In 1759 he and other ships’ masters surveyed the Traverse in the St Lawrence River, enabling the British fleet to pass safely and attack Quebec. He served in North America on board the warships HMS Pembroke and HMS Northumberland during the Seven Years’ War, developing his knowledge of hydrographic surveying-the technique of measuring water depths and underwater hazards. After two years of service he passed the master’s examination, qualifying him to navigate and handle ships of the Royal Navy. He began as an able seaman on HMS Eagle and within a month was promoted to master’s mate. Years later, he would command similar Whitby-built ships on his historic Pacific voyages. He spent the next few years as a seaman for shipowner John Walker of Whitby, sailing the dangerous and unpredictable waters of the North Sea coal trade. He began as a shop boy for a grocer and haberdasher before joining the merchant navy as an apprentice. At age 16 or 17, he was sent to work in the fishing village of Staithes on the Yorkshire coast. He attended school in the nearby village of Great Ayton where his father had found work as a farm foreman. He was baptised at the parish church of St Cuthbert’s on 3 November, and entered in the parish register as: “James, ye son of a day labourer.” James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in the two-roomed mud cottage of his parents, James Cook and Grace Pace, in the village of Marton-in-Cleveland, North Yorkshire. His contributions included charting the coasts of New Zealand, eastern Australia, north-west America and numerous Pacific islands, disproving the existence of a great southern continent, and scientific discoveries in the fields of natural history and ethnology. He made three historic voyages to the Pacific, to become the first recorded European to reach the east coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. James Cook RN was born in Yorkshire, England.Ĭaptain James Cook FRS was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer and naval officer.
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