Captain James Cook: British Explorer

Kamryn Nieves

Captain James Cook was a British explorer. He explored the Hawaiian islands, New Zealand, and the coastline of Australia.
Captain Cooks first journey was to a Southern continent that was thought to exist but didn't. The reason he went out to explore was to observe the "Transit Of Venus". The Transit Of Venus is when Venus comes between the earth and the sun and appears as a large black dot crossing the sun. Many scientist went on the voyage with Cook.
During his journey, he sailed from England, to Brazil, past Cape Horn, and to Tahiti. Cape Horn is the tip of South Africa. He stayed there for months, to study more about the "Transit Of Venus". He started sailing again, and found the society islands.
Cook sailed to New Zealand, on October 6, 1769. His crew members got in a argument with the oldest colonist of New Zealand called the "Maori". He mapped out the two very important islands. The strait between these two islands is now called "Cook Strait".
Cook sailed his ship called the "Endeavor" and mapped out the eastern coast of Australia. The "Endeavor" was partly damaged by coral, for a day and almost sank in "The Great Barrier Reef". In Northern Queensland, Australia, they started repairing their ship and finally finished on August 6, 1770.Cook sailed through the strait between Australia and New Guinea. He stopped at Batavia Java in October 1770. Around 30 members of his crew died of malaria which is a disease that is from mosquitoes. Cook had to replace a few crew members in south Africa.
On July 13, 1771, Cook returned home, back to England after a voyage for almost three years. October 27,1728-February 14, 1779.
Captain Cooks second journey was to Antarctica. He was the first person to sail across the Antarctic circle. He sailed to south Africa, then to the Bovet islands which is near Antarctica. The two ships called "The Adventure" and "The Revolution were separated on February 1773, and were together again in April 1773. they explored area north, the east of New Zealand Tonga and Tahiti. The two ships were separated again. Cook had to sail south and reached a record of a latitude of 71 degrees, and ten minutes.
It was 1,250 miles from the south pole. The ship that got separated went back to England. Then Cook sailed to Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope, and then back to England, and he arrived on July 29,1775.

Captain Cooks final journey was a search for a North West passage across North America to Asia. He searched from the Pacific Ocean side of the continent. Cook sailed from England on July12,1776 on the ship named the Resolution.
Cook arrived at Cape Town, south Africa on October 18,1776 and sailed through the Indian Ocean and to New Zealand in early 1777, the Cook Islands and Tonga. Heading for Alaska, Cook sailed to and named the Christmas Islands, arriving on December 25,1777. He then named the sandwich Islands Cook searched for a North west passage in Alaska, but was unsuccessful. He then returned to the Sandwich Islands.

Cook was killed by a mob on February 14,1779 on the sandwich Islands now called Hawaii. At the time he was trying to take the local chief hostage to get the natives to return a stolen sailboat. The ship returned to England without Cook on October 4,1780.

Cook was the first ships captain to stop the disease scurvy (Scurvy is caused from a lack of vitamin C) among sailors by providing them with fresh fruit. Before this, scurvy killed many sailors on the trip.