James Cook

1728 to 1779

Statue of the young James Cook in Great Ayton

The association of James Cook with Cleveland, Whitby, Great Ayton, and the Farndale ancestral lands

Return to the Contents Page

Marton-in-Cleveland

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

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.

When he was five years old, James Cook was sent to a widow known as Dame Walker, to learn his alphabet and how to read.

Great Ayton

Just after James’ eighth 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 eight, four of them died young.

After the Cook family arrived in Great Ayton, James was sent to the Postgate school, which had been 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 Ayton by the Archbishop of York. William Rowland was also employed to write the annual churchwardens accounts, so we know that he had a stylish handwriting.

James Cook stayed at school until he was twelve years old. 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 in 1740, James Cook Senior had been promoted to farm manager. These were influential and formative years for James Cook.

From time to time James Cook 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 Great 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.

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

There were three Farndale families who lived at Great Ayton:

The Great Ayton 2 Line were the descendants of Joseph Farndale who was born in 1795 and the Great Ayton 3 Line were the descendants of Henry Farndale who was also born in 1795, so they witnessed Great Ayton not so long after James Cook had left.

However the Great Ayton 1 Line were descendants of Georgs Farndall (1624 to 1677) who had moved from Skelton to Great Ayton by about 1675. He had married Meriall Younge in about 1653. Georgs and Meriall Farndale’s son, Philip Farndale had a daughter, Elizabeth Farndale who was born in Great Ayton in 1675. Their son William Farndale also had a daughter called Elizabeth Farndale, who had been born in Great Ayton on 17 December 1682. Georgs and Meriall Farndale’s own daughter called Elizabeth Farndale married Thomas Taylor in Great Ayton on 30 January 1675. So this was a family who were in Great Ayton when James Cook was growing up there between 1736 to 1745.

Staithes

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. William 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

In 1747, James Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby where he was introduced to friends of William Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker. The Walkers were Quakers and prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now The Cook Museum at Whitby. Cook was taken on as a sea apprentice in their small fleet of colliers, transporting coal along the English coast.

As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy. After his three year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea. 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.

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.

Before James Cook’s great voyages, he served on a number of 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?	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.

James Cook spent nine years in Whitby, three as apprentice and six as a seaman and later mate for Captain Walker’s shipping service. These years had a profound influence on his later life and career.

The Whitby 1 Line were the descendants of John Farndale, the first of the Whitby Farndales, and were a large family in Whitby between 1636 and 1832. They included Giles Farndale who served with the Royal Navy between 1740 and 1742 at the time James Cook was still in Great Ayton and his older brother John Farndale who sailed with James Cook on colliers. John Farndale’s descendants were the Whitby 2 Line who grew up in Whitby at James Cook sailed around the world.

The Farndale association with Whitby continued through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Whitby 3 Line were a small mariner family in Whitby at the end of the eighteenth century. The Whitby 4 Line were a large family in Whitby of the nineteenth century with several master mariners who captained colliers and brigs. The Whitby 5 Line and the Whitby 6 Line were also large Victorian Whitby families.

The Royal Navy

In 1755, within a month of being offered command of the Friendship, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy. 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 a French warship and the sinking of another. After this, he was promoted to boatswain in addition to his other duties.

Cook was given temporary command 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. This qualified him to navigate and handle Royal Navy vessels.

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

Seven Years War

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 led to the capture of the Fortress of Louisbourg from the French in 1758, and in the siege of Quebec 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 Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.

Family

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

James and Elizabeth would have six children. James Cook (1763 to 1794) died aged 31. Nathaniel Cook (1764 to 1780) was 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) died aged 4. Joseph Cook (1768 to 1768) died at birth. George Cook (1772 to 1772) also died at birth. Hugh Cook (1776 to 1793) died of scarlet fever aged 17, while a student at Christ's College, Cambridge.

James 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.

Surveying Newfoundland

Cook's surveying ability led to him being tasked with the mapping of the jagged coast of Newfoundland from HMS Grenville. He surveyed the northwest stretch of Newfoundland in 1763 and 1764. He surveyed the south coast of Newfoundland between the Burin Peninsula and Cape Ray in 1765 and 1766.

James 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.

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.

This experience gave James Cook a mastery of practical surveying. He often worked in adverse conditions. His work also brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society at a crucial moment in the direction of British overseas exploration.

Cook's maps were used into the twentieth 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.

In the aspiration of his fictional near namesake James Kirk he was intent to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.

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

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.

James Cook, the Great Ayton boy, was promoted at age 39 to lieutenant so that he had sufficient rank to take the command. 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. 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.

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 his 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 was here that James Cook made first controversial 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.

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, modern Jakarta, where many in his crew succumbed to malaria. Cook rewrote his journal on his arrival in Batavia, 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.

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. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south. Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that a massive southern continent should exist. Although he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, showing it to be continental in size, the real Terra Australis was believed to lie further south.

Cook commanded HMS Resolution on his second voyage, and 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.

James Cook continued to explore the Antarctic, reaching 71 degrees 10 minutes South 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 took onboard 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.

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.

It was not long before a third voyage was planned, and Cook volunteered to find the Northwest Passage.

The Third voyage, 1776 to 1779

On his third and 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.

After dropping Omai at Tahiti, Cook travelled north.

HMS Resolution and Discovery in Tahiti

In 1778 the crew became the first Europeans 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, now Hawaiian, 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 a latitude of about 44 degrees 30 minutes North, naming his landing point Cape Foulweather. Bad weather forced his ships south to about 43 degrees 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 been accepted in Hawaii. The lead, pewter, and tin traded at first were soon rejected. 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, made exploratory probes of the northern limits of the Pacific.

By the second week of August 1778, Cook passed through the Bering Strait, and sailed 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 a trip to the Sandwich, now Hawaiian, Islands. He became increasingly frustrated on this voyage and perhaps began to suffer from a stomach illness. 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.

Cook returned to Hawaii in 1779. After sailing around the archipelago for some eight weeks, he made landfall at Kealakekua Bay, on Hawaii Island, the 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 mast and sail formation of Cook's ship HMS Resolution resembled significant artefacts that were important during the festival. 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 that such coincidences were the reason for Cook's initial deification by some Hawaiians who treated Cook as an incarnation of Lono. This has since been questioned.

The Death of Captain James Cook on 14 February 1779, an unfinished painting by Johan Zoffany, c 1795

After a month's stay, James 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, James 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 or 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. 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.

His death

James Cook thus 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.

Captain 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.

Captain James Cook statue, Greenwich

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 that 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.

Elizabeth Cook was his widow for quarter of a century. She died in 1835.

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 and several Hawaiian businesses also carry his name. The Apollo 15 Command and 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. There are many institutions, landmarks and place names named after Cook, 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. 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 in 1978 of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, located within Stewart Park. 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.

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.

Return to the Contents Page

or

Go Straight to Chapter 13 – The Mariners of Whitby

Go Straight to Chapter 28 – Great Ayton and Newcastle

If you are in Yorkshire you can follow The Captain Cook Tour.

You might also be interested in the website of the Captain Cook Society and The Cook Museum at Whitby.

There is an excellent In Our Time Podcast about James Cook and a BBC Radio series on the Three Voyages of Captain Cook. The Rest is History have also done a podcast about Captain Cook, History’s Greatest Explorer.

The James Cook page includes source material, research notes and a chronology.