapping[10] and one of his mentors, on 21 December 1762 at St
Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex.[11] 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). 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. Cook has no direct descendants
– all of his children died before having children of their own.[12]
Start of Royal Navy career
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.[13] 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.[9] His first temporary
command was in March 1756 when he was briefly master of Cruizer, a small
cutter attached to Eagle while on patrol.[9][14]
In June 1757 Cook formally passed his master's examinations at Trinity
House, Deptford, qualifying him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's
fleet.[15] He then joined the frigate HMS Solebay as master under Captain Robert
Craig.[16]
Canada
During the Seven Years' War, Cook served in North America as master aboard
the fourth-rate Navy vessel HMS Pembroke.[17] 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.
Throughout his service he demonstrated a talent
for surveying and cartography and was responsible for mapping much of the
entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege, thus allowing General
Wolfe to make his famous stealth attack during the 1759 Battle of the Plains of
Abraham.[18]
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, four pilots were
engaged at a daily pay of 4 shillings each: John Beck for the coast west of
"Great St Lawrence", Morgan Snook for Fortune Bay, John Dawson for
Connaigre and Hermitage Bay, and John Peck for the "Bay of Despair".[19]
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.[20]
His five seasons in Newfoundland produced the first large-scale and accurate
maps of the island's coasts and were the first scientific, large-scale,
hydrographic surveys to use precise triangulation to establish land outlines.
[21]
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 maps were used into the 20th century, with copies
being referenced by those sailing Newfoundland's waters for 200 years.[22]
Following his exertions in Newfoundland, Cook wrote that he intended to go not
only "farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is
possible for a man to go".[15]
First voyage (1768–1771)