COOK, Captain JAMES (172S-79). A cele brated English navigator. He was the son of a farm laborer: was born at Marton, Yorkshire; was meagrely educated at the village school, and, at twelve years of age, was apprenticed to a small shopkeeper in the fishing village of Staithes. Disagreeing with his employer, he applied to a firm of Whitby ship-owners engaged in the Newcastle. Norway. and Baltic trades, and in their service soon rose to the rank of mate. In 1755, at the outbreak of the French war, he volunteered for the Royal Navy. Showing ability, in 1759 he was given a master's warrant, and, ill command of the Mercury, proceeded to the North American station. During a winter at Halifax he diligently applied himself to the study of mathematics and astronomical navigation. The charts and observations which he made of the coasts of _Newfoundland and Labrador, pub lished in 1776-78 and distinguished for their accu racy even to the present day, introduced him to the notice of the Royal Society, and this society intrusted him with the command of all expedi tion to the Pacific. to observe the transit of Venus. He left Plymouth on August 26, 176S, and, after tonehing at Madeira and Rio Janeiro, doubled Cape and reached Tahiti on April 13, 1769, where the transit was successfully observed, dune 3. On the return voyage six months were spent in sailing around and charting the coast of New Zealand, which had not been visited by Europeans for more than a century. In a similar way the eastern coast of Australia was exam ined and named New South Wales. The entire separation of Australia from New Guinea was determined. After a two months' stay at Bata via. lie returned by the Cape of Good llope. and arrived in England, June 12, 1771. The hn portant geographical results of this successful voyage WW1 universal recognition, and two months a fterwards Cook reo.ived the rank of •om mander and an appointment to organize a new expedition for the discovery of the imaginary Terra Australis Incognita. lie sailed with two ships from Plymouth. July 13, 1772, and in a three years' cruise of over 20,000 leagues, en circled the Antarctic region from New Zealand to Cape Horn. This voyage proved the non-ex istence of any very great southern continent, and established the map of the region, with the ex ception of details, essentially as it exists to-day. lie returned to England, July 30, 177.5. Taught
a lesson by a mortality of 46 per cent. in his first voyage around the world. Cook had made slid' excellent hygienic arrangements that only one man out of 118 died during the cruise. His detailed account of the measures and precautions adopted were read before the Royal Society, wniell granted him the Copley Gold Medal for his important services to humanity and to the mari time world. Promoted to the rank of captain, lie received an appointment at Greenwich Hospi tal, but shortly afterwards he offered to command an expedition in search of a passage round North America from the Pacific. He sailed July 12, 1776, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and spent the following year in the South Pacific. Thence he set sail for the north in January, 1778, and. after rediscovering the Sandwich Islands. reached America, and added to geographical knowledge by making an almost continuous run ning survey of the coast as far as Bering Strait, where, stopped by impenetrable ice, he returned to winter at the Sandwich Islands. In an en deavor to recover a stolen boat he was killed by savages at Hawaii. February 14. 1779. His death occasioned widespread regret, and the King pen sioned his wife and children. An obelisk erected in 1874 marks the spot where he fell. A practical and scientific seaman, a sagacious commander, kind but strict with his crew, Cook was also dis tinguished by indomitable perseverance and decision. An account of Cook's first voyage ap peared originally as part of Hawkes•orth's 'Voy ages (1773) ; the narrative of the second was written by Cook himself. under the title of Voyage Towards the South, Pole and Round the World, Performed in Ills Majesty's ''drips the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775 (1777); the story of. Cook's third voyage, partly written by Cook himself and partly by Captain James King, appeared in 1784. Consult : Wharton, Captain Cook's Journal During His First Round the World (London, 1S97) ; Synge, Captain Cook's Voy ages Round the World (London, 1897) : Best ant, Captain Cook (London. 1890) ; Kippis, Life of Captain •lames Cook (London, 178S) ; .Varro tire of the Voyages Round the World Pe• formed by Captain James Cook (2 vols., London, 1878) : Russell. Chart of the World, . . . . S.hotring time Track (Ind Discorcries of Captain Cook (London. 1799).