Cook, James

Cook, James (1728–79), captain in the British Navy, the son of a day labourer of Marton, in Yorkshire. He was taught reading, writing, and basic arithmetic at a ‘dame’ school there, but was otherwise self-educated. In 1746 John Walker, head of a Whitby, Yorkshire, shipping firm mainly engaged in the east coast coal trade, accepted him as a sea-apprentice. By a natural aptitude for mathematics, Cook quickly became skilled in navigation as well as seamanship, and became a mate of a Walker ship in 1752.

By 1755 Cook had decided that the merchant navy lacked scope for his ambitions and, though he had been offered his first command, he declined it and volunteered for the Royal Navy as an AB. Drafted to the 60-gun ship Eagle, his qualities quickly brought him advancement to the warrant rank of boatswain. In July 1757 he was promoted master of the Solebay and later of the Pembroke, in which he sailed in 1758 with the expedition for the capture of Louisburg and subsequently Quebec. It was at Quebec that he attracted notice for his efficiency during the survey of the St Lawrence River which played a decisive part in the capture of Quebec and the conquest of Canada. He was then appointed master of the flagship of the squadron remaining there, spent three summers engaged in further surveys, and then the next five years in Newfoundland where, given his first independent command, the schooner Grenville, he was engaged in surveying the coast. His observations of an eclipse of the sun visible in Newfoundland in 1766 and the accompanying calculations communicated to the Royal Society brought him to the favourable attention of that influential body. This made him acceptable as one of their official observers for an expedition to Tahiti to record the transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun; a scientific expedition which he eventually led when the society's first choice of leader was vetoed by the Admiralty which provided the ship and crew. This scientific expedition became part of a more extensive voyage of discovery, as the Admiralty decided that when the observations had been completed Cook was to sail south to search for the great southern continent, Terra Australis Incognita, supposed to exist there. He was also to explore the coast of New Zealand, first discovered by Abel Tasman, but still thought to be part of the southern unknown continent.

On Cook's advice, a cat-built Whitby collier, under 30 metres (98 ft) long, was chosen for the expedition and renamed Endeavour. She left Plymouth on 25 August 1768 and in a voyage that lasted until 12 July 1771 Cook completed the observations of the transit of Venus; proved New Zealand to be two islands and not the northerly promontory of the unknown continent; explored the eastern coast of Australia, where he anchored in Botany Bay, ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, and discovered Endeavour Strait; and then returned home via Batavia, bringing with him a new vogue, tattooing, which has lasted to this day. Though a spectacular achievement, the voyage had not disproved the possible existence of Terra Australis Incognita and on 13 July 1772 Cook, now promoted to commander, set off again to try and find it. This time he was given two Whitby cats, the Resolution and the Adventure, the latter under the command of Tobias Furneaux.

This second voyage took Cook into the Antarctic Circle, the first navigator to penetrate so far south, and by March 1773 he had conclusively proved that no southern continent existed in the one-third of the earth's circumference he had covered at an average latitude of 60° S. He then spent the midwinter months making a similar negative proof by sailing eastwards from New Zealand between latitudes 41° and 46° S., never before covered, before swinging north and west for a period of rest at Tahiti which he reached on 16 July. From Tahiti he sailed west to locate the Friendly Islands (Tonga) before turning south for another penetration of Antarctica. On 30 January 1774 he reached a latitude of 71° 10′ S. before being turned back by impenetrable ice. In the mean time Furneaux, who had lost touch with the Resolution, left New Zealand in December 1773, and, sailing in latitudes between 56° and 61° S., became the first commander to complete a circumnavigation in an easterly direction.

That there could be no great habitable continent in the South Pacific had now been definitely proved, and Cook would have been justified in returning home in the wake of Furneaux. But his ship was still sound and his crew in good health and this persuaded him to undertake a third season of exploration of the still largely unknown Pacific. During the following months he charted Easter Island and the Marquesas, and then discovered and named New Caledonia and Norfolk Island, before setting sail for England from New Zealand on 11 November 1774.

After his return to Portsmouth on 29 July 1775 Cook was promoted post-captain and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, which awarded him the Copley Gold Medal. However, within a year he was off again with instructions to go via Cape Town, the French Indian Ocean islands, and on to Tahiti, whence he was to search for the Pacific end of the North-West Passage after sailing up the North American coastline. For this third voyage he was again given the Resolution and a second Whitby cat called Discovery, commanded by Charles Clerke. The refit of both ships was shamefully skimped and there were continuous problems, particularly in the rigging of the Resolution.

While sailing towards the North American coast, which he sighted at a latitude of 45° N. on 7 March 1778, Cook discovered the Polynesian-inhabited Hawaiian group, which he named the Sandwich Islands in honour of the then First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich. After a brief stop he sailed on, followed the North American coastline as instructed, and eventually penetrated the Bering Strait. He reached 70° 30′ N. but was then forced to turn back by a wall of ice.

The two ships now returned to the Sandwich Islands and anchored in Kealakekua Bay on 17 January 1779 for a refit. When Cook went ashore he was mystified to be greeted with prostrations and solemn ceremonies—he did not realize that he was being accepted as a Polynesian god whose return to the islands was prophesied in Polynesian legends. To welcome him adequately the priests and chiefs called upon their people to make gifts. However, these strained the islanders' resources to the limit and relations between them and Cook's men soon turned sour. There were a number of thefts, including the pilfering of one of the ship's boats, and on 13 February seamen sent ashore for water clashed with a group of hostile natives. The following day, Cook landed to take a chief hostage to force the return of the stolen boat, a tactic which had worked successfully in the past. But on this occasion the islanders resisted, and Cook was surrounded and stabbed to death before his guard of marines were able to rescue him. Captain Clerke now took command and sailed again for the Bering Sea, but the ice was even worse than the previous year, and at the end of July the ships turned for home. A month later Clerke died of consumption and Lieutenant Gore of the Resolution took command, the two ships finally reaching the Thames in October 1780. See also canoe; exploration by sea. Beaglehole, J. , The Life of Captain Cook (1974).
Cook, James , The Journals of Captain Cook, ed. J. Beaglehole, 4 vols. (The Hakluyt Society, 1955–67).
Thomas, N. , Discoveries: The Voyage of Captain Cook (2003).