James Cook
James
Cook
The
Beginning
First
voyage (1768-1771)
Second
voyage (1772-1775)
Third
voyage (1776-1779)
Legacy
of James Cook
Private
Life
Cook's
Protégés
James Cook
the explorer, the researcher, the cartographer, and an innovator of long sea voyages. Cook's 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 regard to the extent of his explorations and his willingness to exceed the instructions given to him by the Admiralty.
Cook was commissioned by the Royal Society to search for the mythical "Terra Australis" or the still unknown massive southern continent which presumably should exist further south from New Zealand. He and his crew would be the first persons in history who would cross the Antarctic Circle on the 17th of January 1773. The third crossing, on February 3 (or January 26?) 1774, was the most southerly penetration, reaching latitude 71°10' South at longitude 106°54' West.
James Cook's 11 years sailing around the Pacific Ocean contributed much
to European knowledge of the area. He had surveyed and charted thousands
of kilometres of coast and had solved many mysteries of the Pacific Ocean
area. Cook handled ships and crews extraordinarily well, avoided scurvy,
hitherto the scourge of long sea voyages, and conducted all of his explorations
in a remarkably peaceful fashion.
Ever the observer, he was also the first European to have extensive contact
with various people of the Pacific. Another accomplishment of Cook was the
successful employment of the K1 chronometer which facilitated accurate measurement
of longitude.
The three voyages of James Cook
The beginning
James Cook was born in the Yorkshire village of Marton on October 27, 1728. His first experience at sea came at the age of 18 when he signed on as a deckhand aboard a Whitby collier carrying coal to London. He became an accomplished mathematician in his spare time and was actually offered a command of his own ship but refused and joined the Royal Navy as a seaman. His talents were soon recognized and after two years he became master of his own ship, the Pembroke, and was ordered to chart the waters of the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
First voyage (1768-1771) of James Cook (HMS Endeavour)
After his cartographic work (charting the waters of the St. Lawrence River in Canada) James Cook was recalled to England by the Admiralty and was placed in command of the HMS Endeavour which was to take a number of scientists to the Pacific Ocean for observance of Venus.
The Endeavour departed England in 1768 and after visiting Tahiti the following year he discovered New Zealand and claimed it for Great Britain. Sailing west, in 1770 he sighted the east coast of Australia. From here he sailed north and on August 22 he claimed the whole of eastern Australia as a British possession. The Endeavour returned to England in 1771 having added significantly to Britain's potential empire in the Pacific.
Second voyage (1772-1775) of James Cook (HMS Resolution)
Shortly after his return, Cook was promoted from Lieutenant to Commander (correctly "Master and Commander"). Then once again he was commissioned by the Royal Society to search for the mythical 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; and although by charting almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia he had shown it to be continental in size, the Terra Australis being sought was supposed to lie further to the south. Despite this evidence to the contrary Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that this massive southern continent should exist.
Cook commanded HMS Resolution on this voyage, while Tobias Furneaux commanded its companion ship, HMS Adventure. Cook's expedition circumnavigated the globe at a very high southern latitude, becoming one of the first to cross the Antarctic Circle on January 17, 1773, reaching 71°10' south. He also discovered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. In the Antarctic fog, the Resolution and Adventure became separated. Furneaux made his way to New Zealand, where he lost some of his men following a fight with the Maori, and eventually sailed back to Britain, while Cook continued to explore the Antarctic.
Cook almost discovered the mainland of Antarctica, but turned back north 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 with him 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, in 1774 he landed at the Friendly Islands, Easter Island, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. His reports upon his return home put to rest the popular myth of Terra Australis.
Portrait of Captain James Cook
Third voyage (1776-1779) of James Cook (HMS Resolution)
On his last voyage, Cook once again commanded HMS Resolution, while Captain Charles Clerke commanded HMS Discovery. Ostensibly the voyage was planned to return Omai to Tahiti; this is what the general public believed, as he had become a favourite curiosity in London. After returning Omai, Cook traveled north and in 1778 became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands, which, in passing and after initial landfall in January 1778 at Waimea harbor, Kauai, he named the "Sandwich Islands" after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.
From there, he traveled east to explore the west coast of North America,
eventually landing near the First Nations village at Yuquot in Nootka Sound
on Vancouver Island, although he unknowingly sailed past the Strait of Juan
de Fuca. He explored and mapped the coast from California all the way to
the Bering Strait, on the way discovering what came to be known as Cook
Inlet in Alaska.
The Bering Strait proved to be impassable, although he made several attempts
to sail through it. Cook became increasingly frustrated on this voyage,
and perhaps began to suffer from a stomach ailment; it is speculated that
this led to irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them
to eat walrus meat - which they found inedible. (It has also been suggested
that Cook had been exhibiting irrational behavior since early in the voyage).
Cook returned to Hawaii in 1779. After sailing around the archipelago for some eight weeks, Cook finally made landfall at Kealakekua Bay, on what is now the 'Big Island' of Hawaii. There is some discussion by recent historians that Cook's arrival coincided by quirk of fate with a season of worship for the Polynesian god Lono, (Makahiki). Indeed the form of Cook's ship HMS Resolution (more particularly the mast formation, sails and rigging) resembled certain significant artifacts that formed part of the season of worship. Similarly, Cook's clockwise route around the islands before making landfall resembled the processions that took place in a clockwise direction around the island during the Lono festivals. For these reasons the arrival, it is thought, led to Cook's (and to a limited extent, his crew's) initial deification by the natives, who treated him with great reverence as possibly an incarnation of Lono himself.
Eventually, after a month's stay, Cook got undersail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific. However, shortly after leaving the Big Island, the foremast on the Resolution broke requiring the ships' return to Kealakekua Bay for repairs. The return to the islands by Cook's expedition was unexpected on the part of the Hawaiians and as the season of Lono had recently ended, tensions rose and a number of quarrels broke out between the two camps. On February 14 at Kealakekua Bay, some Hawaiians stole one of Cook's small boats. Normally, as thefts were quite common in Tahiti and the other islands, Cook would have taken hostages until the stolen articles were returned. Indeed, he planned to take hostage the Chief of Hawaii, Kalaniopu'u. However, his stomach ailment and increasingly irrational behaviour led to an altercation with a large crowd of Hawaiians gathered on the beach when Cook went ashore to retrieve the goods. The villagers, angered by his strict insistence on getting back a pair of tongs, and hearing that another British search party had killed one of their chiefs, began to attack with spears and stones. In the ensuing skirmish, shots were fired at the Hawaiians but their woven war shields protected them, and Cook's men had to retreat to the beach. As Cook turned his back to help launch the boats, he was struck on the head by the villagers and then stabbed to death[3] as he fell on his face in the surf. The Hawaiians dragged his body away.
It is thought that Cook's return to Hawaii outside the season of worship for Lono -- which was synonymous with 'peace' -- and thus in the season of 'war' (being dedicated to Ku, god of war) may have upset the equilibrium and fostered an atmosphere of resentment and aggression from the local population. Coupled with a jaded grasp of native diplomacy and a burgeoning but limited understanding of local politics, Cook may have inadvertently contributed to the tensions that ultimately conspired in his demise.
The esteem in which the Captain was nevertheless held by the natives resulted in his body being retained by their chiefs and elders (possibly for partial human consumption, though this assertion remains contentious) and the flesh cut and roasted from his bones. Indeed some of Cook's remains, disclosing some corroborating evidence to this effect, were eventually returned to the British for a formal burial at sea following an appeal by the crew.
Clerke took over the expedition and made a final attempt to pass through the Bering Strait. The Resolution and Discovery finally returned home in 1780. Cook's account of his voyage was completed by Captain James King.
The voyages of James Cook in the Pacific
red: first voyage
green: second voyage
blue: third voyage
Legacy of James Cook
James Cook's 11 years sailing around the Pacific Ocean contributed much to European knowledge of the area. Several islands such as 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 need to be known. 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 a sextant. But longitude was more difficult to measure accurately because it requires precise knowledge of the time difference between points on the surface of the earth. Earth turns a full 360 degrees relative to the Sun each day. This converts to 15 degrees every hour, and therefore 1 degree every 4 minutes. Thus longitude corresponds to time.
Cook obtained accurate longitude measurements during his first voyage due to his navigational skills, 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 nighttime 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 Kendal, which was the shape of a large pocket watch, 13 cm (5 inches) 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, 1761-1762.
There were several artists on the first voyage. Sydney Parkinson was involved
in many of the drawings, 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 the artist William Hodges, who produced
notable landscape paintings of Tahiti, Easter Island, and other locations.
Cook was accompanied by many scientists, whose observations and discoveries
added to the importance of the voyages. Joseph Banks, a botanist, went on
the first voyage along with fellow botanist Daniel Solander from Sweden.
Between them they collected over 3,000 plant species. Banks became one of
the strongest promoters of the settlement of Australia by the British, based
on his own personal observations.
Ever the observer, Cook was the first European to have extensive contact with various people of the Pacific. He sailed to many islands near the Philippines and even to smaller, more remote islands in the South Pacific. He correctly concluded there was a relationship among all the people in the Pacific, despite their being separated by thousands of miles of ocean (see Malayo-Polynesian languages).
The first tertiary education institution in North Queensland, Australia was named after the discoverer, with James Cook University opening in Townsville in 1970. Numerous other institutions, landmarks and place names reflect the importance of Cook's contribution to knowledge of geography.
Tributes abounding, too, back at 'home' in post-industrial Middlesbrough, England, include a primary school, shopping square and Claes Oldenburg public artwork, the Bottle 'O Notes, while the James Cook University Hospital, a teaching hospital in Marton, was also named after the local explorer. Marton is also the location of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum.
The HMS Resolution
Private life
James Cook (27 october 1728 - 14 february 1779)
Cook married Elizabeth Batts (1741-1835) on 21 december 1762. Together they had six children :
* James or Jamie (1763-1794)
* Nathaniel or Nat (1764-1781)
* Elizabeth or Elly (1767-1771)
* Joseph (1768-1768)
* George (1772-1772)
* Hugh or Benny (1776-1793)
James Cook died on 14 february 1779 on Hawaii during his third big voyage. This island group was called by Cook, who was the official discoverer of it, also the Sandwich Islands. He was murdered during a quarrel about the supposed theft of a boat.
The death of Cook
Cook's protégés
A number of the junior officers who served under Cook went on to distinctive accomplishments of their own.
William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, was given command
of HMS Bounty in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and return with
breadfruit. William Bligh is most known for the mutiny of his crew which
resulted in him being set adrift in 1789, The
Mutiny on the Bounty.
He later became governor of New South Wales,
where he was also the subject of another mutiny - the only successful
armed takeover of an Australian colonial government.
Information partial from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
