James Cook
1728–1779 · British navigator who charted New Zealand, eastern Australia and much of the Pacific.
James Cook was born in a Yorkshire village, the son of a farm laborer. He worked in a shop, then apprenticed with a ship owner in Whitby, learning seamanship and mathematics on coal ships. In 1755 he joined the Royal Navy, and during the Seven Years' War he made excellent charts of the St. Lawrence River and Newfoundland. In 1768 he commanded HMS Endeavour on a voyage to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun, carrying the botanist Joseph Banks. He then charted the coasts of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, nearly wrecking on the Great Barrier Reef. On his second voyage, from 1772 to 1775, he crossed the Antarctic Circle and sailed farther south than anyone before, showing there was no great habitable southern continent. He kept his crews healthy with fresh food and sauerkraut, and lost very few men to scurvy. On his third voyage he searched for a northwest passage and visited Hawaii. In February 1779, in a dispute over a stolen boat at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, he was killed in a fight with islanders.
Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- 1728 Born in Marton, Yorkshire
- 1768–1771 First voyage, on the Endeavour
- 1770 Charts eastern Australia
- 1772–1775 Second voyage; crosses the Antarctic Circle
- 1778 Reaches Hawaii
- 1779 Killed at Kealakekua Bay
Record-breaker
Firsts and records, worded as the sources give them ("first known", "at the time").
- On 17 January 1773 his crews became the first recorded Europeans to cross the Antarctic Circle. (Source: James Cook (Wikipedia))
- He made the first recorded voyage all the way around the main islands of New Zealand. (Source: James Cook (Wikipedia))