Whitby Sights

Captain Cook (1728 - 1779)  

Captain James Cook, R.N was an extraordinary navigator who travelled the oceans from the Pacific, Antarctic and the Artic.  His journeys during the 18th century led to the discovery of many new lands and inevitably saw the colonisation by the Europeans of the Antipodes by British people.

Captain Cook was a Yorkshire man, born in Marton-in-Cleveland on October 27, 1728.  People at that time would recall the exploits of a farm labourer's son who learned the skills of seamanship in Whitby.  A large number of links with Captain Cook can be discovered by anyone who follows his footsteps in Yorkshire.  Exploring the Cook country will introduce the visitor to an area of outstanding beauty from the Cleveland Plain, to the heather moorland and the communities whose houses huddle under the cliffs of England's north east coast.

Biography

Cook was born in a two-roomed cottage situated in a small community a few miles from a tidal stretch of the Tees called Marton.  His father, James senior was of Scottish origin, possibly from Roxburghshire where the name Cook is quite common.  He married a Cleveland girl called Grace Pace and had seven or eight children.  All though James senior was illiterate and by no means wealthy, he did his best for his family. 

The Cooks lived in and around Marton for 11 years and a young James Cook was tought to read and write by a Mrs. Mary Walker.  During 1736, Cooks father secured a better job on Airyholme Farm, in the village of Great Ayton.  The family moved to this location where the farms owner, Thomas Skottowe was so impressed with the young James Cook's intelligence and quick thinking, he paid for his schooling near by.      

For some years, young James was a farm labourer possibly working along side his father on Airyholme Farm.  It was in 1745 that Squire Scottowe arranged for James to become apprenticed to a grocer and haberdasher in the small fishing village of Staithes, north of the port Whitby. Early in 1746, James Cook was introduced to a Quaker family (the Walkers) of ship owners who were involved in the collier trade between the northeast coast and London.  After his apprenticeship in 1749, James Cook sailed ships belonging to many different owners.  After spending three years as an employee with the Walker family James Cook joined the Royal Navy in 1755.

Cook's Naval Career 

Captain John Walker (from Whitby) was enthuisiastic for James Cook to command one of his Merchant Ships, but Cook had moved on from Merchant shipping.  Cook became an able seaman in the Navy, the year was 1755. Two nations were about to go to war, England and France were about to engage in a seven year war.  Both countries were destined to clash due to there competative nature regarding trade and colonisation.

The Navy created a blockade of the French coast and Captain James Cook served in the English Channel, waters that were familiar to him. Cook was in charge of the Eagle (60 gun ship) then later the Pembroke (64 gun ship).  James Cook was the master whilst on the Pembroke, in charge of navigation.  The Pembroke was skippered by John Simcoe who encouraged Cook to study mathematics, hydrographical survey work and astronomy.  Cook is said to have told an acquaintance that whilst on board the Pembroke, the instructions and improvements he had received had been the foundation of his ability to perform.

Captain Cook's new found knowledge and experience of the collier trade in the north east of England, were put to the test when charting a difficult section or the St. Lawrence river, known as The Traverse.  The Traverse had daunted navigators of ships moving up to Quebec.  Cook's skills almost certainly helped Wolfe when he planned the storming of the Heights of Abraham; this led to the capture of Quebec in 1759.  In 1762, Cook returned to England and married Miss Elizabeth Batts at the age of 34 she was 21.  He sailed again in 1762, this time to survey the Newfoundland coast.  He was fortunate to be able to observe and record the sun's eclipse, which would later have knock on effect.  The Admiralty in 1768 proposed to despatch a ship carrying members from the Royal society who would observe the Transit of Venus across the sun.  Cook was considered above a number of men who had served much longer in the Royal Navy.  He was offered command of the Endeavour (formally the Earl of Pembroke) and given the rank lieutenant.

The chosen ship could no have been any better.  Not only was the Endeavour a collier type ship, of which Cook was familiar with, but her sturdy frame and shallow draught proved to be invaluable in the unknown waters of the South Seas.  The Endeavour was three masted, weighed 366 tons, a length of 106ft and a beam of 29 ft.  Her top speed was only seven or eight knots but this was not a problem as the voyages duration would be three years.

One wonders at the cramped accommodation for James Cook, his crew and the distinguished scientists who accom­panied him.  They included Joseph Banks who, though only 24 years of age, was a botanist of renown, and Fellow of the Royal Society, and Dr. Daniel Carl Solander, an even more distinguished botanist.

Cook set sail from Plymouth, and he reached the Pacific by way of Cape Horn.  With the scientific work at Tahiti accomp­lished, he broke open secret orders, which assigned him to discover whether or not "a Continent or Land of great extent" existed in the South Pacific.

No such land was discovered by Cook, but he did locate New Zealand.  The shores had been visited by Abel Tasman over a century before, but Tasman thought of this land as part of Australia.  Cook was to show, by careful charting, that it was distinctive and, indeed, consisted of two large islands. He considered that they were admirably suited for settlement "should this ever be thought an object worthy the attention of Englishmen".  Cook went on to chart the eastern coastline of Australia.

The surroundings were strange to a sailor whose exper­ience had been in cold, grey northern seas.  Cook had no previous knowledge of a coral reef, and was astonished one June morning in 1770 when, after sailing in water over 17 fathoms deep, his craft hit such a reef and "before the Man at the lead could heave another cast the Ship struck." Fortunately, Endeavour's draught was a mere 14 feet; she was freed, with some difficulty, then beached for repairs.  The coasters of northeast Yorkshire had been evolved for beaching to be practical without undue stress on their frame, another advantage possessed by the Whitby made ships.

Cook voyaged south to the 40-degree line without sighting land.  He returned home to England in July, 1771, and was pro­moted to the rank of commander.  In 1772 began his second great voyage, "to complete the discovery of a Southern Hemisphere."  Two ships were prepared for the expedition; they were bought from Captain William Hammond, of Hull, and their names were changed from Drake and Raleigh to Resolution and Adventure.  Cook had some improved equip­ment, including a chronometer devised by a fellow Yorkshire man, John Harrison.

During this second voyage, Cook drove his Whitby ships further south than man had ever been before.  They were the first vessels to cross the Antarctic Circle, and for a time they lost sight of each other in gale and fog.  Cook did not find the mysterious Southern Continent, but he achieved much, not least in keeping his crew fit during prolonged periods at sea.  Cook's work in counteracting scurvy was later to be acknowledged by a gold medal from the Royal Society.  On his first great voyage, he had lost a third of the crew to scurvy.  Cook understood the importance of vitamin C and this time his seamen maintained their health with the help of lemons.

During this second voyage, there was a landfall at New Zealand, where some domestic animals were liberated and vegetables brought from England were planted.  On his return, he was greeted as a celebrity.  Nathaniel Dance painted his portrait. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded a vacancy as one of the Captains in the Greenwich Hospital. Before he could take up this last appointment, he planned a third great expedition. It began in the summer of 1776.  Once again he returned to the Pacific in the Resolution, accompanied by a ship of similar type which was called Discovery.  The Resolution was already a veteran of Pacific waters.  Cook would have been well advised to obtain a new ship, for Resolution proved far from seaworthy when, after the old familiar Pacific islands had been visited, and some new islands were dis­covered, Cook took her northwards in a bid to do what no one had accomplished - the discovery of a navigable passage around the top of North America.

He entered the Bering Strait.  The cold seas were encount­ered in the spring of 1778, and soon the crew observed seals and whales.  The people were seen to be quite different in their appearance and manner from those of the South Seas.  They had at least one thing in common, and that was cannibalistic tendencies!

Cook voyaged northwards along the American coast, had a landfall on the Asian side of the Bering Strait, and met more natives.  The Europeans sailed among drift-ice with growing concern. The Resolution had already been repaired, and was now in a sad state.  As the northern winter approached, Cook turned southwards, reaching Hawaii (then known as Owhyhee) in December.

The natives first greeted Cook as a god.  Soon afterwards their manner became ominous.  When a boat from Discovery was stolen, Cook decided to take the king as hostage.  There was a scuffle on the shore, and Cook was slain.  The last time he was distinctly seen, he stood at the edge of the sea.  A contemporary account relates that "while he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but having turned about to give his orders to the boats, he was stabbed in the back and fell with his face in the water."  Cook's death occurred on February 14, 1779. The expedition continued.  Not until October of the following year did the Resolution sail into an English harbour.