James Cook#North America

James Cook was born on 7 November 1728{{efn|name=ns|Born on 7 November (New Style), 27 October (Old style). Dates in this article are in the New Style.}} in the village of Marton, located in the North Riding of Yorkshire, approximately eight miles from the sea.{{harvnb|Robson|2009|p=2.}}{{efn|He was baptised on 14 November in the parish church of St Cuthbert.}} He was the second of eight children of James Cook (1693–1779), a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, and his wife, Grace Pace (1702–1765), from Thornaby-on-Tees.{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=25.}}{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p=1.}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=13–15}} In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=2-5}} In 1741, after five years of schooling, he began work for his father who had been promoted to farm manager.

In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved {{convert|20|mi|km}} to the fishing village of Staithes to be apprenticed as a shopboy to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson. The historian Vanessa Collingridge speculates that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=31–33}}

After 18 months, Cook, not proving suited for shop work, travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby and was introduced to Sanderson's friends John and Henry Walker. The Walkers were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade.{{sfn|Horwitz|2003|pp=305-309}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=33–35}} Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy – all skills he would need one day to command his own ship.{{Sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=34–36}}

His three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on merchant ships in the Baltic Sea. After passing his examinations in 1752, he soon progressed through the merchant navy ranks, starting with his promotion in that year to mate aboard the collier brig Friendship.{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=11.}} He served as mate on the Friendship for two and a half years, visiting ports in Norway and Netherlands, learning to navigate in shallow waters along the east coast of Britain, and traversing the Irish Sea and the English Channel.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=12}}

{{Further|Great Britain in the Seven Years' War}}

In 1755, Britain was re-arming for what was to become the Seven Years' War. Cook realised his career would advance more quickly in the military than in commercial shipping, despite the need to start at the bottom of the naval hierarchy. So at age 26, he entered the Navy at Wapping on 17 June 1755.{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=27.}}

Cook's first posting was with {{HMS|Eagle|1745|6}}, serving as able seaman and master's mate under Captain Joseph Hamar for his first year aboard, and Captain Hugh Palliser thereafter.{{harvnb|Robson|2009|pp=19–25.}} In October and November 1755, he took part in Eagle's capture of one French warship and the sinking of another, following which he was promoted to boatswain in addition to his other duties. His first temporary command was in March 1756 when he was briefly master of Cruizer, a small cutter attached to Eagle while on patrol.{{harvnb|McLynn|2011|p=21.}} In June 1757, Cook passed his master's examinations at Trinity House, Deptford, qualifying him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's fleet.{{cite web

|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/captaincook_01.shtml

|title=Captain Cook: Explorer, Navigator and Pioneer

|first=Glyndwr

|last=Williams

|author-link=Glyndwr Williams

|date=17 February 2011

|access-date=5 September 2011

|publisher=BBC

|archive-date=19 August 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819202628/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/captaincook_01.shtml

|url-status=live

}} He then joined the sixth-rate frigate HMS Solebay as master under Captain Robert Craig.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=25}}{{efn|HMS Solebay was commissioned in 1744, captured by the French in 1744, cut out by a British privateer in 1746, and recommissioned in the British Navy in 1746.{{cite book

| title=British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates

| author=Winfield

| first= Rif

| isbn=9781783469253

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5WCAwAAQBAJ

| year=2007

| publisher=Pen & Sword Books

| pages =1894, 1902, 2084

}}

}}

During the Seven Years' War, Cook served in North America as master aboard the fourth-rate Navy vessel {{HMS|Pembroke|1757|6}}.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=14-23}} With others in Pembroke{{'}}s crew, he took part in the major amphibious assault that captured the Fortress of Louisbourg from the French in 1758, and in the siege of Quebec City in 1759.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=16-21}}

The day after the fall of Louisbourg, Cook met an army officer, Samuel Holland, who was using a plane table to survey the area.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=18}} The two men had an immediate connection through their interest in surveying, and Holland taught Cook the methods he was using. They collaborated on developing preliminary charts of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River, with Cook most likely the author of the sailing directions for the river written in 1758. The combination of Holland's land-surveying techniques{{efn|Cook later extended his land-surveying abilities with instruments such as the theodolite.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=86}}}} and Cook's hydrographic skills enabled the latter, from that time onwards, to produce nautical charts for coastal areas that substantially exceeded the accuracy of such Admiralty charts of the time.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=33, 40-41}}{{sfn|McLynn|2011|p=34}}

As General Wolfe's advance on Quebec progressed in 1759, Cook and other ship's masters took soundings, marked shoals, and updated charts{{snd}}particularly around Quebec. This information enabled Wolfe to mount a stealth attack at night, transporting troops across the river, leading to victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=18-19}}{{sfn|McLynn|2011|pp=37-38}}

File:Cooks Karte von Neufundland.jpg, made from James Cook's Seven Years' War surveyings.]]

Cook's surveying ability was also put to use in mapping the jagged coast of Newfoundland in the 1760s, as master of {{HMS|Grenville|1754|6}}.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=78-79}} He surveyed the northwest stretch in 1763 and 1764, the south coast between the Burin Peninsula and Cape Ray in 1765 and 1766, and the west coast in 1767. Cook employed local pilots to point out the rocks and hidden dangers along the south and west coasts. During the 1765 season, local pilots were engaged to assist with mapping Fortune Bay, Connaigre Bay, Hermitage Bay, the Bay d'Espoir and the coast west of St. Lawrence.{{cite web

|url=http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/JamesCookInNewfoundland1762_1767.pdf

|title=James Cook in Newfoundland 1762–1767

|first=William

|last=Whiteley

|year=1975

|page = 11

|access-date=27 August 2012

|work=Newfoundland Historical Society Pamphlet Number 3

|archive-date=13 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513194810/http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/JamesCookInNewfoundland1762_1767.pdf

|url-status=dead

}}{{efn|

The four pilots were: John Beck for the coast west of "Great St Lawrence", Morgan Snook for Fortune Bay, John Dawson for Connaigre Bay and Hermitage Bay, and John Peck for the "Bay of Despair".

}}

While in Newfoundland, Cook also conducted astronomical observations, in particular of the eclipse of the sun on 5 August 1766.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=32-35}} By obtaining an accurate estimate of the time of the start and finish of the eclipse, and comparing these with the timings at a known position in England, it was possible to calculate the longitude of the observation site in Newfoundland. This result was communicated to the Royal Society in 1767.{{cite journal |first1=James |last1=Cook |first2=J. |last2=Bevis |title=An Observation of an Eclipse of the Sun at the Island of New-Found-Land, August 5, 1766, by Mr. James Cook, with the Longitude of the Place of Observation Deduced from It

|date=1 January 1767

|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

|volume=57

|pages=215–216

|doi=10.1098/rstl.1767.0025

|url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans04718464

|doi-access=free

|issn=0261-0523}}

Cook's hydrographic surveys in Newfoundland{{snd}}conducted over five seasons{{snd}}produced the first large-scale, accurate maps of the island's coasts. They were the first large-scale surveys to use precise triangulation to establish land outlines.{{cite web

|url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain_Cook_Monument_Corner_Brook.jpg

|work=Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

|title=Captain James Cook R. N.

|last=Government of Canada

|year=2012

|access-date=2 November 2012

|archive-date=8 January 2014

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108021300/http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain_Cook_Monument_Corner_Brook.jpg

|url-status=live

}} They also gave Cook his mastery of practical surveying, achieved under often adverse conditions, and brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society at a crucial moment both in his career and in the direction of British overseas discovery. Cook's charts were used for over 100 years.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=33}}

At the end of the 1767 surveying season, while HMS Grenville was returning to her home port of Deptford, Cook encountered a storm at the entrance to the Thames. He anchored Grenville off the Nore lighthouse and prepared the ship to ride out the weather. One anchor cable broke, and the ship went aground on a shoal. Despite efforts to improve the situation, Cook and his crew were obliged to abandon ship. They returned when the storm eventually abated, lightened and re-rigged the ship and continued into Deptford.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=93-94}}{{sfn|McLynn|2011|p=61}}

File:Cook Three Voyages 59.png

{{Main|First voyage of James Cook}}

Cook's first scientific voyage was a three-year expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, conducted from 1768 to 1771. The voyage was jointly sponsored by the Royal Navy and Royal Society.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|p=cix}}{{efn|The Royal Society agreed to pay Cook a one hundred guinea gratuity, equivalent to {{GBP|{{Inflation|UK-GDP|{{£sd |g=100}}|1768|r=0}}|link=yes}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}}, in addition to his Naval pay.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|p=cix}}}} The publicly stated goal was to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=47-56}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=95}} Additional objectives{{snd}}outlined in sealed orders not to be opened until Cook reached Tahiti{{snd}}were searching for the postulated Terra Australis Incognita (undiscovered southern land) and claiming lands for Britain.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=47-56}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=95}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|pp=cclxxii-cclxxiii}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|pp=cclxxii-cclxxiii}}{{efn |name=order|The sealed orders to Cook in his first voyage read, in part: "You are also with the Consent of the Natives to take possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain; or, if you find the Country uninhabited take Possession for His Majesty by setting up Proper Marks and Inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors. ... You will also observe with accuracy the Situation of such Islands as you may discover in the Course of your Voyage that have not hitherto been discover’d by any Europeans, and take possession for His Majesty and make Surveys and Draughts of such of them as may appear to be of Consequence, without Suffering yourself however to be thereby diverted from the Object which you are always to have in View, the Discovery of the Southern Continent so often Mentioned."{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|pp=cclxxii-cclxxiii}} }}{{efn |

During the first voyage, Cook laid claims to several lands, including:

• Raʻiātea, the second largest island in Society Islands (after Tahiti), 21 July 1769.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|p=144}}
• Mercury Bay in modern New Zealand, 15 November 1769.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|pp= 203-204}}
• Queen Charlotte Sound in modern New Zealand, 30 January 1770.{{sfn| Collingridge|2003|p=189}}
• Entire east coast of modern Australia (Cook called it New South Wales) 22 August 1770.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|pp=387-388}}

}}

In early 1768, the Admiralty asked shipwright Adam Hayes to select a vessel for the expedition; he chose the merchant collier Earl of Pembroke, which the Royal Navy renamed Endeavour.{{sfn|McLintock|1966}}{{harvnb|Kippis|1788|pp=22,23}}. Kippis incorrectly states that Cook and Hugh Palliser selected the ship for the voyage.{{cite web

|url = https://www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-voyages/first-pacific-voyage/april-june-1768

|access-date=25 May 2025

|title=April - June, 1768

|year=2018

|website=Captain Cook Society

}} The Captain Cook Society cites Admiralty Minutes curated at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. Specific records are: 5 April 1768 ADM/3/76; 12 April 1768 ADM/3/76;

12 April 1768 ADM/3/76; 25 May 1768 ADM/3/76.{{efn|The Earl of Pembroke was built by Thomas Fishburn, launched in June 1764 from the Port of Whitby.{{sfn|McLintock|1966}} Cook had lived in Whitby for three years when apprenticing for the merchant marine, and he was familiar with colliers, and with Fishburn.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=46}}

}} On 5 May 1768{{snd}}based on the recommendation of Hugh Palliser{{snd}}Cook, age 39, was selected by the Admiralty to lead the voyage.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=38-39}}{{efn|Before Cook was selected to lead the voyage, the Royal Society (co-sponsor of the expedition) had suggested geographer Alexander Dalrymple as a leader, but Edward Hawke, first Lord of the Admiralty, rejected Dalrymple, reportedly saying he would sooner have his right hand cut off than permit anyone but a King's Officer to command one of the ships of His Majesty's Navy.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=38-39}}}} The next day, he took his examination for the rank of lieutenant{{snd}}a rank that was required for the captain of a ship armed with the number of guns planned for Endeavour.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=38-39}}{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=30.}}{{efn|The promotion to lieutenant was effective on 25 May 1768, the date he took command.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=38-39}}}}

Like most colliers, Endeavour had a large hold, a sturdy construction that would tolerate grounding, was small enough to be careened for repairs, and had a small draft that enabled navigating in shallows.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=280}}{{sfn|Hosty|Hundley|2003|p=41}} Upon completion of the first voyage, Cook wrote "It was to these properties in her, those on board owe their Preservation. Hence I was enabled to prosecute Discoveries in those Seas so much longer than any other Man ever did or could do."{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=280}} When selecting ships for his second voyage in 1772, Cook chose the same type of ship, from the same shipbuilder.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=280-281}}

The Admiralty authorised a ship's company of 73 sailors and 12 Royal Marines.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|p=588}} Cook's second lieutenant was Zachary Hicks, and his third lieutenant was John Gore, a 16-year Naval veteran who had already circumnavigated the world twice aboard HMS Dolphin.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=63–64}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1968|p=cxxx}} Also on the ship were astronomer Charles Green and 25-year-old naturalist Joseph Banks.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=50-52}} Banks provided funding for seven others to join the journey, including two naturalists, two artists, a secretary, and two servants.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=57-63}}{{cite book

|first=Richard

|last=Holmes

|title=The Age of Wonder

|isbn=9780307378323

|publisher=HarperPress

|year=2009

}}, p. 10. Holmes incorrectly states that Green's first name was William, not Charles.{{efn|Banks' employees abord the Endeavour included Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander, Finnish naturalist Herman Spöring, two artists (Alexander Buchan and Sydney Parkinson), and two black servants.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=57-63}}}}

{{further|1769 transit of Venus observed from Tahiti}}

The expedition departed England on 26 August 1768.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=140}} Cook and his crew rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific, arriving at Tahiti on 13 April 1769, where the observations of the transit were made.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=101-102,146, 158-165}} However, the result of the observations was not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=165}} Once the observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders, which instructed him to search for the postulated southern continent of Terra Australis.{{cite web |title=Secret Instructions to Captain Cook, 30 June 1768 |publisher=National Archives of Australia |url=http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw1_doc_1768.pdf |access-date=3 September 2011 |archive-date=27 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427203030/https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw1_doc_1768.pdf |url-status=live}}

[[File:Cook's landing at Botany Bay.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15

|alt=Cook in a small boat, approaching a shore, where two Australian Aborigines are standing

|Cook landing at Botany Bay, artist unknown.]]

{{see also|European maritime exploration of Australia}}

From Tahiti, Cook sailed to New Zealand and landed near the Tūranganui River.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=114-118}} Encounters with the Māori on the first two days were violent: a Māori was shot and killed on each of the days.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=114-118}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=198-201}} Cook then sailed around both of New Zealand's main islands, mapping the complete coastline.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=119-138}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=202-225}} With the aid of Tupaia, a Tahitian priest who had joined the expedition, Cook was the first European to communicate with the Māori.{{cite book

|last=Salmond

|first=Anne

|author-link=Anne Salmond

|title=Two worlds: First Meetings Between Māori and Europeans, 1642–1772

|url=https://archive.org/details/twoworldsfirstme0000anne

|access-date=29 May 2025

|date=1991

|publisher=Viking

|isbn=0-670-83298-7

|oclc=26545658

}}

The expedition continued west and, on 19 April 1770,{{efn|At this time, the International Date Line had yet to be established, so the dates in Cook's journal are a day earlier than those accepted today.}} they sighted Point Hicks and became the first recorded Europeans to encounter Australia's eastern coastline.{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1974|pp=226–228.}}{{cite web

|date=18 July 2018

|title=Queensland's History Pre-1700s

|url=https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/timeline/pre-1700s

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615052433/https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/timeline/pre-1700s

|archive-date=15 June 2024

|access-date=29 December 2024

|website=Queensland Government}}{{efn|Earlier explorers had encountered the northern (Willem Janszoon) and southern (François Thijssen and Abel Tasman) coasts of Australia.}} Endeavour continued northwards along the coastline, keeping the land in sight, while Cook charted and named landmarks along the way.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=137-140}} On 23 April, Cook saw Aboriginal Australians for the first time at Brush Island near Bawley Point.{{cite web

|url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700422.html

|title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 22 April 1770

|access-date=21 September 2011

|archive-date=27 September 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927080037/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700422.html

|url-status=live}}

{{efn|Cook noted 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 C[l]othes they might have on I know not."}}

On 29 April, they made their first landfall on the continent in Botany Bay, at the east end of Silver Beach.{{efn|The landing location is within the modern Kamay Botany Bay National Park. Cook initially named the bay Sting-Ray Harbour, after the many stingrays found there,{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=142}} but later changed it to Botany Bay, in recognition of the unique specimens retrieved by expedition botanists Banks and Solander.{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1974|p=230.}}}} In the expedition's first direct encounter with Aboriginal Australians, two Gweagal men of the Dharawal and Eora nation opposed the landing, and one of them was shot and wounded by Cook's crew.{{cite web |title=Voices heard but not understood |url=https://www.gujaga.org.au/stories/voices-heard-but-not-understood |access-date=28 May 2022 |website=Gujaga Foundation |date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308075129/https://www.gujaga.org.au/stories/voices-heard-but-not-understood |url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 29 April 1770 |url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700429.html |access-date=25 October 2019 |website=southseas.nla.gov.au |publisher=South Seas |archive-date=8 April 2011 |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20110408181719/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700429.html |url-status=live}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|pp=141–43.}} Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, exploring the surrounding area and collecting water, timber, fodder, and botanical specimens.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=140-144}} Cook sought to establish relations with the indigenous population{{snd}}without success.{{Cite book

|last=FitzSimons

|first=Peter

|title=James Cook: the story behind the man who mapped the world

|date=2019

|publisher=Hachette Australia

|isbn=978-0-7336-4127-5

|pages=304–306

|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/James_Cook/oqWiDwAAQBAJ

|access-date=29 May 2025

}}{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|pp=146–157.}}{{efn|name=jbnsw|

After the first expedition was completed, Joseph Banks promoted Botany Bay (the location of Cook's first landing in Australia) as a candidate for a settlement and British colonial outpost. This led to the establishment of New South Wales as a penal settlement in 1788.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=142}}

{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|p=287.}}

{{cite web

|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/banks_sir_joseph.shtml

|title=Sir Joseph Banks

|publisher=BBC

|year=2011

|access-date=8 August 2011 |archive-date=25 January 2012

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125072305/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/banks_sir_joseph.shtml

|url-status=live}}

{{cite book

|chapter-url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/solander-daniel-2677

|chapter=Solander, Daniel (1733–1782) |title=Australian Dictionary of Biography

|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University

|first=L. A.

|last=Gilbert

|access-date=22 September 2011

|archive-date=19 September 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919080043/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/solander-daniel-2677

|url-status=live

}}

}}

[[File:StateLibQld 1 184663 Endeavour (ship).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3

|alt=A large wooden ship, resting on its side on a beach

|Cook deliberately beached the Endeavour to repair damage received when running aground on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770. Drawing by ship artist Sydney Parkinson.]]

After departing Botany Bay, they continued northwards, hugging the coast and charting it.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=142-144}} They stopped at Bustard Bay on 23 May 1770, then proceeded north through the shallow and extremely dangerous Great Barrier Reef.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=145-147}} On 11 June Endeavour ran aground on the reef at high tide.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=148-151}} The ship was stuck fast, so Cook ordered all excess weight thrown overboard, including six cannons and some of the ship's ballast. She was eventually hauled off after 27 hours, on the second high tide after the grounding.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=237-239}} The ship was leaking badly, so the crew fothered the damage (hauling a spare sail under the ship to cover and slow the leak).{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=148-151}} Cook then careened the ship on a beach at the mouth of the Endeavour River for seven weeks while repairs were undertaken.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=151-155}}{{Harvnb|Blainey|2020|pp=195–197, 227.}}

The voyage continued northward until they reached the northeast tip of Australia: Cape York. Searching for a vantage point to look for a route forward, Cook saw a hill on a nearby island. On 22 August 1770, he stood atop the island and claimed the entire Australian coast that he had surveyed as British territory, and named the island Possession Island.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=118,237}}{{Cite web |last=Cook |first=James |date=21 August 1770 |title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries |url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700821.html |access-date=28 August 2020 |website=National Library of Australia |archive-date=31 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031092849/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700821.html |url-status=live}} The expedition then turned west and continued homeward through the shallow and dangerous waters of the Torres Strait.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=118,237}}

In October 1770, Cook stopped in Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia), where the Dutch dockyard facilities were used to inspect and repair the damage from running aground on the Great Barrier Reef.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=253}} While in Batavia, seven of his crew died from dysentery, and 40 were sickened.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=201-208}}{{sfn|Edwards|2003|p=189}}{{efn|Many of the crew were weakened from malaria, in addition to dysentary.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=201-208}}}} From Batavia, he sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, then to the island of Saint Helena, arriving on 30 April 1771.{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1968|p=468.}} The ship finally returned to England on 12 July 1771, anchoring in the Downs.{{cite web |url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/the-first-voyage-1768-1771

|title=The First Voyage (1768–1771)

|website=Captain Cook Society

|access-date=24 July 2019

|archive-date=3 April 2020

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200403121441/https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/the-first-voyage-1768-1771

|url-status=live}}{{efn|The duration of the first voyage was 1,050 days, from 26 August 1768 to 12 July 1771.}}

Shortly after his return, Cook was promoted in August 1771 to the rank of commander.{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=180.}}{{harvnb|McLynn|2011|p=167.}} A book based on the journals of Cook and Banks of the voyage was published in 1773.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=439-40}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=262-263}}{{efn|

The journals of Cook and Banks were edited and rewritten by John Hawkesworth, and were combined journals of several other British naval expeditions to the Pacific to produce a single work.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=439-40}} }} Banks received accolades from the press and the scientific community.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=251-254}}

[[File:James Cook's portrait by William Hodges.jpg|thumb

|Portrait of James Cook c. 1775. By William Hodges, who accompanied Cook on the second voyage.]]

{{Main|Second voyage of James Cook}}

In 1772, Cook was commissioned to lead another scientific expedition on behalf of the Royal Society, with the objective of determining the existence of the hypothetical continent Terra Australis.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=179-180}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=256}}

This voyage would have two ships and, unlike the first voyage, Cook selected them himself: {{HMS|Resolution|1771|6}} commanded by Cook, and {{HMS|Adventure|1771|6}}, commanded by Tobias Furneaux.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=181}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=256}} Resolution began her career as the North Sea collier Marquis of Granby, launched at Whitby in 1770. She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including an azimuth compass, ice anchors, and an apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water.{{cite web|title=Log book of HMS 'Resolution'|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00058/15|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|access-date=23 July 2013}}

Banks planned to travel with Cook in the second voyage, but his excessive demands for modifications to the ship conflicted with the Admiralty's constraints, so he removed himself from the voyage before it departed.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=259-263}} Banks was replaced by German naturalists Johann Reinhold Forster and his son, Georg Forster.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=264-266}} The crew also included astronomer William Wales (responsible for the new K1 chronometer carried on the Resolution), lieutenant Charles Clerke, and artist William Hodges.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=264-266}}

After departing England, the ships travelled south to South Africa and stopped at Cape Town in November 1772.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=197-204}} From there they sailed eastward, planning to circumnavigate the globe roughly between 50°S and 70°S latitude.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=197-204}}{{efn|

South of 40°S latitude, the strong prevailing westerly winds of the Roaring forties gave a much faster eastward journey. Sailing this far south was established as a route to the East Indies by the Dutch seafarer Hendrick Brouwer early in the 17th century. Unlike Cook, Dutch ships had to make a well-timed northward turn to reach the bases of the Dutch East India Company. Those ships that turned late on this route were among the early wrecks of European ships on the western coast of Australia, with rescue parties and survivors contributing to the initial knowledge of this part of the world.{{cite book

| title=Dutch East India Company Shipbuilding: The Archaeological Study of Batavia and Other Seventeenth-Century VOC Ships

| author=van Duivenvoorde

|first= Wendy

| isbn=9781623491796

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhFDDQAAQBAJ

|access-date=26 May 2025

| year=2015

| publisher=Texas A&M University Press

|page=2

}}

}} In late November 1772, the ships sighted their first icebergs and Cook performed an experiment: his crew chopped blocks of ice from ice flows and melted them onboard the ships, producing good quality fresh water, proving that drinking water could be obtained from sea ice.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=202-204}} On 17 January 1773 the crews became the first recorded Europeans to cross the Antarctic Circle.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=202-204}}{{cite web

|title=Exploring Antarctica - a timeline

|publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich

|url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/maritime-history/history-antarctic-explorers

|access-date=23 May 2025

}} Despite his mission to find Terra Australis, Cook never sighted Antarctica in any of his voyages; but on 18 January{{snd}}unbeknownst to him{{snd}}the ships approached within {{convert|75|mi|km}} of Antarctica.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=202-204}}

[[File:The Resolution and Adventure taking in ice for water 4 January 1773.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3

|alt=Two large wooden ships at rest in the ocean, next to icebergs

|The Resolution and Adventure retrieving ice to melt for drinking water. By expedition artist William Hodges, 1773.]]

In February 1773, in dense Antarctic fog, Resolution and Adventure became separated.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=205}} Furneaux made his way{{snd}}via Tasmania{{efn|At the time, Tasmania was named Van Diemen's Land.}}{{snd}}to a pre-arranged rendezvous point to be used in the event of separation: Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand. Cook joined Furneaux in New Zealand in May.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=205,213-214}} The crews traded with the Māori people, and in his journal, Cook lamented the fact that Europeans were possibly transmitting diseases to the indigenous people and encouraging prostitution.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=218}}

In June, the ships departed New Zealand{{snd}} in the southern winter{{snd}}to resume their eastward search for Terra Australis.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=219}} About a month after leaving New Zealand, 20 crewmen of the Adventure contracted scurvy because Furneaux had failed to follow Cook's dietary instructions.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=219-220}} The ships proceeded in a small anti-clockwise loop, visiting Tahiti and Tonga, planning to return to New Zealand together.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=220-228}} Before reaching New Zealand, in the night of 29–30 October, the ships became separated for a second time{{snd}}this time caused by a storm.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=230-233}} Cook proceeded to the rendezvous point, and waited three weeks, then departed to continue the voyage alone.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=230-233}}

[[File:A Maori man and Joseph Banks exchanging a crayfish for a piece of cloth, c. 1769.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2

|alt=A Māori man and an English man, trading a crayfish for a piece of cloth.

|A Māori man and Joseph Banks trading a crayfish and cloth. Drawing by Polynesian interpreter Tupaia, made {{circa}} 1769 during Cook's first voyage.{{Cite web

|title=Tupaia's painting of Joseph Banks

|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/46863/tupaias-painting-of-joseph-banks

|access-date=18 January 2024

|website=Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

|publisher=Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

|first=Joan

|last=Druett

|year=2017

}} The person on the right side of the drawing is Joseph Banks.]]

Delayed by storms, Furneaux arrived at the designated rendezvous point in Queen Charlotte Sound five weeks after they separated, missing Cook by four days.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=230-233}} While eleven members of the Adventure’s crew were ashore gathering provisions, a violent altercation occurred with a group of Māori, resulting in the deaths of all the crewmen and two Māori.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=230-233}} Furneaux later discovered the bodies of the crew members, partially burned in preparation for cannibalism.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=230-233}}

Many members of the Adventure's crew wanted to exact revenge on the Māori, but Furneaux thought it prudent to avoid additional violence, so they left New Zealand and quickly returned to Britain, without Cook.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=258}}{{efn|Furneaux reached England on 14 July 1774. The Adventure was the first ship to circumnavigate the globe west-to-east; and Furneaux became the first person to circumnavigate the globe in both directions.{{cite book

|last=David

|first= Andrew C. F.

|chapter=Furneaux, Tobias (1735–1781)

|title= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|date= 3 January 2008

}}}} When learning about the deaths much later,{{efn|name=learn|Cook did not learn of the deaths of the Adventure's boat crew until March 1775, when he reached South Africa.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=255}}}} Cook wondered if Furneaux's crew was at fault, writing "I must ... observe in favour of the New Zealanders that I have always found them of a brave, noble, open and benevolent disposition".{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=255}}

After the missed rendezvous, Resolution made a large anti-clockwise loop in the south Pacific: heading far south, then visiting Easter Island, Tofua, Melanesia, and New Zealand.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=238-245}} In the first stretch of the large loop, the Resolution continued her search for Terra Australis by heading southeast, reaching her most southern latitude of 71°10′S in January 1774.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=236}} When his ship reached that southernmost point, and progress was blocked by impenetrable pack ice, Cook wrote in his private diary: "I will not say it was impossible anywhere to get in among this Ice, but I will assert that the bare attempting of it would be a very dangerous enterprise and what I believe no man in my situation would have thought of. I whose ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go...".{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=365}}

When Cook returned to Queen Charlotte Sound, the Māori were apprehensive because they believed that Cook would take revenge for the deaths of the eleven men from the Adventure, but Cook was unaware of the killings.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=243-244}}{{efn|name=learn}}

File:Cook-1777.PNG of South Georgia prepared in 1777 by Cook. Track of the Resolution is drawn as straight line segments around the islands.]]

Leaving New Zealand, the Resolution proceeded home, sailing south of Tierra del Fuego, and stopping at South Georgia Island in January 1775, where Cook charted the coast and claimed the island group in the name of his king.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=251}} From there, they travelled to South Africa, then north back to Britain.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=251-263}}{{efn|The duration of the second voyage was 1,112 days, from 13 July 1772 to 30 July 1775.}}

The primary objective of the second voyage was to determine if the hypothesised continent Terra Australis existed. After the trip, the general consensus was that the landmass did not exist, because it was imagined to extend into the temperate latitudes, and Cook had demonstrated that no polar landmass reached beyond about 50°.{{sfn|Blainey|2020|pp=39-42}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=255,263}}

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.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=324-325}} He reluctantly accepted, insisting that he be allowed to quit the post if an opportunity for active duty should arise.{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1974|p=444.}} 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.{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=79.}} Nathaniel Dance-Holland painted his portrait; he dined with James Boswell; and he was described in the House of Lords as "the first navigator in Europe".

[[File:Hodges, Resolution and Adventure in Matavai Bay.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb

|alt=Two large wooden ships entering a bay near a tropical island, surrounded by several Tahitians in canoes

|Resolution and Adventure in Tahiti, painted by William Hodges, 1776.]]

{{Main|Third voyage of James Cook}}

The primary objective of Cook's third expedition was to search for a Northwest Passage connecting the north Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=268,280-282}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=327}}{{efn|Simultaneously, the Admiralty was organizing a second expedition to search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic side.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=268,280-282}}}} To keep the goal of the mission secret, the Admiralty publicly declared that its aim was to return Polynesian native Omai to his home in Tahiti.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=270}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=327}}{{efn|When Cook visited Tahiti during his second voyage, Omai (originally from Raʻiātea) asked Furneaux for passage to England, and Furneaux obliged. Omai spent two years in England, where he was very popular.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=226, 267}}}}

On this voyage, Cook again commanded the Resolution, while Captain Charles Clerke commanded {{HMS|Discovery|1774|6}}.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=274-280}}{{efn|The Discovery was also a Whitby-built collier.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=337}}}} Cook's lieutenants included John Gore and James King.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=274-280}} William Bligh was the master.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=274-280}}{{efn|William Bligh would later be given command of {{HMS|Bounty||6}} in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and return with breadfruit. Bligh's crew mutinied, and placed him and 18 others into an open boat 23 feet (7 m) long. Bligh successfully navigated 3618 miles (5822 km) to Timor, arriving with all men alive.{{ cite book

| url = http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010111b.htm

| access-date = 28 May 2025

| first = A. G. L.

| last= Shaw

| author-link =A. G. L. Shaw

| chapter=Bligh, William (1754–1817)

| title=Australian Dictionary of Biography

| volume =1

| publisher= Melbourne University Press

| year= 1966

| pages= 118–122

}}

He later became Governor of New South Wales.{{cite web |url=http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_william_bligh.htm |title=Biography: William Bligh |work=Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard |year=2011 |access-date=7 August 2011 |archive-date=9 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209022850/http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_william_bligh.htm |url-status=live}}

.}} William Anderson was surgeon and botanist, William Bayly served as astronomer, and John Webber was the official artist.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=274-280}} Among the midshipmen was George Vancouver.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=274-280}}{{efn|Vancouver, one of Cook's midshipmen, later commanded a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Coast of North America from 1791 to 1794.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=367}}{{cite book

|volume= IV (1771-1800)

|first=W. Kaye

|last=Lamb

|url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2195

|title = Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

|chapter=George Vancouver

|access-date=1 June 2025

}}}} Welshman David Samwell served as the surgeon's mate.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=277}}{{efn|David Samwell, a Welsh surgeon who accompanied Cook on the third voyage, described him as: "... above six feet high, and though a good looking man, he was plain both in address and appearance. His head was small, his hair, which was dark brown, he wore tied behind. His face was full of expression, his nose exceedingly well shaped, his eyes which were of a brown cast, were quick and piercing: his eyebrows prominent, which gave his countenance altogether an air of austerity."{{sfn|Samwell|1786|pp=20-21}}}}

The third voyage began by sailing south from England, around South Africa, and into the Pacific Ocean.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=289-301}} After stopping in New Zealand, the expedition returned Omai to his homeland of Tahiti.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=371-376}}

Cook continued northward and{{snd}}after a brief stop at Kiritimati Atoll{{snd}}became the first recorded European to see the Hawaiian Islands, on 18 January 1778.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=380-381}}{{efn|Some historians speculate that Spanish trading ships may have seen or even visited the Hawaiian islands before Cook, but kept the discovery secret to protect their lucrative trade route between Acapulco and Manila.{{cite book| last = Kane| first = Herb Kawainui| author-link = Herb Kawainui Kane| editor = Bob Dye| chapter = The Manila Galleons| title = Hawaii Chronicles: Island History from the Pages of Honolulu Magazine| volume = I| publisher = University of Hawaiʻi Press| year = 1996| pages = 25–32| isbn = 978-0-8248-1829-6}}

}} During this first visit to Hawaii, they made landfall at two locations: Waimea harbour on the island of Kauai, and the nearby island of Nihau.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=314-315}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=380-381}}{{efn|Cook did not encounter the large island on this visit.}} When he first stepped ashore, the Hawaiians prostrated themselves in front of Cook.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=314-315}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=380-381}} Cook and his naturallists observed remarkable similarities between the cultures of Hawaii and Tahiti, including language, marae structures, religion, and treatment of the dead.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=314-315}} He named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich—the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=380-381}}{{efn|One of Cook's crew, John Williamson, shot and killed a Hawaiian man during the visit. Cook was furious when he found out.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=380-381}}}}

[[File:Captain James Cook in Matavai Bay, Tahiti; by John Cleveley the Younger.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15

|alt=Two large wooden ships in a bay of Tahiti, with several Tahitian canoes

|HMS Resolution and Discovery in Matavai Bay, Tahiti. By John Cleveley the Younger.]]

From Hawaii, Cook sailed northeast to reach the west coast of North America and begin his search for a Northwest Passage.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=316-321}} He sighted the Oregon coast at approximately 44°30′ north latitude, naming it Cape Foulweather, after the bad weather which forced his ships south to about 43° before they could begin their exploration of the coast northward.{{harvnb|Hayes|1999|pp=42–43.}} He unwittingly sailed past the Strait of Juan de Fuca and soon after entered Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=319-322}} Cook's two ships remained in Nootka Sound from 29 March to 26 April 1778, in a cove at the south end of Bligh Island.{{cite bcgnis|18990|Resolution Cove |access-date=6 March 2013}}{{efn|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 acceptable in Hawaii.{{sfn|Fisher|1979|pp=87-97}}}} 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.

By the second week of August 1778, Cook had sailed through the Bering Strait, crossed the Arctic Circle, and sailed into the Chukchi Sea.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=325-327}} He headed northeast up the coast of Alaska until he was blocked by sea ice at a latitude of 70°44′ north.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=327}} Cook then sailed west to the Siberian coast, and then southeast down the Siberian coast back to the Bering Strait.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=328-329}} During this voyage, Cook charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gap between earlier explorations of the north Pacific{{snd}} the Russian (from the west) and the Spanish (from the south). By early September 1778, he was back in the Bering Sea on his way to return to Hawaii.{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1968|pp=615–623.}}

Cook became increasingly frustrated and irritable on this voyage, and sometimes exhibited irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they considered inedible.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=328,331-333,363-364}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=392-393}}

Cook returned to Hawaii in late November 1779.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=330-331}} The ships sailed throughout the archipelago for eight weeks, surveying and trading.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=638-648}}{{efn|To protect the Hawaiian women from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Cook issued orders to his crew: "In order to prevent as much as possible the communicating this fatal disease to a set of innocent people" no woman was to board either of the ships, and any crew member who had an STD was prohibited from engaging in sex with the women.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=638-639}}

}} After stops in Maui and Kauai, Cook made landfall at Kealakekua Bay on Hawai{{okina}}i Island, the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=648-650}}

On Hawai{{okina}}i Island, Cook met with the Hawaiian king Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who treated Cook with respect, and invited him to participate in several ceremonies. The king and Cook exchanged gifts, and the king presented Cook with a feathered cloak.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=650-654}} Several members of the expedition concluded that the Hawaiians considered Cook a deity, and that interpretation (specifically, that Cook was considered to be the Polynesian god Lono) has been endorsed by some scholars.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=657-660}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=335-340}}{{sfn|Sahlins|1985}}{{sfn|Thomas|2003|pp=382-389,395-400}}{{efn|

Cook's arrival coincided with the Makahiki, a Hawaiian harvest festival of worship for the Polynesian god Lono. Some scholars assert that the form of HMS Resolution{{snd}}specifically, the mast formation, sails and rigging{{snd}}resembled certain significant artefacts that formed part of the season of worship.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|pp=382-389,395-400}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=404}}{{sfn|Obeyesekere|1992|p=61}} Some academics state that 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 (most extensively by Marshall Sahlins) that such coincidences were the reasons for Cook's initial deification as Lono by some Hawaiians.{{sfn|Sahlins|1985}}

}} The academic Gananath Obeyesekere, however, states that the Hawaiians did not consider Cook to be a deity.{{harvnb|Obeyesekere|1992|pp=197–250}}.{{efn|The debate about whether or not Cook was considered a deity is sometimes called the Sahlins–Obeyesekere debate.}}

[[File:Zoffany Death of Captain Cook.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3

|alt=A beach with a dozen Maori warriors fighting against Cook and several of his marines

|The Death of Captain Cook by Johan Zoffany, c. 1795. One of several paintings of this event.]]

{{Main|Death of James Cook}}

After a month on Hawai{{okina}}i Island, Cook set sail to resume his exploration of the northern Pacific, but shortly after departure a strong gale caused Resolution{{'}}s foremast to break, so the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay for repairs.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=661-662}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=341-342}}

Relations between the crew and the Hawaiians were already strained before the departure, and they grew worse when the ship returned for repairs.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=662-664}}{{efn|Before departure, Cook offered to purchase the wood from a fence surrounding a sacred marae; when the offer was refused, Cook ordered his men to take the wood regardless.{{sfn|Sparks|1847|pp=135–139}} }} Numerous quarrels broke out and petty thefts were common. On 13 February 1779, a group of Hawaiians stole one of Cook's cutters.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=347-348}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=667}}

The following day, Cook attempted to recover the cutter by kidnapping and ransoming the king, Kalaniʻōpuʻu.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=408–411}}{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=35-40}}{{sfn|Thomas|2003|pp=391-393}} Cook and a small party marched through the village to retrieve the king.{{sfn|Obeyesekere|1992|p=107}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=408–411}} Cook led Kalaniʻōpuʻu away; as they got to the boats, one of Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favourite wives, Kānekapōlei, and two chiefs approached the group. They pleaded with the king not to go and a large crowd began to form at the shore.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=351-354}}{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=35-40}} News reached the Hawaiians that high-ranking Hawaiian chief Kalimu had been shot (on the other side of the bay) while trying to break through a British blockade – this exacerbated the already tense situation.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=669-672}}{{sfn|Samwell|1893|pp=457}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=351-352}} Hawaiian warriors confronted the landing party and threatened them with stones, clubs and daggers.{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=35-40}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=351-352}} Cook fired a warning shot, then shot one of the Hawaiians dead.{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=35-40}} The Hawaiians continued to attack and the British fired more shots before retreating to the boats.{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=35-40}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=351-352}} Cook and four marines were killed in the affray and left on the shore.{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=35-40}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=669-672}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=408=411}}{{sfn|Samwell|1893|p=459}} Seventeen Hawaiians were killed.{{sfn|Williams|2008|p=41}}{{

efn|

Accounts of the final moments of Cook's life are confusing and contradictory.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=411}} Two recent scholarly accounts of the death are Thomas (2003) and Williams (2008). Williams discuss inconsistencies such as whether boats or marines on shore fired first; and whether Cook was clubbed before stabbed.

}}{{efn|

Richard Hough, in his 1994 biography of Cook, states that the contemporaneous account of ship surgeon David Samwell is "the most literate and comprehensive" account.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=352}} Samwell was not on the shore at the time of the confrontation. Samwell's journal reads: "Captain Cook was now the only man on the rock, he was seen walking down towards the pinnace, holding his left hand against the back of his head to guard it from stones and carrying his musket under the other arm. An Indian came running behind him, stopping once or twice as he advanced, as if he was afraid that he should turn around and then, taking him unaware, he sprung at him, knocked him on the back of the head with a large club and instantly fled with the greatest precipitation. The blow made Captain Cook stagger two or three paces. He then fell on his hand and one knee and dropped his musket. As he was rising, another Indian came running to him and before he could recover himself from the fall drew out an iron dagger he concealed under his feathered cloak and stuck it with all his force into the back of his neck, which made Captain Cook tumble into the water."{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=354}}{{sfn|Samwell|1893|pp=458-460}}

}}

[[File:Hawaii WikiC 9015.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3

|alt=Plaque reading "Near this spot Captain James Cook met his death, February 14, 1799"

|Marker at the shoreline of Kealakekua Bay, near the spot where Captain Cook was slain.]]

The bodies of Cook and the marines were taken inland to a village by Hawaiians.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=355-360}}{{efn|During the confrontation, four marines were killed: Corporal James Thomas, Private Theophilus Hinks, Private Thomas Fatchett and Private John Allen. Two others were wounded.{{sfn|Samwell|1786|p=16}}{{cite web |title=Muster for HMS Resolution during the third Pacific voyage, 1776–1780 |url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/Portals/ccs/Files/Musters/3resolution3muster1.pdf |website=Captain Cook Society |access-date=27 October 2014 |page=20 |date=15 October 2012 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923200409/http://www.captaincooksociety.com/Portals/ccs/Files/Musters/3resolution3muster1.pdf |url-status=live}}}} King took a boat to the opposite side of the bay, and was approached by a priest who offered to intercede and ask for Cook's remains to be returned; King consented.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=412-415}} Some crewmen returned to the location of the attack, and skirmishes broke out, resulting in the death of several Hawaiians.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=355-360}} The following day, some of Cook's remains were returned to the Resolution, including several bones, the skull, some charred flesh, and the hands with the skin still attached.{{sfn|Samwell|1893|p=476}} Clerke assumed leadership of the expedition.{{Sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=675}} The crew placed the remains in a weighted box, and buried their captain at sea.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=355-360}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=412-415}}

The ships left the bay on 23 February 1779, and spent five weeks charting the coasts of the islands{{snd}}in accordance with a plan set out by Cook before his death.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=401}} They travelled through the archipelago, stopping at Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, and Kauai.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=401}} On 1 April, they departed the Hawaiian islands and sailed north to again try to locate the Northwest Passage.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=360-361}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=412}} Clerke stopped in Kamchatka and entrusted Cook's journal, with a cover letter describing Cook's death, to the local military commander, Magnus von Behm.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=679-680}} Behm had the package delivered, overland, from Siberia to England.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=679-680}} The Admiralty, and all of England, learned of Cook's death when the package arrived in London{{snd}}eleven months after he died; the package had arrived in England before the surviving crew.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=7}}{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=402}}{{cite web

|url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/910

|title=Captain Cook's third voyage (Jul 1776-Oct 1780)

|website=Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa

|access-date=28 May 2025

}}{{efn|It took seven months for the package containing news of Cook's death to travel overland from Kamchatka to England.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=679-680}}}}

Continuing north, the expedition made it to the Bering Strait, but was again blocked by pack ice, and unable to discover a Northwest Passage.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=681-682}} Clerke died of tuberculosis on 22 August 1779 and John Gore, a veteran of Cook's first voyage, took command of the Resolution and the expedition. Lieutenant James King replaced Gore in command of Discovery.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=423}} The ships returned home, reaching England on 4 October 1780.{{efn|The duration of the third voyage was 1,545 days, from 12 July 1776 to 4 October 1780.}} After their arrival in England, King completed Cook's account of the voyage.{{Cite web

|first=Ian

|last=Boreham

|url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/better-conceiv-d-than-describ-d-the-life-and-times-of-captain-james-king-1750-84-captain-cook-s-friend-and-colleague-steve-ragnall-2013

|title=Better Conceiv'd than Describ'd: the life and times of Captain James King (1750–84), Captain Cook's Friend and Colleague. Steve Ragnall. 2013

|website=Captain Cook Society

|access-date=10 October 2017

|archive-date=10 October 2017

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155340/http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/better-conceiv-d-than-describ-d-the-life-and-times-of-captain-james-king-1750-84-captain-cook-s-friend-and-colleague-steve-ragnall-2013

|url-status=live}}{{cite book

| title=Better Conceiv'd Than Describ'd: The Life and Times of Captain James King (1750-84), Captain Cook's Friend and Colleague

| last=Ragnall

|first= Steve

| isbn=9781780883595

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EybXLq0w3MwC

| year=2012

| pages=190–195

| publisher=Kibworth Beauchamp

|access-date=23 May 2025

}}

File:Elizabeth Batts Cook.jpg, wife (16 years) and widow (56 years) of James Cook, by William Henderson, 1830.]]

On 21 December 1762, Cook married Elizabeth Batts, the daughter of Samuel Batts{{snd}}keeper of the Bell Inn in Wapping and one of Cook's mentors{{snd}}at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex.{{harvnb|Robson|2009|pp=120–121.}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/MuseumsAndHeritage/LocalHistoryResources/Documents/Infosheet22JamesCookDickTurpin.pdf |title=Famous 18th century people in Barking and Dagenham: James Cook and Dick Turpin |publisher=London Borough of Barking and Dagenham |access-date=5 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605124552/http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/MuseumsAndHeritage/LocalHistoryResources/Documents/Infosheet22JamesCookDickTurpin.pdf |archive-date=5 June 2012}}{{efn|At time of the marriage, Cook was 34 and Elizabeth was 20.}} The couple had six children:{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=424-425}}{{cite web

|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-life/captain-cook-personally/the-family-of-captain-james-cook

|access-date=1 June 2025

|title=The Family of Captain James Cook

|website=Captain Cook Society

}} James (1763–1794),{{efn|Son James was appointed commander of sloop Spitfire in January 1794. Lost in an open boat near the Isle of Wight.}} Nathaniel (1764–1780),{{efn|Nathaniel was lost aboard {{HMS|Thunderer|1760|6}} which foundered with all hands in a hurricane in the West Indies.}} Elizabeth (1767–1771), Joseph (1768–1768), George (1772–1772), and Hugh (1776–1793).{{efn|Hugh died of scarlet fever while a student at Christ's College, Cambridge.}} Cook has no direct descendants – all of his children died before having children of their own. When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London and attended St Paul's Church, Shadwell.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|p=75}}

[[File:Larcum Kendall chronometer K1.jpg|thumb

|alt=A large pocket watch, about 13 centimeters in diameter

|The K1 chronometer used on Cook's second and third voyages, which enabled accurate computation of longitude. The cost was £500, {{Inflation|UK|500|1769|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}.

{{cite book

| title = Marine Chronometers at Greenwich: A Catalogue of Marine Chronometers at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

| last= Betts

| first= J.

| isbn=9780191511172

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xL9EDwAAQBAJ

| year=2018

| publisher=OUP Oxford

| page = 186

}} The British government paid Kendall £450 plus a £50 bonus.

]]

Cook's three voyages to the Pacific Ocean vastly expanded Europeans' knowledge of the area. Several islands, including the Hawaiian group, were encountered for the first time by Europeans, and his accurate navigational charting of large areas of the Pacific contributed to the fields of hydrographic and geographic knowledge.{{cite web

|url=https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/travel-through-maps-and-narrat/explorers/james-cook--1728-1779-

|title=James Cook (1728-1779)

|website=University of Michigan Library Online Exhibits

|publisher=University of Michiganf

|access-date=2 June 2025

}}

On his second and third voyages, Cook carried Larcum Kendall's K1 chronometer{{snd}}a copy of John Harrison's H4{{snd}}to test if it could accurately keep time for extended periods while withstanding the violent motions of a ship. It performed well and thus made a key contribution to solving the longitude problem that had plagued mariners for centuries.{{sfn|Hough|1994| pp=192-193, 197, 236}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=260, 309, 344}} Cook praised the timepiece profusely.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=304,309}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=197,236}}

Cook was a pioneer in the prevention of scurvy and implemented several successful strategies, including regular replenishment of fresh food.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=703-704}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=154, 161, 182, 229, 260

}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=217, 234, 267}}{{cite book

| title=Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail

| last=Brown

| first=Stephen

| isbn=9780312313913

| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BsWP3vavFgcC

|access-date=4 June 2025

| year=2004

| publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group

|pages=165–198

}}{{efn|Cook did not employ citrus fruits{{snd}}lemons, oranges{{snd}}to combat scurvy, instead relying on sauerkraut and fresh fruits and vegetables.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=703-704}}}} During his first circumnavigation of the globe, he achieved the remarkable feat of not losing a single crew member to the disease{{snd}}an uncommon outcome at the time.{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=703-704}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=2660-267}} In addition to diet, Cook also promoted general hygiene by having the crew wash themselves frequently and air-out their bedding, clothes, and quarters.{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=139,282,284-285}}{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=200, 207, 219}} In recognition of his contributions to medical and naval science, he was awarded the prestigious Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 1776, following his presentation on scurvy prevention.{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p= 105.}}{{cite journal

|url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans08393052

|access-date=1 April 2025

|title=The Method Taken for Preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty's Ship the Resolution during Her Late Voyage Round the World |volume=66

|pages=402–406

|first=Captain James

|last=Cook

|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

|year=1767

|issn=0261-0523

|doi=10.1098/rstl.1776.0023

|s2cid=186212653

}}

Cook and Banks became the first Europeans to have extensive contact with a large number of peoples in the Pacific. They identified similarities between cultures and languages across many Pacific Islands, leading them to suggest that the populations shared a common origin in Asia.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=314-315}}{{sfn|Sykes|2001|pp=79-85}}{{cite web

|url=https://www.pbs.org/wayfinders/polynesian4.html

|title = Linguistic Evidence/Oral Traditions

|website= Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey

|publisher=PBS

|access-date=28 May 2025

}}{{efn

|Today, most languages in the south Pacific Ocean are categorised within the Austronesian language group.}} Significant observations and discoveries were made by the scientists that Cook carried on each his voyages. Two botanists, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, sailed on the first voyage and collected over 3,000 plant species.{{cite web |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/about2.dsml |title=The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations at the Natural History Museum |publisher=Natural History Museum |year=2011 |access-date=8 August 2011 |archive-date=5 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705011718/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/about2.dsml |url-status=live}}{{efn|name=jbnsw}} Recognition of the scientific benefits of Cook's expeditions extended beyond Britain. In 1779, Benjamin Franklin, then ambassador to France for the American colonies, wrote to captains of colonial warships, asking them to refrain from interfering with Cook's ships, citing the nature of Cook's endeavours.{{cite web

|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-29-02-0057

|access-date=3 June 2025

|title=From Benjamin Franklin to All Captains and Commanders of American Armed Ships

|date=10 March 1779

|website=Founders Online

|publisher=National Archives

}}{{efn|Franklin wrote to commanders of colonial warships: "A Ship ... under the Conduct of that most celebrated Navigator and Discoverer Captain Cook [promotes] the Increase of Geographical Knowledge, facilitates the Communication between distant Nations, in the Exchange of useful Products and Manufactures, and the Extension of Arts, whereby the common Enjoyments of human Life are multiplied and augmented, and Science of other kinds encreased to the Benifit of Mankind in general..."

}}

[[File:Memorial tablet – Captain James Cook and his family, Church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0

|alt=An ornately carved plaque, mounted on the wall of a church

|Memorial to James Cook and family in the church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge.]]

When news of Cook's death reached England, he was praised by newspapers, colleagues, and friends.{{efn|Biographer Hough quotes a obituary that appeared in January 1780, which read, in part: "This untimely and ever to be lamented fate of so intrepid, so able, and intelligent a sea-officer, may justly be considered as an irreparable loss to the public... for in him were united every successful and amiable quality that could adorn his profession; nor was his singular modesty less conspicuous than his other virtues. His successful experiments to preserve the healths of his crews are well known, and his discoveries will be an everlasting honour to his country." {{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=364}}. Hough mistakenly attributes this obituary to The London Gazette. The quoted obituary is from

{{cite news

|url=https://www.lastchancetoread.com/docs/1780-01-15-the-norfolk-chronicle.aspx

|access-date=30 May 2025

|newspaper= The Norfolk Chronicle

|title=Obituary of Captain James Cook

|date= 15 January 1780

|issue=554

}} The obituary was published eleven months after Cook's death, when news of his death finally reached England.

}} One of the earliest monuments to Cook in the United Kingdom is located at The Vache, erected in 1780 by Hugh Palliser, a friend of Cook.{{cite web

|url=https://ornc.org/news/palliser-and-cook/

|title=The Governor and the Navigator: Connecting Sir Hugh Palliser and Captain James Cook

|publisher=Old Royal Naval College Greenwich

|access-date=28 May 2025

}}{{cite web

|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1124987?section=official-list-entry

|publisher=Historic England

|title= Monument to Captain Cook Approximately 70 metres to North of the Vache

|access-date=28 May 2025

}}{{efn|The inscription on The Vache monument reads, in part:

"The ablest and most renowned navigator this or any country hath produced... Cool and deliberate in judging, sagacious in determining, active in executing, steady and persevering in enterprising from vigilance and unremitting caution, unsubdued by labour, difficulties, and disappointments, fertile in expedience never wanting presence of mind... Mild, just, but exact in discipline... Traveller! Contemplate, admire, revere and emulate this great master in his profession, whose skill and labours have enlarged natural philosophy [and] have extended nautical science."{{cite web

|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/remembering-cook/memorials/types-of-cook-memorials/monument-to-cook-at-the-vache-chalfont-st-giles-buckinghamshire-uk

|title=Monument to Cook at The Vache, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, UK

|access-date=30 May 2025

|website=Captain Cook Society

}}{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=696-697}}

}}

A large obelisk was built in 1827 as a monument to Cook on Easby Moor overlooking his boyhood village of Great Ayton,{{cite web

|url=http://www.great-ayton.org.uk/tourism/cook/cook_monument/

|title=Great Ayton – Captain Cook's Monument

|access-date=20 September 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027202118/http://www.great-ayton.org.uk/tourism/cook/cook_monument/

|archive-date=27 October 2011

|url-status=dead

}} along with a smaller monument at the former location of Cook's cottage.{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17137751

|title=Captain Cook

|work=The Sydney Morning Herald

|issn=0312-6315

|date=26 January 1935

|access-date=27 September 2013

|page=16

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=9 November 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109015431/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17137751

|url-status=live

}} 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.{{cite web

|title=St Andrew the Great Church, Cambridge

|url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/st-andrew-the-great-church-cambridge

|website=Captain Cook Society

|accessdate=13 August 2017

}}

The Navigators' Memorial in Westminster Abbey, dedicated to Cook, Francis Drake and Francis Chichester, was unveiled in 1979.{{Sfn|Williams|2008|p=109}}

The 250th anniversary of Cook's birth was marked at the site of his birthplace in Marton by the opening of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, located within Stewart Park (1978). A granite vase just to the south of the museum marks the approximate spot where he was born.{{cite web |url=http://www.captcook-ne.co.uk/ccbm/index.htm |title=The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, Marton, Middlesbrough |work=captcook-ne.co.uk |year=2011 |access-date=8 August 2011 |archive-date=20 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720010546/http://www.captcook-ne.co.uk/ccbm/index.htm |url-status=live}}{{efn|Cook's hometown of Middlesbrough includes several commemorations: a primary school,{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/04/school_tables/primary_schools/html/806_2370.stm |title=Captain Cook Primary School |publisher=BBC |date=2 December 2004 |access-date=21 September 2011 |archive-date=9 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109015533/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/education/04/school_tables/primary_schools/html/806_2370.stm |url-status=live}} shopping square{{cite web |url=http://www.captaincookshopping.com/ |title=Captain Cook Shopping Square |publisher=Captaincookshopping.com |access-date=8 March 2010 |archive-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328130339/http://www.captaincookshopping.com/ |url-status=live}} and the Bottle 'O Notes, a public artwork by Claes Oldenburg, that was erected in the town's Central Gardens in 1993.{{cite web

|url=https://teesvalleymuseums.org/object/bottle-of-notes-artwork-claes-oldenburg-and-coosje-van-bruggen-local-art-and-artists/

|access-date=28 May 2025

|title=Bottle of Notes

|website =Tees Valley Museums

}}

}} The Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby is located in a building where Cook sometimes stayed during his naval apprenticeship.{{cite web |title=Captain Cook Memorial Museum |url=https://artuk.org/visit/venues/captain-cook-memorial-museum-3247 |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104215753/https://artuk.org/visit/venues/captain-cook-memorial-museum-3247 |archive-date=4 January 2024 |access-date=28 December 2024 |website=Art UK}}

Also named after Cook is James Cook University Hospital, a major teaching hospital which opened in 2003, near to the James Cook railway station.{{cite web |url=http://www.glendalehouse.co.uk/pages/captainCook.html |title=Captain Cook and the Captain Cook Trail |access-date=22 September 2011 |archive-date=6 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906040659/http://www.glendalehouse.co.uk/pages/captainCook.html |url-status=live}} The Royal Research Ship RRS James Cook was built in 2006 to replace the RRS Charles Darwin in the UK's Royal Research Fleet,{{cite web |url=http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/facilities/marine/jamescook.asp |title=RRS James Cook |publisher=Nautical Environment Research Council |year=2011 |access-date=5 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703104025/http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/facilities/marine/jamescook.asp |archive-date=3 July 2012 |url-status=dead}} 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. A statue erected in his honour can be viewed near Admiralty Arch on the south side of The Mall in London. In 2002, Cook was placed at number 12 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml/ |title=BBC – Great Britons – Top 100 |access-date=19 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021204214727/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml/ |archive-date=4 December 2002 |work=Internet Archive}}

[[File:Annual_re-enactment.of_Cook's_visit._Cooktown_1999.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4

|alt=A group of about 12 people dressed in English military uniforms dating from around 1800, shooting their rifles into the air

|Annual re-enactment of James Cook's visit in Cooktown, Queensland.]]

Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, Australia, having been moved from England at the behest of the Australian philanthropist Russell Grimwade in 1934.{{cite web |title=Cooks' Cottage |url=https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/PlacesToGo/CooksCottage/Pages/CooksCottage.aspx |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=City of Melbourne |archive-date=31 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131055807/https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/PlacesToGo/CooksCottage/Pages/CooksCottage.aspx |url-status=dead}}{{cite news |date=1 July 1933 |title=Captain Cook's Cottage: Another Centenary Gift: Mr. Russell Grimwade's Generosity.

|page=21

|newspaper=The Argus

|issn=2377-7052

|issue=((27,105))

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4746055

|access-date=6 September 2017

|via=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 March 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312061306/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4746055

|url-status=live

}}{{sfn|Horwitz|2003|p=292}} The first institution of higher education in North Queensland, Australia, was named after him, with James Cook University opening in Townsville in 1970.{{cite web |url=http://www.jcu.edu.au/about |title=About James Cook University |publisher=James Cook University |year=2011 |access-date=7 January 2014 |archive-date=20 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220112811/http://www.jcu.edu.au/about/ |url-status=live}} There are statues of Cook in Hyde Park in Sydney, and at St Kilda in Melbourne.{{cite news

|last1=Sum |first1=Eliza |last2=Carey

|first2=Adam |date=25 January 2024 |title=Second Statue Targeted After Vandals Hack Off Captain Cook Sculpture on Eve of Australia Day

|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/captain-cook-statue-sawn-off-in-pre-australia-day-attack-20240125-p5ezw4.html

|access-date=25 January 2024

|work=Sydney Morning Herald

|issn=0312-6315

|archive-date=25 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240125001101/https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/captain-cook-statue-sawn-off-in-pre-australia-day-attack-20240125-p5ezw4.html |url-status=live}}

In 1959, the Cooktown Re-enactment Association first performed a re-enactment of Cook's 1770 landing at the site of modern Cooktown, Australia, and have continued the tradition each year, with the support and participation of many of the local Guugu Yimithirr people.{{cite web

|url=https://press.anu.edu.au/news-events/achieving-reconciliation

|access-date=1 June 2025

|date=25 May 2021

|first=Charlotte

|last= Ward

|publisher=Australian National University

|title=Achieving Reconciliation and Reconnection Through a Re-remembering of Our Past (press release)

}}{{cite web |last1=Kim |first1=Sharnie |last2=Stephen

|first2=Adam

|date=19 June 2020

|title=Cooktown's Indigenous People Help Commemorate 250 Years Since Captain Cook's Landing with Re-enactment

|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/cooktown-indigenous-commemorate-captain-cook-250th-anniversary/12363526

|url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706200313/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/cooktown-indigenous-commemorate-captain-cook-250th-anniversary/12363526 |archive-date=6 July 2020 |access-date=6 July 2020

|publisher=ABC News}} They celebrate the first act of reconciliation between Indigenous Australians and non-indigenous people, when a Guugu Yimithirr elder stepped in after some of Cook's men had violated custom by taking green turtles from the river and not sharing with the local people. He presented Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering, thus preventing possible bloodshed.

The site where Cook was killed in Hawaii was marked in 1874 by a white obelisk. The small plot of land surrounding the marker was purportedly deeded to Britain in 1877 by Princess Likelike and her husband, Archibald Scott Cleghorn.{{cite news

|last1=Gray

|first1=Chris

|title=Captain Cook's little corner of Hawaii under threat from new golf

|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/captain-cooks-little-corner-of-hawaii-under-threat-from-new-golf-course-623120.html

|access-date=12 January 2018

|work=The Independent

|issn=0951-9467

|date=11 November 2000

|archive-date=6 May 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180506175006/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/captain-cooks-little-corner-of-hawaii-under-threat-from-new-golf-course-623120.html

|url-status=live}}{{ cite web

|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/remembering-cook/memorials/types-of-cook-memorials/obelisk-to-cook-at-kealakekua-bay-hawaii-hawaiian-islands-usa

|website=Captain Cook Society

|title=Obelisk to Cook at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, Hawaiian Islands, USA

|access-date=25 May 2025

}}{{cite journal

|last=Coulter

|first=John Wesley

|date=June 1964

|title=Great Britain in Hawaii: The Captain Cook Monument

|journal=The Geographical Journal

|publisher=The Royal Geographical Society

|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1794586

|access-date=25 May 2025

|volume=130

|issue=2

|pages=256–261

|doi=10.2307/1794586

|jstor=1794586

|bibcode=1964GeogJ.130..256C

}}{{efn|The legality of the deed{{snd}}and subsequent related deeds{{snd}}is in dispute.}}{{efn|The obelisk is now fronted by a low stone jetty bearing a plaque which reads: "This jetty was erected by the Commonwealth of Australia in memory of Captain James Cook, RN the discoverer of both Australia and these islands".{{cite web

|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-life/places/a-visit-to-kealakekua-bay-19-july-2005

|last=Parkinson

|first=Jonathan

|title=A Visit To Kealakekua Bay, 19 July 2005

|website=Captain Cook Society

|date=2006

|access-date=2 June 2025

}}

}} NASA named several craft after Cook's ships, including the Apollo 15 Command/Service Module Endeavour, the

{{ship|Space Shuttle|Endeavour||6}}, and the {{ship|Space Shuttle|Discovery||6}}.{{cite web |title=Call Signs |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-17_Call_Signs.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228032512/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-17_Call_Signs.htm |archive-date=28 February 2020 |access-date=21 May 2011 |publisher=NASA}}{{cite web

|url=http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Endeavour.html

|website=John F. Kennedy Space Center

|title=Space Shuttle Endeavour

|publisher=NASA

|access-date=21 May 2011

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521101826/http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/endeavour.html

|archive-date=21 May 2011}}{{cite web

|url=http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Discovery.html

|website=John F. Kennedy Space Center

|title=Space Shuttle Discovery

|publisher=NASA

|access-date=21 May 2011

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610033909/http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Discovery.html

|archive-date=10 June 2011

}} There is a statue of Cook at Resolution Park in Anchorage, Alaska.{{cite web

| url = https://www.alaska.org/detail/resolution-park-captain-cook-monument

| title = Resolution Park and Captain Cook Monument

| publisher = Alaska Channel

| access-date = 28 May 2025

}}

A U.S. coin, the 1928 Hawaii Sesquicentennial half-dollar, carries Cook's image.{{cite web |url=http://www.coinsite.com/content/commemoratives/Hawaii.asp |title=Hawaii Sesquicentennial Half Dollar |work=coinsite.com |year=2011 |access-date=8 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814135925/http://www.coinsite.com/content/Commemoratives/Hawaii.asp |archive-date=14 August 2011}}

File:H000104- Feather Cape.jpg (feather cloak) held by the Australian Museum.]]

{{see also|James Cook Collection: Australian Museum}}

The Australian Museum in Sydney holds over 250 objects associated with Cook's voyages. The objects are mostly from Polynesia, although there are also artefacts from the Solomon Islands, North America and South America. Many of the artefacts were collected during first contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples of the Pacific.{{Cite web

|last=Florek |first=Stan |date=29 October 2014

|title=Our Global Neighbours: Curious Cook Clubs

|url=https://australian.museum/blog-archive/science/our-global-neighbours-curious-cook-clubs/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250404232411/https://australian.museum/blog-archive/science/our-global-neighbours-curious-cook-clubs/ |archive-date=4 April 2025 |access-date=5 April 2025 |website=Australian Museum}}{{cite web |last=Thomsett |first=Sue

|title=Cook Collection, History of Acquisition

|url=http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/NarrativeDisplay.php?irn=35&QueryPage=./NarrativeQuery.php |work=Electronic Museum Narrative |publisher=Australian Museum |access-date=9 November 2021 |archive-date=18 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218090450/http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/NarrativeDisplay.php?irn=35&QueryPage=.%2FNarrativeQuery.php |url-status=live}} The largest collection of artefacts from Cook's voyages is the Cook-Forster Collection held at the University of Göttingen.{{Cite web |last1=Hauser-Schäublin |first1=Brigitta |last2=Krüger |first2=Gundolf

|title=Cook-Forster Collection: Pacific Cultural Heritage

|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/cook_forster/background/the_collection |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612021052/https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/cook_forster/background/the_collection |archive-date=12 June 2024 |access-date=5 April 2025 |website=National Museum of Australia}}{{efn|The collection is managed by the Göttingen Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology. The collection is in Germany because the artefacts originated from the collections of German naturalists Johann Reinhold Forster and his son, Georg Forster, who were on Cook's second voyage. [https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/cook_forster A photo gallery displaying some of the items].}}

Cook's name has been given to the Cook Islands, Cook Strait, Cook Inlet, Cooktown, and Cook crater on the Moon.{{cite web |url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1292

|title=Planetary Names: Crater, Craters: Cook on Moon

|work=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature |publisher=USGS/NASA |access-date=21 September 2011 |archive-date=17 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117182806/http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1292 |url-status=live}} Mount Cook, the highest summit in New Zealand, is named for him.{{cite web

|url=http://www.mtcooknz.com/mackenzie/Mount_Cook/

|title=Aoraki Mount Cook National Park & Mt Cook Village, New Zealand |access-date=21 September 2011

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001060533/http://www.mtcooknz.com/mackenzie/Mount_Cook/

|archive-date=1 October 2011

}} Another Mount Cook is on the border between the U.S. state of Alaska and the Canadian Yukon territory.{{cite web |url=http://www.geodata.us/canada_names_maps/maps.php?featureid=KABJR&f=311 |title=Map of Mount Cook, Yukon, Mountain – Canada Geographical Names Maps |access-date=21 September 2011 |archive-date=18 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118224628/http://www.geodata.us/canada_names_maps/maps.php?featureid=KABJR&f=311 |url-status=live}}

[[File:Hyde_Park Captain Cook.JPG|thumb

|alt=A bronze statue of Cook, mounted atop a large granite base

|Statue of James Cook, Hyde Park, Sydney. The rear inscription reads: "Discovered this territory, 1770".]]

{{see also|Indigenous response to colonialism}}

Cook is a controversial figure due several violent encounters with indigenous peoples, and allegations that he facilitated British colonialism. Cook and his crew killed an estimated 45 indigenous people during the three voyages, including nine Māori and thirty Hawaiians.{{efn|

Glyndwr Williams states that on the day of Cook's death, seventeen islanders were killed on or near the shore (Kaawaloa), and eight killed elsewhere on that day.{{sfn|Williams|2008|p=41}}

Beaglehole states that the Hawaiians lost "four chiefs...and thirteen others" in "the wretched affray".{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|pp=674-675}} According to Williams and Beaglehole other Hawaiians were killed in revenge attacks in days immediately following Cook's death, but they don't give a number.

Nicholas Thomas quotes Captain Clerke as saying that "5 or 6" Hawaiians were killed by the British in revenge attacks (on the days following the day of Cook's death); but Thomas adds that he suspects this was an underestimate.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=401}}

Cook and his crew killed a total of nine Māori.{{cite magazine

|title=British Government ‘Expresses Regret’ for Māori Killed After James Cook’s Arrival in New Zealand

|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/british-government-expresses-regret-maori-killed-after-james-cooks-arrival-new-zealand-180973270/

|website=Smithsonian Magazine

|issn=0037-7333

|date=3 October 2019

|first=Brigit

|last= Katz

|access-date=29 May 2025

}} British government statement describes nine deaths.

Thomas suggests that the total number of Hawaiians killed is "at least thirty", and that the number of non-Hawaiians killed (in all voyages) was fifteen, for a total of 45 indigenous deaths.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=401}}

}}

Scholars continue to debate the extent to which Cook can be held responsible for the subsequent European colonisation of the Pacific.{{efn|Essayist Barry Lopez summarized the debate as: "Cook is often held out as someone who embodied all that was right about the Enlightenment – informed thinking, curiosity about the world, a commitment to the ideals of humanism. But he also ... represented the dark side of the Enlightenment, a belief that there was only one right way to govern, to organise one’s economy, to worship God, and to think. All other ways were primitive (ie, unenlightened) and those practicing them were assumed to be far behind on Progress’s inexorable path."

{{Cite book

|title=Horizon

|first=Barry

|last=Lopez

|page=118

|publisher=Penguin Random House

|year=2019

|isbn=978-0-307-35599-7

|oclc=1077254235

|url=https://archive.org/details/horizon0000lope_w2x5/

|access-date=5 June 2025

}}

}} A number of commentators argue that Cook enabled British imperialism and colonialism in the Pacific.{{Cite web

|last=Gapps

|first=Stephen

|date=28 April 2020

|title=Make No Mistake: Cook's Voyages were Part of a Military Mission to Conquer and Expand

|url=https://theconversation.com/make-no-mistake-cooks-voyages-were-part-of-a-military-mission-to-conquer-and-expand-134404

|access-date=8 April 2024

|website=The Conversation

}}{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=xxxiii}}{{efn|name=jbnsw }} The historian Glyndwr Williams points out that the Admiralty's orders to Cook on the first voyage explicitly required Cook to obtain consent of indigenous peoples before claiming the land for Britain{{snd}}yet Cook claimed the east coast of Australia without securing their consent.{{sfn|Williams|2008|pp=174-175}}{{efn|name=order}}

The historian Robert Tombs defended Cook against accusations that he initiated British imperialism in the Pacific, arguing that European influence in the region was inevitable, and that Cook was more humane and enlightened than most of his contemporaries. Tombs suggested that blaming Cook for 21st century racism and inequities is facile and avoids addressing the underlying social issues.{{cite news

|last=Tombs

|first=Robert

|author-link=Robert Tombs

|date=4 February 2021

|title=Captain Cook Wasn't a 'Genocidal' Villain. He Was a True Enlightenment Man

|work=The Telegraph

|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/02/04/captain-cook-wasnt-genocidal-villain-true-enlightenment-man/

|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/02/04/captain-cook-wasnt-genocidal-villain-true-enlightenment-man/

|archive-date=10 January 2022

|url-access=subscription

|url-status=live

|access-date=9 December 2021

|issn=0307-1235

}}{{cbignore}}

The period 2018 to 2021 marked the 250th anniversary of Cook's first voyage of exploration. Several countries, including Australia and New Zealand, arranged official events to commemorate the voyage,{{Cite web

|title=250th Anniversary of Captain Cook's Voyage to Australia

|url=https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/cultural-heritage/250th-anniversary-captain-cooks-voyage-australia |access-date=15 March 2021 |website=Australian Government, Office for the Arts |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308172046/https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/cultural-heritage/250th-anniversary-captain-cooks-voyage-australia |url-status=live}}{{Cite web

|title=Tuia Enounters 250 |url=https://mch.govt.nz/tuia250 |access-date=15 March 2021 |archive-date=6 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306135019/https://mch.govt.nz/tuia250 |url-status=live}} leading to widespread public debate about Cook's legacy and the violence associated with his contacts with indigenous peoples.{{Cite web |last=Daley |first=Paul |date=29 April 2020

|title=Commemorating Captain James Cook's Arrival, Australia Should Not Omit His Role in the Suffering That Followed

|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2020/apr/29/commemorating-james-cooks-arrival-australia-should-not-omit-his-role-in-the-suffering-that-followed

|access-date=16 March 2021

|website=The Guardian

|archive-date=8 March 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308230636/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2020/apr/29/commemorating-james-cooks-arrival-australia-should-not-omit-his-role-in-the-suffering-that-followed

|url-status=live}}{{Cite web

|last=Roy |first=Eleanor Ainge |date=8 October 2019

|title=New Zealand Wrestles with 250th Anniversary of James Cook's Arrival |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/08/new-zealand-wrestles-with-250th-anniversary-of-james-cooks-arrival

|access-date=15 March 2021

|website=The Guardian

|archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414030255/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/08/new-zealand-wrestles-with-250th-anniversary-of-james-cooks-arrival

|url-status=live}} In the lead-up to the commemorations, various memorials to Cook in Australia and New Zealand were vandalised, and there were public calls for their removal or modification due to their alleged promotion of colonialist narratives.{{Cite web

|date=23 August 2017

|title=Australia Debates Captain Cook 'Discovery' Statue

|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41020363

|access-date=15 March 2021 |website=BBC News |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414030114/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41020363

|url-status=live}}{{Cite web

|date=13 June 2020

|title=Captain James Cook Statue Defaced in Gisborne

|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/captain-james-cook-statue-defaced-in-gisborne/RH3B2TD2CNMR6D2AP3QWSBX2F4/

|access-date=16 March 2021

|website=The New Zealand Herald

|archive-date=9 March 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309004905/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/captain-james-cook-statue-defaced-in-gisborne/RH3B2TD2CNMR6D2AP3QWSBX2F4/

|url-status=live

}} Attacks on public monuments to Cook have continued in a number of countries.

{{Cite web

|date=3 July 2021

|title=Capt. James Cook Statue Recovered from Victoria Harbour; What's Next is Undecided

|url=https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/capt-james-cook-statue-recovered-from-victoria-harbour-what-s-next-is-undecided-1.24337872

|url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703145332/https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/capt-james-cook-statue-recovered-from-victoria-harbour-what-s-next-is-undecided-1.24337872

|archive-date=3 July 2021

|access-date=4 July 2021

|website=Times Colonist

}}

{{cite news

|url=https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-victoria/captain-cook-statue-cut-down-on-eve-of-australia-day/news-story/aa6aa1f84cf25bc70dab5765d42a9031?amp&nk=89c859e6bc39eb7b8000c7309289cfd8-1706162324

|last=Ellis

|first=Fergus

|title=Captain Cook Statue Cut Down on Eve of Australia Day, Vandals Brazenly Share Footage

|work=Herald Sun

|date=25 January 2024 |access-date=26 January 2024}}

{{cite news

|date=25 January 2024

|title=Melbourne Statues of Queen Victoria and Captain Cook Vandalised on Australia Day Eve

|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-25/melbourne-captain-cook-queen-victoria-statues-vandalised/103386996

|url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240125000119/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-25/melbourne-captain-cook-queen-victoria-statues-vandalised/103386996

|archive-date=25 January 2024

|access-date=25 January 2024

|work=ABC News Online

}}{{cite news

|url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/times-colonist/20220203/282089165173080

| access-date = 30 May 2025

| newspaper = Victoria Times Colonist

|issn= 0839-427X

| title = Capt. Cook Won't be Back as Inner Harbour Statue

| date = 3 Feb 2022

| first= Roxanne

| last=Egan-Elliot

}}{{cite news |last=Dickson |first=Courtney |title=Protesters toss statue of explorer James Cook into Victoria harbour; totem pole later burned |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-captain-cook-statue-vandalized-1.6088828 |date=2 July 2021 |publisher=CBC News |access-date=3 July 2021 |archive-date=3 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703024735/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-captain-cook-statue-vandalized-1.6088828 |url-status=live}}

Indigenous people have also campaigned for the return of indigenous artefacts taken during Cook's voyages.{{cite web

|date=13 November 2020

|title=Shots Fired

|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/shots-fired/12868096

|url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307042709/https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/shots-fired/12868096

|archive-date=7 March 2021

|access-date=12 March 2021

|website=ABC Radio National

}}{{efn|An example of an artefact that has been the subject of requests for return is the Gweagal shield.{{Cite journal

|last=Thomas

|first=Nicholas

|author-link=Nicholas Thomas (anthropologist)

|date=2018

|title=A Case of Identity: The Artifacts of the 1770 Kamay (Botany Bay) Encounter

|url=

|journal=Australian Historical Studies

|volume=49

|issue=1

|pages=4–27

|issn=1031-461X

|doi=10.1080/1031461X.2017.1414862

|via=Taylor and Francis Online

}}}} The art historian Alice Proctor has suggested that the controversies over public representations of Cook and the display of indigenous artefacts from his voyages are part of a broader debate over resistance to colonialist narratives and the decolonisation of museums and public spaces.

{{cite book

|last=Proctor

|first=Alice

|title=The Whole Picture

|publisher=Cassell

|year=2020

|isbn=978-1-78840-155-5

|pages=243, 255–62

}} Chapters 11 and 12 are most relevant to Cook.

{{Infobox COA wide

| image = James_Cook_Coat_of_Arms.svg

| year_adopted = 3 September 1785

| crest = On a Wreath of the Colours, An Arm embowed, vested in the Uniform of a Captain of the Royal Navy, in the Hand the Union-Jack on a Staff proper; the Arm encircled by a Wreath of Palm and Laurel.

| escutcheon = Azure, between the two Polar Stars Or, a Sphere on the plane of the Meridian, North Pole elevated, Circles of Latitude for every ten degrees and of Longitude for fifteen, showing the Pacific Ocean between fifty and two hundred and forty West, bounded on one side by America, on the other by Asia and New Holland, in memory of his having explored and made Discoveries in that Ocean so very far beyond all former Navigators; His Track thereon marked with red Lines.{{Cite web

|publisher=The State Library of New South Wales

|url=https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n88ElePn

|access-date=29 January 2023

|title=Grant of Arms Made to Mrs Cook and to Cook's Descendants in 1785

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129163800/https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n88ElePn

|archive-date=29 January 2023

}} Includes a photograph of the original grant of arms, as well as a full description.

| motto = Nil Intentatum Reliquit (He left nothing unattempted) and Circa Orbem (Around the world).

| notes = Cook's coat of arms was granted to his widowed wife, the only known example of a posthumous grant.{{Cite web

|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/makingamark/teaching-resources/objects/cook-coat-of-arms

|access-date=29 January 2023

|title=Cook Coat of Arms

|publisher=National Portrait Gallery

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129164549/https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/makingamark/teaching-resources/objects/cook-coat-of-arms

|archive-date=29 January 2023

}}

Elizabeth Batts Cook petitioned for the grant six years after his death to preserve the memory of her late husband and to be placed on any monuments and memorials.{{Cite web

|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/cook-s-coat-of-arms

|access-date=29 January 2023

|website= Captain Cook Society

|title=Cook's Coat of Arms

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630202740/https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/cook-s-coat-of-arms

|archive-date=30 June 2022

}}

}}

{{Portal|British Empire|Biography}}

{{Div col}}

• Death of Cook{{snd}}Paintings depicting Cook's death
• European and American voyages of scientific exploration
• List of Australian places named by James Cook
• List of places named after Captain James Cook
• New Zealand places named by James Cook

{{div col end}}

{{notelist|colwidth=30em}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{div col }}

• {{cite book

|title=The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery

|volume=I: The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771

|editor-last=Beaglehole

|editor-first=John

|editor-link=John Cawte Beaglehole

|year=1968

|via=Hakluyt Society

|orig-year=1955

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|oclc=223185477

|url=https://archive.org/details/journalsofcaptai0001jcbe

|access-date=23 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Beaglehole

|first=John

|title=The Life of Captain James Cook

|author-link=John Beaglehole

|publisher=Stanford University Pres

|year=1974

|isbn=978-0-7136-1382-7

|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Life_of_Captain_James_Cook/qe0FMQAACAAJ

|access-date=23 May 2025

}} Sometimes titled The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery Vol. IV: The Life of Captain James Cook.

• {{cite book

|last=Blainey

|first=Geoffrey

|author-link=Geoffrey Blainey

|title=Captain Cook's Epic Voyage: the Strange Quest for a Missing Continent |publisher=Viking

|year=2020

|isbn=978-1-76089-509-9

|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Captain_Cook_s_Epic_Voyage/85S2DwAAQBAJ

|access-date=30 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Collingridge

|first=Vanessa

|author-link=Vanessa Collingridge

|url=https://archive.org/details/captaincooklifed0000coll/

|title=Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer

|year=2003 |publisher=Ebury Press

|isbn=978-0-09-188898-5

}}

• {{Cite book

|editor-last=Edwards

|editor-first=Philip

|title=The Journals of Captain Cook

|url=https://archive.org/details/journalsofcaptai00jame

|date=2003

|publisher=Penguin Books

|isbn=978-0-14-043647-1

}} Abridged version of the journals, based on the original three volumes of manuscripts by John Beaglehole, published from 1955–1967.

• {{cite book

|last=Fisher

|first=Robin

|author-link=Robin Fisher (historian)

|title=Captain James Cook and his times

|chapter=Cook and the Nootka

|pages=81–98

|url=https://archive.org/details/captainjamescook00cong

|access-date=27 May 2025

|date=1979

|isbn=978-0-7099-0050-4

|publisher=Taylor & Francis

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Hayes

|first=Derek

|title=Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery

|date=1999

|publisher=Sasquatch Books

|isbn=978-1-57061-215-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl57oHrVXGoC}}

• {{cite book

|last=Horwitz

|first=Tony

|author-link=Tony Horwitz

|title=Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

|date=October 2003

|publisher=Bloomsbury

|isbn=978-0-7475-6455-3

|url=https://archive.org/details/bluelatitudes00tony/page/156/mode/2up

|access-date = 28 May 2025

}}

• {{cite report

|first1=Kieran

|last1=Hosty

|last2=Hundley

|first2=Paul

|title=Preliminary Report on the Australian National Maritime Museum's Participation in the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project's Search for HMB Endeavour

|publisher=Australian National Maritime Museum

|date=June 2003

|citeseerx=10.1.1.182.5880

|url=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=d5930518b4eba030ca49b78ec913dbad8b4794ad

|access-date=29 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|title=Captain James Cook

|first=Richard

|last=Hough

|author-link=Richard Hough

|date=1994

|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton

|isbn=978-0-340-82556-3

|url=https://archive.org/details/captainjamescook00rich

|access-date=30 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|title=Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook; with an Account of His Life During the Previous and Intervening Periods |first=Andrew

|last=Kippis

|author-link=Andrew Kippis

|date=1788

|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77n/complete.html |access-date=16 July 2012

|archive-date=22 March 2012

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322140625/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77n/complete.html

|url-status=dead

}}

• {{cite encyclopedia

|last=McLintock

|first=Alexander Hare

|author-link=Alexander Hare McLintock

|year=1966

|title=Ships, Famous

|encyclopedia=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

|editor=A.H. McLintock

|publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage/Te Manatū Taonga, Government of New Zealand

|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/S/ShipsFamous/Endeavour/en

|access-date=5 May 2009

}}

• {{cite book

|author-link=Frank McLynn

|last=McLynn

|first=Frank

|date=2011

|title=Captain Cook: Master of the Seas

|publisher=Yale University Press

|isbn=978-0-300-11421-8

|url=https://archive.org/details/captaincookmaste0000mcly_e8a8

|access-date=29 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|title=The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific

|publisher=Princeton University Press

|last=Obeyesekere

|first=Gananath

|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Apotheosis_of_Captain_Cook/PfwqEAAAQBAJ

|access-date=22 May 2025

|author-link=Gananath Obeyesekere

|date=1992

|isbn=978-0-691-05680-7}} Originally published in 1992, with a new Afterword (pp. 197–250) called "De-Sahlinization" added in the 1997 reprint, which discusses the Sahlins controversy.

• {{cite book

|title=Captain Cook in the Pacific

|first1=Nigel

|last1=Rigby

|last2=van der Merwe

|first2=Pieter

|date=2002

|publisher=National Maritime Museum, London

|isbn=978-0-948065-43-9

|url=https://archive.org/details/captaincookinpac0000rigb

|access-date=29 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|title=Captain Cook's War and Peace: The Royal Navy Years 1755–1768

|first=John

|last=Robson

|date=2009

|publisher=University of New South Wales Press

|isbn=978-1-74223-109-9

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWKCAwAAQBAJ

|access-date=23 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book |title=Islands of history

|url=https://archive.org/details/islandsofhistory00sahl

|url-access=registration

|publisher=University of Chicago Press

|first=Marshall

|last=Sahlins

|author-link=Marshall David Sahlins

|date=1985

|isbn=978-0-226-73358-6}}

• {{cite book

| title=Historical Records of New South Wales: pt.1. Cook, 1762-1780

| editor-first=Frank

| editor-last=Bladen

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kIcOAAAAIAAJ

|access-date=2 June 2025

| year=1893

|orig-year=1779

| publisher=C. Potter, Government Printer

|last=Samwell

| first=David

|author-link=David Samwell

|pages=450–478

|chapter=An Account of Cook's Death (Some Account of a Voyage to South Seas in 1776, 1777, 1778 Written by David Samwell, Surgeon of the Discover)

}} The original journal of David Samwell, written during the third voyage.

• {{cite book

|publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society

|author-link=David Samwell

|last=Samwell

|first=David

|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USMOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA76

|title=Hawaiian Historical Society Reprints

|editor-last=Cartwright

|editor-first=Bruce

|chapter=A Narrative of the Death of Captain Cook

|access-date=9 November 2015

|year=1786

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518181233/https://books.google.com/books?id=USMOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA76

|archive-date=18 May 2016

|url-status=live

}} Book about the third voyage, written several years after the expedition.

• {{cite book

|author=Sparks

|first=Jared

|author-link=Jared Sparks

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136

|title=Life of John Ledyard, American Traveller

|publisher=Charles C. Little and James Brown

|year=1847

|access-date=12 February 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414030149/https://books.google.com/books?id=ftw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136 |archive-date=14 April 2021

|url-status=live

}}

• {{cite book

|title=James Cook Maritime Scientist

|publisher=Caedmon of Whitby Press

|last=Stamp

|first=Tom and Cordelia

|date=1978

|isbn=978-0-905355-04-7

| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=q49tAAAAMAAJ

|access-date= 29 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Sykes

|first=Bryan

|author-link =Bryan Sykes

|title=The Seven Daughters of Eve

|publisher=Norton

|isbn=978-0-393-02018-2

|year=2001

|title-link=The Seven Daughters of Eve

}}

• {{Cite book

|url=https://archive.org/details/cookextraordinar0000thom_b8f2

|access-date=3 June 2025

|last=Thomas

|first=Nicholas

|author-link=Nicholas Thomas (anthropologist)

|year=2003

|title=The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook

|publisher=Walker & Co.

|isbn=0-8027-1412-9

|oclc=1030721339

}}

• {{Cite book

|url=https://archive.org/details/deathofcaptainco0000will

|access-date=3 June 2025

|last=Williams

|first= Glyndwr

|author-link= Glyndwr Williams

|year=2008

|title=The Death of Captain Cook: A Hero Made and Unmade

|publisher=Harvard University Press

|isbn=9780674031944

}}

{{div col end}}

{{div col}}

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|last=Aughton

|first=Peter

|title=Endeavour: The Story of Captain Cook's First Great Epic Voyage

|date=2002

|publisher=Cassell & Co.

|isbn=978-0-304-36236-3

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1JDJ0y45AwC

|access-date=27 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

| title=The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery

|volume= II: The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure 1772-1775

| editor-last=Beaglehole

| editor-first = John

| editor-link = John Beaglehole

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzorDwAAQBAJ

|access-date=23 May 2025

| year=1961

| publisher= Cambridge University Press

|via=Hakluyt Society

| ref=none

}} Reprinted in 2017 by Taylor & Francis.

• {{cite book

| title=The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery

| volume= III Part I: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780

| editor-last=Beaglehole

| editor-first = John

| editor-link = John Beaglehole

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ty4rDwAAQBAJ

|access-date=23 May 2025

| year=1967

| publisher= Cambridge University Press

|via=Hakluyt Society

| ref=none

}} Reprinted in 2017 by Taylor & Francis.

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|last=Fagan

|first=Jim

|title=Captain Cook: His Artists, His Voyages

|url=https://archive.org/details/captaincookhisar0000unse/page/n3/mode/2up

|url-access=registration

|publisher=Australian Consolidated Press

|year=1970

|oclc=896726172

}} A picture book with a wide variety of works by artists that accompanied Cook.

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|editor-last=Forster

|editor-first=Georg

|title=A Voyage Round the World

|editor-link=Georg Forster

|year=1986

|orig-year=1777

|publisher=Wiley-VCH

|isbn=978-3-05-000180-7}} First published in 1777 as A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5

• {{Cite book

| ref=CITEREFHawkesworth

|editor-last=Hawkesworth

|editor-first=John

|editor-link=John Hawkesworth (book editor)

|last2=Byron

|first2=John

|author-link2=John Byron

|last3=Wallis

|first3=Samuel

|author-link3=Samuel Wallis

|last4=Carteret

|first4=Philip

|author-link4=Philip Carteret

|last5=Cook

|first5=James

|author-link5=James Cook

|last1=Banks

|first1=Joseph

|author-link1=Joseph Banks

|date=1773

|title=An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of his Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: Drawn Up from the Journals Which Were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq.

|title-link=An Account of the Voyages

|publisher= W. Strahan and T. Cadell

|oclc=9299044

}} [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv01/contents.html Volume I]; [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv23/contents.html Volume II–III].

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|last=Kippis

|first=Andrew

|author-link=Andrew Kippis

|date=1904

|title=The Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook

|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandvoyagesc00kippgoog

|publisher=George Newnes Ltd.; Charles Scribner's Sons |oclc=1836297

}}

• {{cite book

| ref=none

|last=Moorehead

|first=Alan

|author-link=Alan Moorehead

|date=1966

|title=Fatal Impact: An Account of the Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767–1840 |url=https://archive.org/details/fatalimpactaccou0000moor |url-access=registration

|publisher=H Hamilton

|isbn=978-0-241-90757-3}}

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9GZ_AAAAMAAJ

|last=Richardson

|first=Brian

|year=2005

|title=Longitude and Empire: How Captain Cook's Voyages Changed the World

|publisher=University of British Columbia Press

|isbn=0-7748-1190-0 |oclc=58930493}}

• {{cite book

| ref=none

|last=Robson

|first=John

|date=2004

|title=The Captain Cook Encyclopædia

|publisher=Random House Australia

|isbn=978-0-7593-1011-7

| url= https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/j8lMPgAACAAJ

|access-date=30 May 2025

}}

• {{cite book

| ref=none

|title=How "Natives" Think: About Captain Cook, for example

|publisher=University of Chicago Press

|last=Sahlins

|first=Marshall David

|author-link=Marshall Sahlins

|date=1995

|isbn=978-0-226-73368-5

}}

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|last=Sides

|first=Hampton

|author-link=Hampton Sides

|year=2024

|title=The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

|publisher=Doubleday

|isbn=9780385544764

|oclc=1416012934

|url=https://archive.org/details/widewideseaimper0000hamp

|access-date=30 May 2025

}}

• {{Cite book

| ref=none

|last=Withey

|first=Lynne

|year=1987

|title=Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific

|url=https://archive.org/details/voyagesofdiscove0000with/page/n7/mode/2up |url-access=registration

|publisher=William Morrow and Company

|isbn=0688051154

|oclc=15488483}}

• {{cite book

| ref=none

|title=Captain Cook's Journal during his first voyage round the world made in H.M. Bark "Endeavour" 1768–71

|first=W. J. L.

|last=Wharton

|author-link=William Wharton (Royal Navy officer)

|date=1893 |url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77j/complete.html |access-date=16 July 2012

|archive-date=22 March 2012

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322055659/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77j/

|url-status=dead}}

{{div col end}}

{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=yes |commonscat=yes |n=no |q=yes |s=yes |b=no |v=no}}

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Cook |birth=1728 |death=1779}} - Digitised books and documents
• {{Gutenberg author |id=2644}} - Digitised books and documents
• {{Librivox author |id=1650}}

• [http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00058/1 Journal from Cook's second voyage] - High-resolution digitised version at the Cambridge Digital Library
• [https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20110315072628/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/contents.html Searchable version of the Endeavour journal] = Held by the National Library of Australia
• [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/ The South Seas Project] - Maps and online copies of journals, including Banks' journal. Includes John Hawkesworth's account of Cook's first voyage.

• [https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/search/searchterm/James%20cook American Geographical Society Library] - Collection of maps made by Cook
• {{UK National Archives ID}}
• [https://teesvalleymuseums.org/visit/captain-cook-museum/ Captain Cook Birthplace Museum Marton]
• [http://www.cookmuseumwhitby.co.uk/ Captain Cook Memorial Museum Whitby]
• [https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/10800 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa] - Collection of items related to Cook
• [http://www.nma.gov.au/cook/ National Museum of Australia - Cook-Forster] - Artefacts collected during the voyages of Cook

{{Captain James Cook}}

{{His Majesty's Naval Service}}

{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, James}}

Category:1728 births

Category:1779 deaths

Category:18th-century English explorers

Category:18th-century English people

Category:18th-century Royal Navy personnel

Category:British explorers of Antarctica

Category:British explorers of Australia

Category:British explorers of the Pacific

Category:British military personnel of the French and Indian War

Category:Circumnavigators of the globe

Category:English cartographers

Category:English explorers of North America

Category:English hydrographers

Category:English navigators

Category:English people of Scottish descent

Category:English sailors

Category:Explorers of Alaska

Category:Explorers of British Columbia

Category:Explorers of New Zealand

Category:Explorers of Oregon

Category:Explorers of Washington (state)

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Hydrographers

Category:Maritime writers

Category:Military personnel from North Yorkshire

Category:People from Middlesbrough

Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)

Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal

Category:Royal Navy captains

Category:Sea captains