James Cook was born at Marton Yorkshire on 27th October 1728. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Great Ayton when his father was employed as foreman at Aieryholme farm. The farmer’s wife took an interest in James and paid for his schooling at the village school. On leaving school he went to work with his father on the farm but his employer soon realised that James was wasted as a farm labourer and arranged for him to go and work for William Sanderson, a grocer in Staithes.

It was while he was in Staithes that he found his love of the sea and after 18 months as a grocer’s assistant he was introduced by Sanderson to the Walker family in Whitby.

The Walker brothers were ship owners engaged in the coal trade between the north east and London. Cook was employed by the Walkers and first went to sea in February 1747 on the collier Freelove. He made three trips on the Freelove before moving to a new ship belonging to the Walker brothers called Three Brothers, which he signed on to after completing his apprenticeship. He remained on the Three Brothers until 1752 apart from making one trip on the Mary to St. Petersburg.

In 1752 he passed his exams and became first mate on another of Walker’s ships the Friendship. After 3 years he was offered the captaincy but Cook had other plans and in June 1755 having turned down Walker’s offer he left Whitby and volunteered as an ordinary seaman in the Royal Navy.

Cook spent the first two years serving on HMS Beagle. After a month he was promoted to mate the position he had held on Walkers ships. In 1762 he married Elizabeth Batts of Shadwell. They were only married for four months before Cook went back to sea. During this time he saw action against the French during the Seven Years War. He learnt how to chart and survey coastal waters and was fortunate enough to observe and record an eclipse of the sun.

In 1768 the Admiralty decided to send a ship to Tahiti with observers from the Royal Society to watch the transit of Venus across the sun. Cook was chosen to command the Endeavour and promoted to the rank of lieutenant. The Endeavour was a Whitby built collier, a type of vessel that Cook had lots of experience on. The Endeavour was chosen because she only required a small crew but had a large amount of space for provisions and could be run aground safely.

In October 1769 he sailed to New Zealand where he and his crew fought the Maoris. He also mapped the two main islands to show it was not part of the Southern continent. From here he sailed on to Australia and mapped the northern and eastern coasts. The Endeavour became stuck on the Great Barrier Reef and almost sank. Cook and his crew carried out repairs in Northern Queensland which were completed in August 1770. From there they sailed through the strait that separates Australia and New Guinea to Batvia, Java in October 1770. While they were there many of the crew died with malaria. On leaving Batavia they stopped in Cape Town and took on more crew. In July 1771 they returned to England.

Cook’s second expedition lasted three years from 1772 – 1775 when he went to Antarctica and Easter Island. On this voyage he had two ships under his command the Resolution and the Adventure. On his way to Antarctica he called at Cape Town and Bouvet Island. He was the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle.

In 1773 the two ships explored Tahiti and Tonga, after which the ships separated, whilst the other ship sailed back to England, Cook sailed South to within approximately 1250 miles of the South Pole. He then sailed from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope and back to England.

His last expedition from 1776 to 1779 was to search for the North West Passage. He began his search from the Pacific Ocean on the Resolution. In October 1776 he arrived in Cape Town to take on supplies and then on into the Indian Ocean and across to New Zealand. From there he headed to Alaska but was unable to find the North West Passage and returned to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).

On February 14th 1779 while attempting to get the local inhabitants to return a stolen sailboat he was killed by a spear. Cook's body was buried at sea and the ship arrived back in England on October 4th 1780 without him.