James Cook was born in 1728 in Yorkshire. Apprenticed to a coal shipper in
Whitby he began to learn the skills of sound navigation and accurate charting.
In 1755 he joined the Royal Navy and steadily advanced. In North America he
took part in the siege of Quebec City, and began coastal surveys of Nova
Scotia and Newfoundland. In 1768 Cook was promoted to become commander of
Endeavour Bark sent to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus. The Admiralty
in asecret instructionsa asked Cook to find the mythical southern continent.
In 1769 Cook circumnavigated New Zealand, charted its coast and took formal
possession for England. On 19 April 1770 Cook sighted another coastline.
Sailing north Cook landed at Botany Bay. And charted 5000 miles of coastline
with great accuracy. Cook took formal possession of New South Wales for
England. In 1772 Cook led a second expedition to confirm the great south land.
In 1777, Cookas third voyage explored the Pacific coasts of North America and
Siberia. Cook was killed on 14 February 1779 in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
This dataset contains transcripts of Cookas journal with corresponding links
to the digitised pages. Where possible, location information has been
extracted. For further information please see the aRead mea file within the
dataset. Data has been sourced from South Seas
and the Manuscripts collection of the National
Library of Australia.