Cook, James (1728 - 1779)

Summary

James Cook was one of the great maritime explorers and navigators of the eighteenth century. In 1768 he was given command of H.M.B. Endeavour with orders to sail to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus as part of an international astronomical program. On board were naturalists who returned home with a rich harvest of botanical and zoological specimens, mostly of species unknown to European scientists. Also on board were chronometers, newly-invented instruments for determining longitude: Cook was to give them a test run for the Royal Navy. On the completion of his task in Tahiti, Cook had further orders to sail west seeking the supposed Terra australis incognita. Having circumnavigated New Zealand, Cook dropped anchor in Botany Bay in April 1770. From there he travelled north charting the east coast of what became known as Australia. Endeavour arrived back in the United Kingdom in July 1771. Cook's next voyage was in command of H.M.S. Resolution and H.M.S. Adventure. During this expedition, which departed from Plymouth in July 1772, Cook circumnavigated Antarctica, sailing further south than any previous mariner, and concluding that the land was surrounded by ice. He revisited New Zealand and charted many of the islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. Cook's final voyage was in command of H.M.S. Resolution and H.M.S. Discovery. On this expedition his orders were to investigate the northwest coast of the North American continent and the northern Pacific. Cook was killed in the Sandwich Islands in February 1779. The ships reached the United Kingdom in August 1780.

Details

The scientific complement on these voyages included:
in Endeavour - Joseph Banks, naturalist; Daniel Solander, assistant to Banks; Herman Spöring, scientific secretary and later landscape artist; Sydney Parkinson, natural history draftsman;
in Resolution: William Anderson, surgeon for both the 2nd and 3rd voyages; Johann Reinhold Forster and Johann Georg Forster, naturalists on the 2nd voyage.

Related entries

Archival resources

John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland

• James Cook - Records, 1771, OM74-79; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details
• James Cook - Records, 1772 - 1773, OM75-42; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• James Cook - Records, 1768 - 1830, A1113; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Cook - Records, 1776 - 1779, MS 92, MS Q140-44, MS F1, Sp166 and Sp168; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• James Cook - Records, 1768 - 1779, 910.4 COO; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Royal Historical Society of Queensland

• James Cook - Records, 1772 - 1773; Royal Historical Society of Queensland. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• James Cook - Records, 1768 - 1837, MS 8108 and others; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Aughton, Peter, Resolution: the Story of Captain Cook's Second Voyage of Discovery (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004), 189 pp. Details
• Baines, Stephen, Captain Cook's merchant ships: Freelove, Three Brothers, Mary, Friendship, Endeavour, Adventure, Resolution and Discovery (Cheltenham, U.K.: The History Press, 2015), 344 pp. Details
• Beaglehole, J. C., The life of Captain James Cook (London: A. and C. Black, 1974), 760 pp. Details
• Beasley, A. W., Fellowship of Three: the Lives and Association of John Hunter (1728-1793), The Surgeon; James Cook (1728-1820), The Navigator; and Joseph Banks (1743-1820), The Naturalist (Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press, 1993). Details
• Blainey, Geoffrey, Sea of Dangers; Captain Cook and His Rivals (Camberwell, Vic.: Viking, 2008), 420 pp. Details
• Britten, J., Illustrations of Australian Plants Collected in 1770 During Captain Cook's Voyage (London: 1905). Details
• Chambers, Neil, Endeavouring Banks: exploring collections from the Endeavour voyage, 1768-1771 (Sydney, N.S.W.: NewSouth Publishing, 2016), 303 pp. Details
• Cook, James; edited by Beaglehole, J. C., The Journals of Captain James Cook on his voyages of discovery, 4 vols (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1968). Details
• Currey, John, A Voyage to the Great South Sea: Completed: How England Learned of Cook's Return in 1771 (Malvern: Banks Society, 2006), 69 pp. Details
• Duder, Tessa, First map: how James Cook chartered Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland: Harper Collins, 2019), 106 pp. Details
• Dugard, Martin, Farther than Any Man: the Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook (Sydney/New York: Allen & Unwin/Pocket Books, 2001), 301 pp. Details
• Eisler, William, The Furthest Shore: Images of Terra Australis from the Middle Ages to Captain Cook (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 192 pp. Details
• Finnis, Bill, Captain James Cook, Seaman and Scientist (London: Chaucer Press, 2003), 252 pp. Details
• Frame, William; with Walker, Laura, James Cook: the voyages (London: British Library, 2018), 224 pp. Details
• Gascoigne, John, Captain Cook: Voyager Between Worlds (Hambledon, London: Continuum, 2007), 288 pp. Details
• Gwyther, John, First voyage : being the full & authentic story of the great discoveries made by Lt. James Cook, R.N. commanding H.M. bark Endeavour in the great south seas in the years 1768-1771 (London: Andrew Melrose, 1954), 208 pp. Details
• Hough, Richard, Captain James Cook a Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), 416 pp. Details
• Joppien, Rudiger and Smith, Bernard, The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages, Volume 2 - the Voyage of the 'Resolution' and 'Adventure' 1772-1775 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1985), 287 pp. Details
• Joppien, Rudiger and Smith, Bernard, The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages: Volume 1 - the Voyage of the 'Endeavour' 1768-1771 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1985), 262 pp. Details
• Lysaght, A. M., The journal of Joseph Banks in the Endeavour; with a commentary by A.M. Lysaght, 2 vols (Guildford, Surrey: Adelaide: Genesis Publications: Rigby, 1980). Details
• MacArthur, Antonia, His Majesty's bark Endeavour the story of the ship and her people (Pymble, N.S.W.: Angus and Robertson, 1997), 86 pp. Details
• Matra, James Mario, A journal of a voyage round the world, in His Majesty's ship Endeavour, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771 : undertaken in pursuit of natural knowledge, at the desire of the Royal Society : containing all the various occurrences of the voyage ... to which is added a concise vocabulary of the language of Otahitee (Dublin: Printed for J. Exshaw [and 8 others], 1772), 193 pp. Details
• McAleer, John; and Rigby, Nigel, Captain Cook and the Pacific: art, exploration and empire (London: Yale University Press, 2017), 256 pp. Details
• National Library of Australia, Cook's Endeavour Journal: the Inside Story (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2008), 160 pp. Details
• O'Sullivan, Daniel, In Search of Captain Cook: Exploring his Remarkable Life and Voyages (London: New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008), 272 pp. Details
• Parkin, Ray, H.M. Bark Endeavour : her Place in Australian History : with an Account of her Construction, Crew and Equipment and a Narrative of her Voyage on the East Coast of New Holland in the Year 1770 (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2006), 467 pp. Details
• Richardson, Brian, Longitude and Empire: How Captain Cook's Voyages Changed the World (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005), 256 pp. Details
• Rienits, Rex and Rienits, Thea, The voyages fo Captain Cook (London: Paul Hamlyn, 1968), 157 pp. Details
• Williams, Glyn, Naturalists at Sea: Scientific Travellers from Dampier to Darwin (New Haven, Connecticut/London: Yale University Press, 2013), 309 pp. Details
• Wrigley, J.; and Fagg, M., Eucalypts: a Celebration (Crows Nest Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010), 344 pp. Details

Book Sections

• 'Cook, James (1728-1779), navigator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 243-244. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010231b.htm. Details

CD ROMs

• Endeavour: Captain James Cook's Journal 1768-71 (Canberra: National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 1998). Details
• Captain Cook's Endeavour journal 1768-71 ([Canberra and Sydney]: National Library of Australia and the National Maritime Museum, 1999). Details

Edited Books

• Coote, Jeremy ed., Cook-voyage collections of "artificial curiosities" in Britain and Ireland, 1771 - 2015 (Oxford: Museum Ethnographers Group, 2016), 300 pp. Details
• Thomas, Nicholas and Berghof, Oliver, assisted by Newell, Jennifer. eds, a Voyage Round the World, by George FORSTER, vol. 1 & 2 of 2 (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000), Vol 1., 523 pp., Vol. 2, 398 pp. Details
• Thomas, Nicholas, Adams, Julie, Lythberg, Billie, Nuku, Maia and Salmond, Amiria eds, Artefacts of encounter: Cook's voyages, colonial collecting and museum histories (Honolulu; Dunedin, N. Z.: University of Hawai'i Press in association with Otago University Press, 2016), 348 pp. Details
• Weber, Therese and Watson, Jeanie eds, Cook's pacific encounters: the Cook-Forster Collection of the Georg-August University of Gottingen (Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2006), 110 pp. Details
• Williams, Glyndwr ed., Captain Cook: Explorations and Reassessments (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004), 266 pp. Details

Journals

• Lipscombe, Trevor, ed., 'Cook's Point Hicks revisited', Victorian historical journal, 91 (2), 2020, 371-82 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Special Issue: Cook and Australian Fisheries', Australian Fisheries, 29 (4) (1970), 1-37. Details
• Agnarsdóttir, Anna, 'The young Joseph Banks: naturalist explorer and scientist, 1766 - 1772', Journal of maritime research, 21 (1/2) (2019), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2020.1746090. Details
• Ashley, Scott, 'How Navigators Think: the Death of Captain Cook Revisited', Past and Present, 194 (2007), 107-137. Details
• Beaglehole, J. C., 'Death of Captain Cook [Presidential address, ANZAAS Congress '64]', Australian Journal of Science, 26 (10) (1964), 297-304. Details
• Beanland, Denver, 'Connections in charting the Great Barrier Reef, 1770 - 1850', Queensland history journal, 24 (3) (2019), 251-67. Details
• Brennan, Claire, 'The physical Endeavour: how a wooden ship shaped Cook's first circumnavigation', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 105 (2) (2019), 135-58. Details
• Cameron-Ash, M., 'Captain Cook invented Point Hicks to hide Bass Strait', The globe, 84 (2018), 39-45. Details
• Chalmers, R. O., 'Captain Cook's Australian Landmarks', Australian Natural History, 16 (8) (1970), 241-288. Details
• Combe, Thomas; and Buchan, Bruce, 'Among "savage and brutal nations": instructing identity and science in the Pacific', Journal for eighteenth-century studies, 45 (1) (2022), 29-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12783. Details
• Disney, H. J. de S., 'Eastern Australian Birds Recorded on the 'Endeavour's" Voyage', Australian Natural History, 16 (8) (1970), 241-288. Details
• Francis, J., 'James Cook and Robert Bakewell: Exploration and animal breeding in the eighteenth century', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 82 (1971), v-xxvi. Details
• Heighway, W., 'Cook's Compass: a note on its acquisition by the Mitchell Library', Navigation, 2 (2) (1964), 167-173. Details
• Herdendorf, Charles E., 'Captain James Cook and the Transits of Mercury and Venus', Journal of Pacific History, 21 (1-2) (1986), 39-55. Details
• Hilder, B., 'Navigation in the 1770's...the Navigation of Captain Cook', Navigation, 3 (2) (1969), 166-178. Details
• Hoare, M. E., ''Cook the Discoverer': an Essay by Georg Forster, 1787', Records of the Australian Academy of Science, 1 (4) (1969), 7-16. http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9690140007.htm. Details
• Igler, David, 'The questions they asked: Joseph Banks and naturalists in the Pacific Ocean', Journal for maritime research, 21 (1/2) (2019), 62-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2019.1705574. Details
• Iredale, T., 'History of New South Wales shells, part 1: Cook and his associates', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1954 (1956), 81-3. Details
• Iredale, T.; and Troughton, E., 'The Actual Identity of Captain Cook's Kangaroo', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 87 (1962), 177-184. Details
• Keir, Bill, 'Captain Cook's Longitude Determinations and the Transit of Mercury: Common Assumptions Questioned', Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 40 (2) (2010), 27-38. Details
• Lipscombe, Trevor, 'Cook conspiracy at Point Hicks?', The globe, 87 (2020), 51-6. Details
• Lipscombe, Trevor, 'Lt James Cook's misplaced landmarks of the coasts of Victoria and NSW', The globe, 87 (2020), 33-7. Details
• Lysaght, A., 'Captain Cook's Kangaroo', New Scientist, 1 (1957). Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Two historical notes in regard to Captain Cook the circumnavigator', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 35 (1901), 47-52. Details
• McCalman, Iain, 'Turtle War: Captain Cook's Environmental Crisis on the Great Barrier Reef', The Great Circle: Journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History, 34 (2) (2012), 7-18. Details
• Megaw, J. V. S., 'Captain Cook and the Australian Aborigine', Australian Natural History, 16 (8) (1970), 241-288. Details
• Mellick, Sam A., 'Signal naval achievements of James Lind (1747), James Cook (1770) and Owen Stanley (1847)', ANZ journal of surgery, 79 (12) (2009), 936-40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-2197.2009.05148.x. Details
• Morrison, Doug, 'Geological surveying in Australia by the navigators James Cook and Matthew Flinders', Preview, 189 (2017), 38-41. Details
• Musgrave, Anthony, 'Insects of Captain Cook's Expedition', The Australian Museum Magazine, 11 (1954), 232-237; 265-239; 303-236; 322-234. Details
• Nugent, Maria; and Sculthorpe, Gaye, 'A shield loaded with history: encounters, objects and exhibitions', Australian historical studies, 49 (1) (2018), 28-43. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Cook, Banks and the Gregorian Telescope in The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, Tongarewa', Journal of the Antique Telescope Society, 18 (1999) (1999), 4-9. Details
• Pearson, C., 'Cook's Cannon Survives 200 Years Under the Sea', Proceedings and News of the Australian Oil and Colour Chemists' Association, 7 (8) (1970), 19, 21-12. Details
• Percy, Carol E., 'To Study Nature Rather than Books: Captain James Cook as Naturalist, Observer and Literary Author', Pacific Studies, 19 (3) (1996), 1-30. Details
• Pickard, John, 'Fencing South Australian farms from 1836 to 1849', Journal of Australian colonial history, 21 (2019), 85-102. Details
• Sorrenson,Richard, 'The ship as a scientific instrument in the eighteenth century', Osiris, 11 (1996), 221-36. Details
• Terry, Martin, 'Remembering Cook', National Library of Australia News, XVI (6) (2006), 3-6. http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2006/mar06/article1.html. Details
• van der Lubbe, Fredericka, 'Reports of the Cook voyages in the Hamburgischer Correspondent', Postcolonial Studies, 21 (1) (2018), 65-82. Details
• White, Sir Frederick, 'James Cook and the Measurement of Longitude', Navigation, 3 (2) (1969), 179-183. Details
• Whitehead, P. J., 'Captain Cook's Role in Natural History', Australian Natural History, 16 (8) (1970), 241-288. Details
• Whitley, G. P., ''Endeavour's' Naturalists in Australia', Australian Natural History, 16 (8) (1970), 241-288. Details
• Woodworth, Philip L.; and Rowe, Glen H., 'The tidal measurements of James Cook during the voyage of the Endeavour', History of Geo- and Space Sciences, 9 (2018), 85-103, https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-9-85-2018. Details
• Wright, Brett, 'Surgical practice and honorary control at Bendigo Hospital 1892-98', Health and history, 21 (2) (2019), 23-46. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7324. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/31994819. Details
• 'Cook, James (17281027-17790214)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1478026. Details

Seminar Papers

• Brock, John F., 'Cook-Bligh-Flinders-King: the quadrilogy of master mariners' in given in The Discovery Room, Australian Museum, Tuesday 6pm (Sydney: Australian Science History Club, 2005). Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_c.html. Details
• Beaglehole, J. C., The Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks : 1768 - 1771, 2 vols (Sydney: Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales in association with Angus and Robertson, 1963). Details
• Bodi, Leslie, 'Forster, Johann Georg(e) Adam (1754-1794), Writer, traveller and revolutionary' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 402-403. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010370b.htm. Details
• Bowen, James; Bowen, Margarita, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 454 pp. Details
• Brosse, Jacques; translated by Hochman, Stanley, Great voyages of exploration: the golden age of discovery in the Pacific (Lane Cove, N.S.W.: Doubleday Australia, 1983), 228 pp. Details
• Carr, Denis J., Sydney Parkinson: artist of Cook's Endeavour voyage (Canberra: British Museum (Natural History) in association with Australian National University Press, 1983), 300 pp. Details
• Duyker, Edward, Nature's Argonaut: Daniel Solander, 1733-1782, Naturalist and Voyager with Cook and Banks (Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 1998), 436 pp. Details
• Edwards, Paul J., 'Nevil Maskelyne, applied optical scientist: James Cook's guide to the Pacific', AOS news, 27 (4) (2013), 23-9. Details
• Gurney, Alan, The race to the white continent (New York, London: W. W. Norton, 2000), 320 pp. Details
• Hunting, Penelope, 'The Endeavour journal of Lieutenant Zachary Hicks 1768 - 1771', Notes and records of the Royal Society, London, 74 (2020), 9. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2020.0021. Details
• Marquardt, K. H., Captain Cook's Endeavour (Naval Institute Press, 1995), 136 pp. Details
• Palma, Ricardo L., 'Two bird lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) collected during Captain Cook's 2nd voyage around the world', Archives of natural history, 18 (2) (1991), 237-47. Details
• Pearn, John H., 'Hermann Diedrich Spöring (1773 - 1771), naturalist, artist, surgeon', in Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine biennial scientific meeting, Perth 2009 (Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine, 2009), p. 16.. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:200355. Details
• Priestley, Rebecca, Dispatches from continent seven: an anthology of Antarctic science (Wellington, New Zealand: Awa Press, 2016), 422 pp. Details
• Rowe, Glen H., 'New Zealand's first gauge-based sea level measurements', History of geo- and space sciences, 14 (2023), 77-92. https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-14-77-2023. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Smith, Bernard, 'The Functions of the Art on Cook's Voyages, Part 3: History Painting: Cook's Artists at Full Stretch', Pacific Islands Monthly, 56 (12) (1985), 42-43. Details
• Smith, Bernard, 'The Functions of the Art on Cook's Voyages, Part 2: Grappling with the Art of the First Encounter', Pacific Islands Monthly, 56 (11) (1985), 42-44. Details
• Smith, Bernard, 'The Functions of the Art on Cook's Voyages, Part 1: Navigation, Art and Espionage', Pacific Islands Monthly, 56 (10) (1985), 42-43. Details
• Thomas, Nicholas, 'A case of identity: the artefacts of the 1770 Kamay (Botany Bay) encounter', Australian Aboriginal Studies, 49 (1) (2018), 4-27. Details