Statue of the young James Cook in Great Ayton

James Cook 7 November 1728 to 14 February 1779 The Life of James cook, with whom John Farndale (FAR00136) sailed

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Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

Headlines are in brown.

References and citations are in turquoise.

The Farndale associations with James Cook are in purple.

This webpage is divided into the following sections:

• James Cook
• The Farndales and James Cook
• Marton and Great Ayton
• Staithes
• Whitby, apprenticeship and the coal trade
• North America, Newfoundland
• The First voyage, 1768 to 1771
• The Second voyage, 1772 to 1775
• The Third voyage, 1776 to 1779
• Hawaii
• After he died
• Scientific contributions
• Links, texts and books

James Cook

Captain James Cook FRS was a British explorer. He was a navigator and cartographer. He became a captain in the Royal Navy.

His contributions to exploration and discovery included:

· Detailed maps of Newfoundland;

· The first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia;

· The first recorded European contact with Hawaii;

· The first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

Captain James Cook statue, Greenwich

The Farndales and James Cook

There were three Farndale families who lived at Great Ayton:

· The Great Ayton 1 Line who were in Great Ayton in the late seventeenth century, just before James Cook was born;

· The Great Ayton 2 Line who were the descendants of Joseph Farndale who was born in 1795; and

· The Great Ayton 3 Line who were the descendants of Henry Farndale who was born in 1795;

Members of the Great Ayton 1 Line, such as Philip Farndale (FAR00092A), born 1650 and his daughter Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00111), born 1695 and William Farndale (FAR00093), born 1654 and his daughter Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00117), born 1682 were probably in Great Ayton when James Cook was growing up between 1736 to 1745.

There were six Farndale families who lived in Whitby:

· The Whitby 1 Line were the descendants of John Farndale (FAR00087) and were a large family in Whitby between 1636 and 1832. They included Giles Farndale (FAR000137) who served with the Royal Navy between 1740 and 1742 at the time James Cook was still in Great Ayton.

· The Whitby 2 Line were the descendants of John Farndale (FAR00136) who sailed with James Cook on colliers.

o There a record that John Farndill sailed on the Three Brothers when James Cook was a seaman on the same ship between 21 November 1751 to 7 January 1752. This voyage was probably to Norway. On this voyage his captain was Richard Ellerton, with James Cook as mate. The Three Brothers was engaged as a transport conveying British troops from the Netherlands at the end of the War of Austrian Succession. Later she was used for trade in the Baltic. In 1750 her captain was John Walker.

o John Farndill, Seaman, 45 years old, Whitby, served seven months 12 days, on the Friendship, 30 March 1752 to 12 May 1753 when James Cook was Mate. John was paid 8/4d muster dues. On 30 March 1752, the ship sailed from Whitby to London, where it arrived on 9 April 1752. It then sailed to Newcastle, where it arrived on 18 April 1752. It then sailed to Norway, where it arrived on 3 May 1752. It then returned to Newcastle on 12 May 1752, and then to Whitby on 17 May 1752.

o According to the muster rolls of Friendship in 1753, the ship had a crew of 24 men, including Swainston and Cook. The ship left Whitby on 4 April 1753 with James Cook as mate and returned on 26 September 1753. The voyage was probably not very profitable, as the ship only caught one whale. It is not clear whether John Farndale took part in this whaling expedition, but he might have done as John Farndale was a seaman named in a list of 42 of the crew of ‘The Friendship of Whitby’ on 10 November 1753.

· The Whitby 3 Line were a small mariner family in Whitby 1743 to the end of the eighteenth century;

· The Whitby 4 Line were a large family in Whitby between 1773 and the late nineteenth century with several master mariners who captained colliers and brigs.

· The Whitby 5 Line was another large Whitby family from about 1788;

· The Whitby 6 Line were a small early nineteenth century Whitby family.

1728

Marton and Great Ayton

James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in Marton, Yorkshire. James Cook was the second of 8 children of James Cook Senior (1693 to 1779), a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam, Roxburghshire, and Grace Pace (1702 to 1765), from Thornaby-on-Tees. He was baptised on 14 November 1728 in the parish church of St Cuthbert (Parish Register). 

He was born in a crowded and damp cottage with clay walls and a thatched roof. His father was an agricultural labourer who had moved to Cleveland from Scotland in search of work. His mother came from the nearby village of Thornaby.

1733

When he was 5, James Cook was sent to Dame Walker, a widow, to learn his alphabet and how to read.

1736

Just after James’ 8th birthday the family moved to Great Ayton. James Cook Senior was employed by Thomas Skottowe as his bailiff on Aireyholme Farm about a mile out of the village. By this time there were four children and four more were to follow, although out of the 8, 4 died young.

After the Cook family moved to Great Ayton, James was sent to the Postgate school, built by Michael Postgate in 1704. This was a one storey cottage with just one school room, above which was a garret for the master to live in. At this small village school the local children learnt their letters and their sums. James excelled at maths. James 's school fees were paid by Thomas Skottowe. James Cook's teacher was called William Rowland. We know this because he was licenced to teach at great eight and by the Archbishop of York. Because William Rowland was also employed to write the annual churchwardens accounts, we know he had a stylish handwriting.

1740

James Cook stayed at school until he was 12. This was the only formal schooling that he ever received and even this was probably interrupted because throughout his childhood he would have been expected to help his father with farm work. When he began work for his father, James Cook Senior had been promoted to farm manager. These were influential and formative years for James Cook. Despite his educational disadvantages, James became capable in mathematics, astronomy and charting by the time of his later voyages. 

From time to time he would climb the nearby hill, Roseberry Topping, and enjoy the solitude. 

Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, Australia, having been moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick, in 1934. Memories continued in Grteat Ayton of the small cottage with the initials of James Cook Senior and Grace on the door. There is now a obelisk memorial where the cottage once stood.

When he finally left school he went to work with his father full time for a few years before leaving home at the age of 16, when he set out for Staithes.

After his voyages of circumnavigation he would return to visit his parents at the small cottage at Great Ayton.

Staithes

1745

In 1745, at the age of seventeen, it is thought encouraged by his parents, James Cook set out twenty miles to the fishing village of Staithes, to be apprenticed as a shop boy to a local merchant, William Sanderson. Sanderson had a quayside shop and it may be that Staithes is where James Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. The shop was later destroyed in a violent storm in the nineteenth century.

He stayed only eighteen months in Staithes. He did not enjoy his grocery apprenticeship.

Whitby, apprenticeship and the coal trade

Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby where he was introduced to friends of Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker. The Walkers were Quakers and prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a sea apprentice in their small fleet of colliers, transporting coal along the English coast.

1747

His first voyages were on the collier Freelove, and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London.

James Cook served on the following Whitby ships:

Ship	Type of Vessel	Dates	Role of James Cook	Overlap with John Farndale
Freelove	Collier	29 September 1747 to 17 December 1747	Apprentice
Freelove	Collier	26 February 1746 to 22 April 1748	Apprentice
Three Brothers	Collier	14 June 1748 to 14 October 1748	Apprentice
Three Brothers	Troopship to Holland and Ireland	14 October 1748 to 20 April 1749	Apprentice
Three Brothers	Voyage to Norway	20 April 1749 to 26 September 1749	Seaman
Three Brothers	Collier?	27 September 1749 to 8 December 1749	Seaman
Mary of Whitby	Voyage to The Baltic	8 February 1750 to 5 December 1750	Seaman
Three Brothers	Collier	19 February 1751 to 30 July 1751	Seaman
Friendship	Collier	31 July 1751 to 8 January 1752	Seaman Was he promoted to Mate by November 1751 and returned to the Three Brothers from 21 November 1751 to 7 or 8 January 1752?	There a record that John Farndill sailed on the Three Brothers between 21 November 1751 to 7 January 1752 This voyage was probably to Norway. On this voyage his captain was Richard Ellerton, with James Cook as mate. The Three Brothers was engaged as a transport conveying British troops from the Netherlands at the end of the War of Austrian Succession. Later she was used for trade in the Baltic. In 1750 her captain was John Walker.
Friendship	Collier	30 March 1752 to 10 November 1752	Mate	John Farndill, Seaman, 45 years old, Whitby, served seven months 12 days, on the Friendship, 30 March 1752 to 12 May 1753. Paid 8/4d muster dues. On 30 March 1752, the ship sailed from Whitby to London, where it arrived on 9 April 1752. It then sailed to Newcastle, where it arrived on 18 April 1752. It then sailed to Norway, where it arrived on 3 May 1752. It then returned to Newcastle on 12 May 1752, and then to Whitby on 17 May 1752.
Friendship	Collier	2 February 1753 to 4 February 1754	Mate	According to the muster rolls of Friendship in 1753, the ship had a crew of 24 men, including Swainston and Cook. The ship left Whitby on 4 April 1753 and returned on 26 September 1753. The voyage was probably not very profitable, as the ship only caught one whale. It is not clear whether John Farndale took part in this whaling expedition, but he might have done. John Farndale was a seaman named in a list of 42 of the crew of ‘The Friendship of Whitby’ on 10 November 1753.
Friendship	Collier	2 March 1754 to 28 July 1754	Mate
Friendship	Collier	9 August 1754 to 19 December 1754	Mate
Friendship	Collier	15 February 1755 to 14 June 1755	Mate
Friendship	Collier	22 April 1776	Nil	John Farndale was captain of the Friendship and sailed out from Portsmouth, bound for Whitehaven in Cumbria.

(Clifford E Thornton, Captain Cook in Cleveland, Middlesbrough Council, 1978; C Preston, Captain James Cook RN, FRS, Whitby Literary Society, 1973).

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.

After his three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea.

1752

After passing his examinations in 1752, he started his progress through the merchant navy ranks. He was promoted to mate aboard the collier brig Friendship. 

1755

In 1755, within a month of being offered command of the Friendship, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy. At this time Britain was re-arming for what was to become the Seven Years' War. Cook felt his career would advance more quickly in military service. He entered service with the Royal Navy at Wapping on 17 June 1755.

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. After this, he was promoted to boatswain in addition to his other duties. 

1756

Cook was given temporary command in March 1756, when he was briefly master of Cruizer, a small cutter attached to Eagle while on patrol.

1757

In June 1757 Cook formally passed his master's examinations at Trinity House, Deptford. This qualified him to navigate and handle Royal Navy vessel. 

He next joined the frigate HMS Solebay as master under Captain Robert Craig.

North America, Newfoundland

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. 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.

1762

James Cook married Elizabeth Batts, the daughter of Samuel Batts, keeper of the Bell Inn in Wapping and one of his mentors on 21 December 1762 at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex. 

James and Elizabeth would have six children:

· James Cook (1763 to 1794), who died aged 31;

· Nathaniel Cook (1764 to 1780, lost aboard HMS Thunderer at the age of 16 when it foundered with all hands lost in a hurricane in the West Indies;

· Elizabeth Cook (1767 to 1771), who died aged 4;

· Joseph Cook (1768 to 1768), who died at birth;

· George Cook (1772 to 1772), who died at birth;

· Hugh Cook (1776 to 1793), who died of scarlet fever aged 17, while a student at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Jamesd Cook has no direct descendants. All of his children died before having children of their own.

When he was not at sea, James Cook lived in the East End of London. He attended St Paul's Church, Shadwell, where his son James was baptised.

1763

Cook's surveying ability was also put to use in mapping the jagged coast of Newfoundland aboard HMS Grenville.

He surveyed the northwest stretch of Newfoundland in 1763 and 1764.

1765

Cook surveyed the south coast of Newfoundland between the Burin Peninsula and Cape Ray in 1765 and 1766.

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 4s each. John Beck was engaged 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".

1767

Cook surveyed the west coast of Newfoundland in 1767.

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. 

The experience 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 map were used into the 20th century, with copies being referenced by those sailing Newfoundland's waters for 200 years.

James Cook's 1775 chart of Newfoundland

Following on from his work 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".

1768

The Global Voyages of James Cook.

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

1768

The First voyage, 1768 to 1771

On 25 May 1768, the Admiralty commissioned James Cook to command a scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the voyage was to observe and record the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. When combined with observations from other places, this would help to determine the distance of the Sun. 

Cook, at age 39, was promoted to lieutenant to grant him sufficient status to take the command. For its part, the Royal Society agreed that Cook would receive a one hundred guinea gratuity in addition to his Naval pay.

Endeavour replica in Cooktown, Queensland harbour – anchored where the original Endeavour was beached for seven weeks in 1770 HMS Endeavour was a collier

The expedition sailed aboard HMS Endeavour, departing on 26 August 1768. 

1769

James Cook and his crew rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific, arriving at Tahiti on 13 April 1769. Whilst in Tahiti the observations of the Venus Transit were made. 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 were additional instructions from the Admiralty for the second part of his voyage. This was to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated rich southern continent of Terra Australis. 

Cook then sailed to New Zealand and mapped the complete coastline, making only some minor errors.

1770

He then voyaged west, reaching the southeastern coast of Australia on 19 April 1770, and in doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline.

On 23 April 1770, he made his first recorded direct observation of indigenous Australians at Brush Island near Bawley Point, noting in his journal: "...and were so near the Shore as to distinguish several people upon the Sea beach they appear'd to be of a very dark or black Colour but whether this was the real colour of their skins or the Clothes they might have on I know not."

On 29 April 1770, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as the Kurnell Peninsula. Cook originally christened the area as "Stingray Bay", but later he crossed this out and named it "Botany Bay" after the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an aboriginal tribe known as the Gweagal.

After his departure from Botany Bay, he continued northwards. He stopped at Bustard Bay (now known as Seventeen Seventy) on 23 May 1770.

On 24 May 1770, Cook and Banks and others went ashore. Continuing north, on 11 June 1770 a mishap occurred when Endeavour ran aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef, and then "nursed into a river mouth on 18 June 1770". The ship was badly damaged, and his voyage was delayed almost seven weeks while repairs were carried out on the beach, near the docks of modern Cooktown, Queensland, at the mouth of the Endeavour River. 

The voyage then continued and at about midday on 22 August 1770, they reached the northernmost tip of the coast and, without leaving the ship, Cook named it Cape York.

Leaving the east coast, Cook turned west and nursed his battered ship through the dangerously shallow waters of Torres Strait. Searching for a high vantage point, Cook saw a steep hill on a nearby island from the top of which he hoped to see 'a passage into the Indian Seas'. He climbed the hill with three others, including Joseph Banks. On seeing a navigable passage, he signalled the good news down to the men on the ship, who cheered loudly.

Cook later wrote that he had claimed possession of the east coast when up on that hill, and named the place 'Possession Island'. However, the Admiralty's instructions did not authorise Cook to annexe New Holland (Australia) and therefore it is unlikely that any possession ceremony occurred that August. Importantly, Joseph Banks, who was standing beside Cook, does not mention any such episode or announcement in his journal.

1771

In his revised journal entry, Cook wrote that he had claimed the entire coastline that he had just explored as British territory. He returned to England via Batavia, where many in his crew succumbed to malaria. Cook rewrote his journal on his arrival in Batavia (Jakarta) when he was confronted with the news that the Frenchman, Louis Bougainville, had sailed across the Pacific the previous year.

The voyage continued around the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at the island of Saint Helena on 12 July 1771.

Shortly after his return from the first voyage, James Cook was promoted in August 1771 to the rank of commander.

1772

Cook's journals were published upon his return, and he became something of a hero among the scientific community. Among the general public, however, the aristocratic botanist Joseph Banks was a greater hero. Banks even attempted to take command of Cook's second voyage but removed himself from the voyage before it began, and Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster were taken on as scientists for the voyage.

Cook's son (his fifth child) George was born five days before he left for his second voyage.

The Second voyage, 1772 to 1775

Portrait of James Cook by William Hodges, who accompanied Cook on his second voyage.

In 1772, James Cook was commissioned to lead another scientific expedition on behalf of the Royal Society, to search for the hypothetical Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south. Although he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, showing it to be continental in size, the Terra Australis was believed to lie further south. Despite this evidence to the contrary, Alexander Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that a massive southern continent should exist.

1773

Cook commanded HMS Resolution on this voyage, while Tobias Furneaux commanded its companion ship, HMS Adventure. Cook's expedition circumnavigated the globe at an extreme southern latitude, becoming one of the first to cross the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773. In the Antarctic fog, Resolution and Adventure became separated. Furneaux made his way to New Zealand, where he lost some of his men during an encounter with Māori, and eventually sailed back to Britain.

1774

James Cook continued to explore the Antarctic, reaching 71°10'S on 31 January 1774.

Cook almost encountered the mainland of Antarctica but turned towards Tahiti to resupply his ship. He then resumed his southward course in a second fruitless attempt to find the supposed continent. On this leg of the voyage, he brought a young Tahitian named Omai, who proved to be somewhat less knowledgeable about the Pacific than Tupaia had been on the first voyage.

On his return voyage to New Zealand in 1774, Cook landed at the Friendly Islands, Easter Island, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu.

Before returning home, Cook made a final sweep across the South Atlantic from Cape Horn and surveyed, mapped, and took possession for Britain of South Georgia, which had been explored by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Cook also discovered and named Clerke Rocks and the South Sandwich Islands ("Sandwich Land").

1775

He then turned north to South Africa and from there continued back to England. His reports upon his return home put to rest the popular myth of Terra Australis.

Cook's second voyage marked a successful employment of Larcum Kendall's K1 copy of John Harrison's H4 marine chronometer, which enabled Cook to calculate his longitudinal position with much greater accuracy. Cook's log was full of praise for this time-piece which he used to make charts of the southern Pacific Ocean that were so remarkably accurate that copies of them were still in use in the middle of the twentieth  century.

Upon his return, 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. He was described in the House of Lords as "the first navigator in Europe". 

But he could not be kept away from the sea. A third voyage was planned, and Cook volunteered to find the Northwest Passage. He travelled to the Pacific and hoped to travel east to the Atlantic, while a simultaneous voyage travelled the opposite route.

1776

The Third voyage, 1776 to 1779

On his last voyage, Cook again commanded HMS Resolution, while Captain Charles Clerke commanded HMS Discovery. The voyage was ostensibly planned to return the Pacific Islander Omai to Tahiti, or so the public was led to believe. The trip's principal goal was to locate a Northwest Passage around the American continent. 

1777

After dropping Omai at Tahiti, Cook travelled north.

HMS Resolution and Discovery in Tahiti

1778

In 1778 became the first European to begin formal contact with the Hawaiian Islands. A statue of James Cook stands in Waimea, Kauai commemorating his first contact with the Hawaiian Islands at the town's harbour in January 1778. After his initial landfall in January 1778 at Waimea harbour, Kauai, Cook named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich—the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.

From the Sandwich Islands, Cook sailed north and then northeast to explore the west coast of North America north of the Spanish settlements in Alta California. He made landfall on the Oregon coast at approximately 44°30′ north latitude, naming his landing point Cape Foulweather. Bad weather forced his ships south to about 43° north before they could begin their exploration of the coast northward.

He unknowingly sailed past the Strait of Juan de Fuca and soon after entered Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. He anchored near the First Nations village of Yuquot. Cook's two ships remained in Nootka Sound from 29 March to 26 April 1778, in what Cook called Ship Cove, now Resolution Cove, at the south end of Bligh Island. Relations between Cook's crew and the people of Yuquot were cordial but sometimes strained. In trading, the people of Yuquot demanded much more valuable items than the usual trinkets that had worked in Hawaii. Metal objects were much desired, but the lead, pewter, and tin traded at first soon fell into disrepute. The most valuable items which the British received in trade were sea otter pelts. During the stay, the Yuquot "hosts" essentially controlled the trade with the British vessels. The natives usually visited the British vessels at Resolution Cove instead of the British visiting the village of Yuquot at Friendly Cove.

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. In a single visit, Cook charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline on world maps for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gaps in Russian (from the west) and Spanish (from the south) exploratory probes of the northern limits of the Pacific.

By the second week of August 1778, Cook was through the Bering Strait, sailing into the Chukchi Sea. He headed northeast up the coast of Alaska until he was blocked by sea ice. His furthest north was 70 degrees 44 minutes. Cook then sailed west to the Siberian coast, and then southeast down the Siberian coast back to the Bering Strait.

By early September 1778 Cook was back in the Bering Sea to begin the trip to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. He became increasingly frustrated on this voyage and perhaps began to suffer from a stomach ailment; it has been speculated that this led to irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they had pronounced inedible.

1779

Hawaii

Cook returned to Hawaii in 1779. After sailing around the archipelago for some eight weeks, he made landfall at Kealakekua Bay, on 'Hawaii Island', largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Cook's arrival coincided with the Makahiki, a Hawaiian harvest festival of worship for the Polynesian god Lono. Coincidentally the form of Cook's ship, HMS Resolution, or more particularly the mast formation, sails and rigging, resembled certain significant artefacts that formed part of the season of worship. Similarly, Cook's clockwise route around the island of Hawaii before making landfall resembled the processions that took place in a clockwise direction around the island during the Lono festivals. It has been argued (most extensively by Marshall Sahlins) that such coincidences were the reasons for Cook's (and to a limited extent, his crew's) initial deification by some Hawaiians who treated Cook as an incarnation of Lono. Though this view was first suggested by members of Cook's expedition, the idea that any Hawaiians understood Cook to be Lono, and the evidence presented in support of it, were later challenged.

The Death of Captain James Cook on 14 February 1779 (an unfinished painting by Johan Zoffany, circa 1795).

After a month's stay, Cook attempted to resume his exploration of the northern Pacific. Shortly after leaving Hawaii Island, however, Resolution's foremast broke, so the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay for repairs.

Tensions rose, and a number of quarrels broke out between the Europeans and Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay. An unknown group of Hawaiians took one of Cook's small boats. The evening when the cutter was taken, the people had become "insolent" even with threats to fire upon them. Cook attempted to kidnap and ransom the King of Hawaiʻi, Kalaniʻōpuʻu.

The following day on 14 February 1779, Cook marched through the village to retrieve the King. Cook took the King (aliʻi nui) by his own hand and led him willingly away. One of Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favourite wives, Kanekapolei, and two chiefs approached the group as they were heading to boats. They pleaded with the King not to go. An old kahuna (priest), chanting rapidly while holding out a coconut, attempted to distract Cook and his men as a large crowd began to form at the shore. The King began to understand that Cook was his enemy. As Cook turned his back to help launch the boats, he was struck on the head by the villagers and then stabbed to death as he fell on his face in the surf. He was first struck on the head with a club by a chief named Kalaimanokahoʻowaha or Kanaʻina and then stabbed by one of the king's attendants, Nuaa. The Hawaiians carried his body away towards the back of the town, still visible to the ship through their spyglass. Four marines, Corporal James Thomas, Private Theophilus Hinks, Private Thomas Fatchett and Private John Allen, were also killed and two others were wounded in the confrontation.

James Cook died at the age of 51.

The esteem which the Hawaiian islanders held for Cook caused them to retain his body. Following their practice, they prepared his body with funerary rituals usually reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of the society. The body was disembowelled, baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages. Some of Cook's remains, thus preserved, were eventually returned to his crew for a formal burial at sea.

Clerke assumed leadership of the expedition and made a final attempt to pass through the Bering Strait. He died of tuberculosis on 22 August 1779 and John Gore, a veteran of Cook's first voyage, took command of Resolution and of the expedition. James King replaced Gore in command of Discovery. 

1780

The expedition returned home, reaching England in October 1780. After their arrival in England, King completed Cook's account of the voyage.

David Samwell, who sailed with Cook on Resolution, wrote of him: "He was a modest man, and rather bashful; of an agreeable lively conversation, sensible and intelligent. In temper he was somewhat hasty, but of a disposition the most friendly, benevolent and humane. His person was above six feet high: and, though a good looking man, he was plain both in dress and appearance. His face was full of expression: his nose extremely well shaped: his eyes which were small and of a brown cast, were quick and piercing; his eyebrows prominent, which gave his countenance altogether an air of austerity."

1830

Elizabeth Cook, by William Henderson, 1830

Memorials to James Cook

Memorial to James Cook and family in St Andrew the Great, Cambridge Blue plaque at 326 The Highway, Shadwell, East London

A U.S. coin, the 1928 Hawaiian Sesquicentennial half-dollar carries Cook's image.

The site where he was killed in Hawaii was marked in 1874 by a white obelisk. 

A nearby town is named Captain Cook, Hawaii; several Hawaiian businesses also carry his name.

The Apollo 15 Command/Service Module Endeavour was named after Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour, as was the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Another shuttle, Discovery, was named after Cook's HMS Discovery.

The first institution of higher education in North Queensland, Australia was named after him, with James Cook University opening in Townsville in 1970. 

Numerous institutions, landmarks and place names reflect the importance of Cook's contributions, including the Cook Islands, the Cook Strait, Cook Inlet, and the 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, and is designated Boundary Peak 182 as one of the official Boundary Peaks of the Hay–Herbert Treaty.

A life-size statue of Cook upon a column stands in Hyde Park located in the centre of Sydney. A large aquatic monument is planned for Cook's landing place at Botany Bay, Sydney.

One of the earliest monuments to Cook in the United Kingdom is located at The Vache, erected in 1780 by Admiral Hugh Palliser, a contemporary of Cook and one-time owner of the estate. A huge 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. 

Tributes also abound in post-industrial Middlesbrough, including 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.

Also named after Cook is the James Cook University Hospital, a major teaching hospital which opened in 2003 with a railway station serving it called James Cook opening in 2014. 

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.

In 2002 Cook was placed at number 12 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

Scientific contributions

Cook's 12 years sailing around the Pacific Ocean contributed much to European knowledge of the area.

Several islands such as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) were encountered for the first time by Europeans, and his more accurate navigational charting of large areas of the Pacific was a major achievement.

To create accurate maps, latitude and longitude must be accurately determined. Navigators had been able to work out latitude accurately for centuries by measuring the angle of the sun or a star above the horizon with an instrument such as a backstaff or quadrant. Longitude was more difficult to measure accurately because it requires precise knowledge of the time difference between points on the surface of the earth. The Earth turns a full 360 degrees relative to the sun each day. Thus longitude corresponds to time - 15 degrees every hour, or 1 degree every 4 minutes.

Cook gathered accurate longitude measurements during his first voyage using his navigational skills and the help of astronomer Charles Green, and by using the newly published Nautical Almanac tables, via the lunar distance method (measuring the angular distance from the moon to either the sun during daytime or one of eight bright stars during night-time to determine the time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and comparing that to his local time determined via the altitude of the sun, moon, or stars).

On his second voyage, Cook used the K1 chronometer made by Larcum Kendall, which was the shape of a large pocket watch, 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter. It was a copy of the H4 clock made by John Harrison, which proved to be the first to keep accurate time at sea when used on the ship Deptford's journey to Jamaica in 1761–62.

Cook 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, but the most important was frequent replenishment of fresh food. It was for presenting a paper on this aspect of the voyage to the Royal Society that he was presented with the Copley Medal in 1776.

Ever the observer, Cook was the first European to have extensive contact with various people of the Pacific. He correctly postulated a link among all the Pacific peoples, despite their being separated by great ocean stretches. Cook theorised that Polynesians originated from Asia, which scientist Bryan Sykes later verified.

In New Zealand the coming of Cook is often used to signify the onset of colonisation.

Cook carried several scientists on his voyages. They made significant observations and discoveries. Two botanists, Joseph Banks and Swede Daniel Solander, were on the first voyage. The two collected over 3,000 plant species. Banks subsequently strongly promoted British settlement of Australia.

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. They were of immense scientific value to British botanists. Cook's second expedition included William Hodges, who produced notable landscape paintings of Tahiti, Easter Island, and other locations.

Several officers who served under Cook went on to distinctive accomplishments. 

William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, was given command of HMS Bounty in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and return with breadfruit. Bligh is most known for the mutiny of his crew which resulted in his being set adrift in 1789. He later became governor of New South Wales, where he was the subject of another mutiny—the Rum Rebellion. 

George Vancouver, one of Cook's midshipmen, led a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Coast of North America from 1791 to 1794. In honour of his former commander, Vancouver's ship was named Discovery. 

George Dixon, who sailed under Cook on his third expedition, later commanded his own. 

Henry Roberts, a lieutenant under Cook, spent many years after that voyage preparing the detailed charts that went into Cook's posthumous atlas, published around 1784.

Cook's contributions to knowledge were internationally recognised 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." Unknown to Franklin, Cook had met his death a month before this safe conduct "passport" was written.

Cook's voyages were involved in another unusual first. The first recorded circumnavigation of the world by an animal was by Cook's goat, who made that memorable journey twice; the first time on HMS Dolphin, under Samuel Wallis, and then aboard Endeavour. When they returned to England, Cook had the goat presented with a silver collar engraved with lines from Samuel Johnson: Perpetui, ambita bis terra, praemia lactis Haec habet altrici Capra secunda Jovis. "In fame scarce second to the nurse of Jove, This Goat, who twice the world had traversed round, Deserving both her master's care and love, Ease and perpetual pasture now has found.") She was put to pasture on Cook's farm outside London and was reportedly admitted to the privileges of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich. Cook's journal recorded the date of the goat's death: 28 March 1772.

Links, texts and books

The Captain Cook Tour.

The website of Captain Cook Society

www.captaincook.org.uk

http://www.cookmuseumwhitby.co.uk/captain-cook/cook-in-whitby

The Australian Museum acquired its "Cook Collection" in 1894 from the Government of New South Wales. At that time the collection consisted of 115 artefacts collected on Cook's three voyages throughout the Pacific Ocean, during the period 1768–80, along with documents and memorabilia related to these voyages. Many of the ethnographic artefacts were collected at a time of first contact between Pacific Peoples and Europeans. In 1935 most of the documents and memorabilia were transferred to the Mitchell Library in the State Library of New South Wales. The provenance of the collection shows that the objects remained in the hands of Cook's widow Elizabeth Cook, and her descendants, until 1886. In this year John Mackrell, the great-nephew of Isaac Smith, Elizabeth Cook's cousin, organised the display of this collection at the request of the NSW Government at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. In 1887 the London-based Agent-General for the New South Wales Government, Saul Samuel, bought John Mackrell's items and also acquired items belonging to the other relatives Reverend Canon Frederick Bennett, Mrs Thomas Langton, H.M.C. Alexander, and William Adams. The collection remained with the Colonial Secretary of NSW until 1894, when it was transferred to the Australian Museum.