James Cook

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.

Captain James Cook (7 November 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.

James Cook was born on 7 November 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.

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.

For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude.

In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 mi to the fishing village of Staithes, to be apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson.

Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.

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.

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.

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

Cook's first posting was with HMS Eagle (1745), serving as able seaman and master's mate under Captain Joseph Hamar for his first year aboard, and Captain Hugh Palliser thereafter.

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.

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.

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.

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 formally passed his master's examinations at Trinity House, Deptford, qualifying him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's fleet.

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.

The couple had six children: James (1763–1794), Nathaniel (1764–1780, lost aboard HMS Thunderer (1760) 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.

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.