1. Captain cook the sailor

2. (Captain) James Cook James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. 1775, National Maritime Museum, GreenwichBorn7 November [O.S. 27 October] 1728 Marton, Yorkshire, EnglandDied14 February 1779 (aged 50) HawaiiNationalityBritishEducationPostgate School, Great AytonOccupationExplorer, navigator, cartographerTitleCaptainSpouse(s)Elizabeth BattsChildrenJames Cook, Nathaniel Cook, Elizabeth Cook, Joseph Cook, George Cook, Hugh CookParentsJames Cook, Grace PaceSignatureNathaniel Dance National Maritime MuseumGreenwichO.S. MartonYorkshire Hawaii Great AytonCaptain

3. facing death Cook died in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians duringHawaii Hawaiians his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.

4. Voyage of the Endeavour In 1768 the Royal Society requested the Admiralty's aid in observing the transit of Venus at Tahiti, to occur in June 1769, and Cook was given command of the expedition. Secret instructions made clear that Cook also was to search for terra australis incognita, the "unknown southern land." Cook and the Endeavour left Plymouth on Aug. 26, 1768. In addition to its crew the Endeavour carried an astronomer, two botanists, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, and artists. The Endeavour travelled by way of the Madeira, Canary, and Cape Verde islands and Rio de Janeiro and rounded Cape Horn into the Pacific. Cook carried good provisions and citrus products and thus avoided the plague of scurvy. The ship reached Tahiti in April 1769. During their three months there the scientists examined the island thoroughly and observed the transit of Venus on June 3. They sailed west with a Tahitian guide through the Society Islands and then southward, finally reaching land on Oct. 7, 1769. Cook had rediscovered New Zealand, originally discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642. He spent several months circling and surveying North Island and South Island, proving that they were islands and not a continent. The expedition then sailed west, reached the unexplored eastern coast of Australia, which he chartered and claimed for Great Britain. Sailing north, Cook saved the Endeavour after it struck and was grounded on a coral reef. Overall about 3,200 km (2,000 miles) of Australian coast was surveyed. Cook also confirmed the existence of a passage between Australia and New Guinea (the Torres Strait). The expedition sailed on, refitted at Batavia in Java, and returned by way of the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope. It reached England on July 13, 1771.