Cook, JAMES, one of England's greatest navigators and maritime explorers, was born at Marton, in Cleveland, Yorkshire, where his father was an agricultural labourer, on October 28 (according to another authority, November), 1728. After a meagre education, Cook was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to a haberdasher at Staithes, 10 miles north of Whitby. After a short experience of this life, he was bound apprentice to Whitby ship-owners, and spent several years in the coasting and Baltic trade. In 1755 he entered the royal navy as an able seaman, and in four years rose to the rank of master. For about ten years after this he was mostly engaged in surveying about the St Lawrence and the shores of Newfoundland, and the results as embodied in his sailing directory (1766-78), are of value even at the present day. During this period he devoted himself to the study of mathematics, and otherwise qualified himself for the highest rank in the navy. In 1768 he was raised to the rank of lieutenant, and placed in command of the Endeavour, appointed to convey the expedition for the observation of the transit of Venus in the Pacific. The Endeavour sailed on August 25, and arrived at Tahiti in the following April, the transit being successfully observed on June 3. On the return, New Zealand was for the first time circumnavigated, and its coasts charted; the east coast of Australia was surveyed and taken possession of in the name of Great Britain. The strait which separates Australia from New Guinea was sailed through, and the distinction of those two islands established beyond doubt. Continuing his voyage by Java (Batavia) and the Cape of Good Hope, Cook anchored in the Downs on June 12, 1771. One important result of the voyage was to disprove the existence of the 'great southern Continent,' which had been supposed to extend from the Antarctic as far north as 40° S. Cook was promoted to the rank of commander, and given the command of a second voyage of discovery in the Resolution and Adventure, which sailed from Plymouth, July 13, 1772. This expedition was out for three years. The great object was to discover how far the lands of the Antarctic stretched northwards. For this purpose Cook sailed round the edge of the ice, and penetrated as far south as possible, his farthest south point being 71° 10', in long. 110° 54' W. During the intervals between the Antarctic voyages, Cook cruised in the Southern Pacific, visiting Tahiti, exploring the New Hebrides, discovering New Caledonia, and many of the island groups in the Pacific. Plymouth was reached on July 29, 1775. One important feature of the second voyage was that, owing to the precautions taken by Cook, there was only one death among his crews during all the three years—a marked contrast to the fearful losses sustained during other voyages of this period.
Cook, who had been promoted to captain, and received an appointment in Greenwich Hospital, had scarcely been home for a year before he was appointed to the command of another expedition, the main object of which was to discover a passage round the north coast of America from the Pacific. Cook sailed from Plymouth in the Resolution, July 12, 1776, followed by Captain Clarke in the Discovery. Leaving the Cape on November 30, the expedition visited Tasmania and New Zealand, and spent the year 1777 cruising among the Pacific Islands. In the beginning of 1778 the Sandwich Islands were discovered, when Cook made for the west coast of North America. This he followed and surveyed from 45° N. as far as Icy Cape on the inside of Behring Strait, where he was compelled to turn back, reaching Karakakoa Bay in Hawaii, Sandwich Islands, January 17, 1779. At first the expedition was treated in the most friendly way by the natives. For some reason their attitude changed, and on February 14, when Cook landed with a party to recover a stolen boat, the natives set upon them with sudden fury, Cook being clubbed and stabbed to death at the edge of the water. Part of the body was recovered and buried, and in 1874 a monument was erected near the spot where he fell. Many varied accounts have been given of Cook's death, and many reasons adduced for the changed attitude of the Hawaiians; but the probability is that he simply fell a victim to a sudden outbreak of savage fury. Cook did more than any other navigator to add to our knowledge of the Pacific and the Southern Ocean; his observations have stood the test of modern investigations; in character he was honest and just, both to his own men and to the natives with whom he came into contact, and who almost invariably became greatly attached to him. A pension of £200 was granted to his widow (whom he married in 1762), and £25 to each of his three children.
An account of the first voyage originally appeared as vols. ii. and iii. of Hawkesworth's Voyages (1773); the narrative of the second was written by Cook himself, 2 vols. with 1 vol. of plates (1777); that of the third appeared in 3 vols. and an atlas (1784), partly by Cook and partly by Captain James King. See Kippis's Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook (1788; reprinted 1883); Professor Laughton's article in the Diet. Nat. Biog.; Besant's monograph (1890); and the unabridged reprint of Cook's Journal of his First Voyage, by Captain Wharton (1893).