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Cook was born in Marton in Cleveland , which was then part of Yorkshire, near the town of Middlesbrough. As a child he moved with his family to Great Ayton . As a teenager he developed a fascination for the sea, taught himself cartography), and travelled to Whitby to find employment on the coal ships there.
During the Seven Years' War he served in the Royal Navy, participating in the siege of Quebec CityQuebec City (officially, Quebec , a Canadian city, is the capital of Quebec. Quebec's Old Town Vieux Quebec , the only fortified city north of Mexico whose walls still exist, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. The city has a population before the Battle of the Plains of AbrahamThe Battle of the Plains of Abraham fought September 13, 1759, was a decisive battle during the French and Indian War, the North American phase of the Seven Years' War. It was fought on a plateau just outside the city walls of Quebec City in New France, o in 1759Events January 11 In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated. January 13 The Tavora family is executed following the accusation of attempted regicide on Joseph I of Portugal January 15 The British Museum opens. He showed a talent for surveyingSurveying is concerned with the accurate measurement and position of points on the Earth's surface, and to the establishment of boundaries. It basically achieves this by measuring the relative horizontal and vertical position of points on the ground, aide and cartography and was responsible for mapping much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence RiverThe Saint Lawrence River (French fleuve Saint-Laurent is a large west-to-east flowing river in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It was called Kaniatarowanenneh ("big waterway") in Mohawk. It bisect during the siege. His surveying skills were put to good use in the 1760sEvents and Trends King George III ascends the British throne in 1760. The Seven Years' War ( 1756 1763) comes to an end and France cedes Canada to Britain, yet criticism of the government grows, led by the controversial figure of John Wilkes. Meanwhile, u mapping the jagged coast of NewfoundlandThis is about the island in Canada. For the Canadian province of Newfoundland see Newfoundland and Labrador. For other meanings of Newfoundland see Newfoundland (disambiguation). Newfoundland is a large island off the north-east coast of North America, an, which brought him to the attention of the Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London is claimed to be the oldest learned society still in existence and was founded in 1660. The Royal Irish Academy, founded in 1782, is also closely affiliated with it. The Royal Society of Edinburgh (founded 1783) is a separate S.
Cook's distinctive and huge achievements can be attributed to a combination of excellent seamanship, his superior surveying and cartographic skills, courage in exploring dangerous locations to confirm the facts (e.g. dipping into the Antarctic circle repeatedly and exploring around the Great Barrier Reef), ability to lead men in adverse conditions, and boldness both with the regard to the extent of his explorations and going beyond the instructions given by the Admiralty.
In 1766 the Society hired him to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record a transit of Venus across the Sun. Leaving in 1768, he arrived on April 13, 1769 in Tahiti where he built a small fort and observatory to observe the transit; however, due to the lack of precise scientific instruments, there was no way to accurately measure it.
He then explored the South Pacific for the mythical continent of Terra Australis, with the help a Tahitian named Tupaia who had extensive knowledge of Pacific geography. The Royal Society, and especially Alexander Dalrymple , insisted Terra Australis must exist, despite Cook's personal doubts.
He reached New Zealand, which until then had apparently been visited by Europeans only once, by Abel Tasman in 1642. Cook mapped its complete coastline (with only minor mistakes, such as calling Banks Peninsula an island and thinking Stewart Island was part of the South Island), discovering Cook Strait (named by Banks), which separates the North Island from the South Island and which Abel Tasman had not guessed at.
Next, he went on to Australia, where he discovered its east coast.
The site of Cook's first landing, at Kurnell on Botany Bay, was intended to be the site of the first British colony in Australia, but when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, he felt that Botany Bay was unsuitable, and sailed a short distance northwards to Port Jackson, for the establishment of Sydney.
However, Botany Bay was the site of one of the earliest European contacts with Australian Aborigines and the first European sightings of Australian flora and fauna (the name Botany Bay was chosen to reflect the diverse range of flora found there).
Cook also discovered the Great Barrier Reef, when his ship ran aground June 11th 1770; Endeavour was seriously damaged and his voyage was delayed for two months while repairs were carried out. He then sailed through Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, again becoming only the second European to do so (the first being Luis Vaez de Torres, in 1604). His ship on this voyage, HM Bark Endeavour, gave the name to the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
By this point in the voyage Cook had lost no men to scurvy, a remarkable and unheard-of achievement in the 18th century. He forced his men to eat such foods as citrus fruits and sauerkraut, under punishment of flogging if they did not comply, although no one yet understood why these foods prevented scurvy. Unfortunately, he sailed for Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, to put in for repairs. Batavia was known for its outbreaks of malaria, and much of Cook's crew would succumb to the disease before they returned home in 1771, including the Tahitian Tupaia.
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 bigger hero. Banks even attempted to take command of the Cook's second voyage, but removed himself from the voyage before it began.
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