Events
james cook was bornAccepted as a sea apprentice by John Walker, head of a shipping firm engaged in the East Coast coal trade.Volunteers for the Royal NavyPromoted master of the Solebay, later the Pembroke.Sails for Tahiti on HMS Endeavour to record observations of the Transit of Venus.Opens secret instructions from the Admiralty – he is to sail south in search for Terra Australis Incognita and explore the coast of New Zealand.Sails around New Zealand, expertly charting the coast and proving that it is not part of a great southern continent.Lands in Botany Bay encountering the first aborigines.he Endeavour lands at Batavia for a much-needed refit. Many of Cook's men suffer and die from malaria and dysentery.Cook, now a commander, sets out with two colliers, Resolution and Adventure.Cook becomes the first navigator to cross the Antarctic Circle.The crews return to Tahiti and then visit Tonga. When they turn south to explore the Antarctic once more, the two vessels lose touch and Furneaux, in command of Adventure, leaves New Zealand and heads home.Cook's travels in the South Pacific have proved that there is no habitable continent. Instead of returning home, he continues to explore.Cook explores and accurately charts Easter Island, the Marquesas Islands and the Friendly Isles and others.Cook sets off again with the Resolution and Discovery in search of the North-West passage.The two ships head north, charting the southern coast of Alaska. An impenetrable ice wall forces them back to Hawaii. Initially, Cook is greeted as a god but relations between the sailors and the islanders soon deteriorate.Periods
Surveys the coast of Newfoundland, observes an eclipse.Clerke, previously in charge of the Discovery, now takes command but dies of consumption six months later. Lieutenant Gore of the Resolution eventually brings the ships home.
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