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{{short description|British explorer, cartographer and naval officer (1728–1779)}}
{{redirect|Captain Cook|other uses|Captain Cook (disambiguation)|and|James Cook (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = James Cook
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|FRS|country=GBR|size=100%}}
| image = Captainjamescookportrait.jpg
| caption = Portrait by [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland]], {{circa|1775}}
| birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|7 November|1728|27 October}}
| birth_place = [[Marton, Middlesbrough|Marton]], [[Yorkshire]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1779|2|14|1728|11|7}}
| death_place = [[Kealakekua Bay]] in present-day [[Hawaii]], U.S.
| death_cause = 
| nationality = British
| education = Postgate School, [[Great Ayton]]
| occupation = Explorer, cartographer and naval officer
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Elizabeth Batts Cook|Elizabeth Batts]]|21 December 1762}}
| children = 6
| signature = James Cook Signature.svg
| module = {{Infobox military person
| embed = yes
| branch_label = Branch
| branch = [[Royal Navy]]
| serviceyears_label = Service&nbsp;years
| serviceyears = 1755–1779
| rank = [[Captain (Royal Navy)|Captain]] ([[Post-captain]])
| battles = {{tree list}}
* [[Seven Years' War]]
** [[Conquest of New France]]
{{tree list/end}}
}}
}}

[[Captain (Royal Navy)|Captain]] '''James Cook''' {{postnominals|FRS|country=GBR}} ({{OldStyleDate|7 November|1728|27 October}} – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He served during the [[Seven Years' War]] and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the [[St. Lawrence River]] during the [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham|siege of Quebec]], which brought him to the attention of the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] and the [[Royal Society]]. This acclaim came at a crucial moment for the direction of British overseas exploration, and it led to his commission in 1768 as commander of {{ship|HMS|Endeavour}} for the first of three Pacific voyages.

In these voyages, Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously charted by Western explorers. He surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.

During his [[Third voyage of James Cook|third voyage in the Pacific]], Cook encountered the [[Hawaiian Islands|Hawaiian islands]] in 1779. [[Death of James Cook|He was killed]] while attempting to take hostage [[Kalaniʻōpuʻu]], chief of the island of [[Hawaii (island)|Hawaii]], during a dispute. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge that influenced his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him. He remains controversial for his occasionally violent encounters with indigenous peoples and there is debate on whether he can be held responsible for paving the way for [[British Empire|British imperialism and colonialism]].

==Early life and family==
James Cook was born on {{OldStyleDate|7 November|1728|27 October}} in the village of [[Marton, Middlesbrough|Marton]] in the [[North Riding of Yorkshire]] and baptised on 14 November (N.S.) in the [[parish church]] of [[Marton, Middlesbrough#St Cuthbert's Church|St Cuthbert]], where his name can be seen in the church register.<ref name="Rigby25" /><ref>{{harvnb|Robson|2009|p=2}}</ref> He was the second of eight children of James Cook (1693–1779), a Scottish farm labourer from [[Ednam]] in [[Roxburghshire]], and his locally born wife, Grace Pace (1702–1765), from [[Thornaby-on-Tees]].<ref name="Rigby25">{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=25}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p=1}}</ref><ref name="collingridge">{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003}}</ref> In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at [[Great Ayton]], where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years of schooling, he began work for his father, who had been promoted to farm manager. Despite not being formally educated, he became capable in mathematics, astronomy and charting by the time of his ''Endeavour'' voyage.<ref name="Frost2018">{{cite book|first=Alan|last=Frost|title=Mutiny, Mayhem, Mythology: Bounty's Enigmatic Voyage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nxBzDwAAQBAJ|date=19 October 2018|publisher=Sydney University Press|isbn=978-1-74332-587-2|page=255|access-date=4 December 2018|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803163945/https://books.google.com/books?id=nxBzDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, [[Roseberry Topping]], enjoying the opportunity for solitude.<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=15}}</ref>

In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved {{convert|20|mi|km}} to the fishing village of [[Staithes]], to be apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and [[haberdasher]] William Sanderson.<ref name="Rigby25" /> Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.<ref name="collingridge" />

[[File:Elizabeth Batts Cook.jpg|thumb|[[Elizabeth Batts Cook|Elizabeth Cook]], wife and for 56 years widow of James Cook, by William Henderson, 1830]]
After 18 months, not proving suited for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of [[Whitby]] to be introduced to Sanderson's friends John and Henry Walker.<ref name="horwitz" /> The Walkers, who were [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]], were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now the [[Captain Cook Memorial Museum]]. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His first assignment was aboard the [[Collier (ship type)|collier]] ''Freelove'', and he spent several years on this and various other [[coastal trading vessel|coasters]], sailing between the [[River Tyne|Tyne]] and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy – all skills he would need one day to command his own ship.<ref name="collingridge" />

His three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on [[merchant ship]]s in the [[Baltic Sea]]. After passing his examinations in 1752, he soon progressed through the merchant navy ranks, starting with his promotion in that year to [[Master's mate|mate]] aboard the collier [[brig]] ''Friendship''.<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=11}}</ref> In 1755, within a month of being offered command of this vessel, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, when Britain was re-arming for what was to become the [[Seven Years' War]]. Despite the need to start back at the bottom of the naval hierarchy, Cook realised his career would advance more quickly in military service and entered the Navy at [[Wapping]] on 17 June 1755.<ref name="Rigby27">{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=27}}</ref>

Cook married [[Elizabeth Batts Cook|Elizabeth Batts]], the daughter of Samuel Batts, [[Public house#Inns|keeper]] of the Bell Inn in Wapping<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/MuseumsAndHeritage/LocalHistoryResources/Documents/Infosheet22JamesCookDickTurpin.pdf|title=Famous 18th&nbsp;century people in Barking and Dagenham: James Cook and Dick Turpin|publisher=London Borough of Barking and Dagenham|access-date=5 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605124552/http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/MuseumsAndHeritage/LocalHistoryResources/Documents/Infosheet22JamesCookDickTurpin.pdf|archive-date=5 June 2012}}</ref> and one of his mentors, on 21 December 1762 at [[St Margaret's Church, Barking]], Essex.<ref>{{harvnb|Robson|2009|pp=120–21}}</ref> The couple had six children: James (1763–1794), Nathaniel (1764–1780, lost aboard {{HMS|Thunderer|1760|6}} which foundered with all hands in a hurricane in the [[West Indies]]), Elizabeth (1767–1771), Joseph (1768–1768), George (1772–1772) and Hugh (1776–1793, who died of scarlet fever while a student at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]]). When not at sea, Cook lived in the [[East End of London]]. He attended [[St Paul's Church, Shadwell]], where his son James was baptised. Cook has no direct descendants – all of his children died before having children of their own.<ref>{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p=138}}</ref>

Sir [[Walter Besant]], a biographer of Cook, described Cook as being "over six feet high" with "dark brown hair", "bushy eyebrows", and "small brown eyes".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/cook-james/page-2|title=Features and appearance of Cook|publisher=[[Encyclopaedia of New Zealand]]|access-date=31 July 2024}}</ref>

==Start of Royal Navy career==
{{Further|Great Britain in the Seven Years' War}}

Cook's first posting was with {{HMS|Eagle|1745|6}}, serving as [[Able seaman (rank)#Royal Navy|able seaman]] and [[master's mate]] under Captain Joseph Hamar for his first year aboard, and Captain [[Hugh Palliser]] thereafter.<ref>{{harvnb|Robson|2009|pp=19–25}}</ref> In October and November 1755, he took part in ''Eagle'''s capture of one French warship and the sinking of another, following which he was promoted to [[boatswain]] in addition to his other duties.<ref name="Rigby27" /> His first temporary command was in March 1756 when he was briefly master of ''Cruizer'', a small cutter attached to ''Eagle'' while on patrol.<ref name="Rigby27" /><ref>{{harvnb|McLynn|2011|p=21}}</ref>

In June 1757, Cook formally passed his [[Master (naval)|master]]'s examinations at [[Trinity House]], [[Deptford]], qualifying him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's fleet.<ref name="G_Williams">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/captaincook_01.shtml|title=Captain Cook: Explorer, Navigator and Pioneer|first=Glyn|last=Williams|date=17 February 2011|access-date=5 September 2011|publisher=BBC|archive-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819202628/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/captaincook_01.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> He then joined the frigate HMS ''Solebay'' as master under Captain Robert Craig.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu62.htm|work=Life in the Royal Navy (1755–1767)|title=The Captain Cook Society: Cook's Log|first=Paul|last=Capper|date=1985–1996|access-date=22 September 2011|archive-date=21 July 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721084524/http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu62.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Canada===
During the [[Seven Years' War]], Cook served in North America as master aboard the [[fourth-rate]] Navy vessel {{HMS|Pembroke|1757|6}}.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kemp|Dear|2005}}</ref> With others in ''Pembroke''{{'}}s crew, he took part in the major amphibious assault that [[Siege of Louisbourg (1758)|captured]] the [[Fortress of Louisbourg]] from the French in 1758, and in the siege of [[Quebec City]] in 1759. Throughout his service he demonstrated a talent for [[surveying]] and [[cartography]] and was responsible for mapping much of the entrance to the [[Saint Lawrence River]] during the siege, thus allowing [[James Wolfe|General Wolfe]] to make his famous stealth attack during the 1759 [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=19}}</ref>

Cook's surveying ability was also put to use in mapping the jagged coast of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] in the 1760s, aboard {{HMS|Grenville|1754|6}}. He surveyed the northwest stretch in 1763 and 1764, the south coast between the [[Burin Peninsula]] and [[Cape Ray]] in 1765 and 1766, and the west coast in 1767. At this time, Cook employed local pilots to point out the "rocks and hidden dangers" along the south and west coasts. During the 1765 season, four pilots were engaged at a daily pay of 4 [[shilling]]s each: John Beck for the coast west of "[[St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador|Great St Lawrence]]", Morgan Snook for [[Fortune Bay]], John Dawson for Connaigre and [[Hermitage Bay]], and John Peck for the "[[Bay d'Espoir|Bay of Despair]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/JamesCookInNewfoundland1762_1767.pdf|title=James Cook in Newfoundland 1762–1767|first=William|last=Whiteley|year=1975|access-date=27 August 2012|work=Newfoundland Historical Society Pamphlet Number 3|archive-date=13 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513194810/http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/JamesCookInNewfoundland1762_1767.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

While in Newfoundland, Cook also conducted astronomical observations, in particular of the eclipse of the sun on 5 August 1766. By obtaining an accurate estimate of the time of the start and finish of the eclipse, and comparing these with the timings at a known position in England, it was possible to calculate the longitude of the observation site in Newfoundland. This result was communicated to the Royal Society in 1767.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=James|last1=Cook|first2=J.|last2=Bevis|title=An Observation of an Eclipse of the Sun at the Island of New-Found-Land, August 5, 1766, by Mr. James Cook, with the Longitude of the Place of Observation Deduced from It|date=1 January 1767|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume=57|pages=215–216|doi=10.1098/rstl.1767.0025 |url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans04718464|doi-access=free |issn = 0261-0523}}</ref>

His five seasons in Newfoundland produced the first large-scale and accurate maps of the island's coasts and were the first scientific, large-scale, hydrographic surveys to use precise [[triangulation]] to establish land outlines.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain_Cook_Monument_Corner_Brook.jpg|work=Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada|title=Captain James Cook R.N.|last=Government of Canada|year=2012|access-date=2 November 2012|archive-date=8 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108021300/http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain_Cook_Monument_Corner_Brook.jpg|url-status=live}}</ref> They also gave Cook his mastery of practical surveying, achieved under often adverse conditions, and brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society at a crucial moment both in his career and in the direction of British overseas discovery. Cook's maps were used into the 20th century, with copies being referenced by those sailing Newfoundland's waters for 200 years.<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=32}}</ref>

Following his exertions in Newfoundland, Cook wrote that he intended to go not only "farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for a man to go".<ref name="G_Williams" />

==First voyage (1768–1771)==
{{Main|First voyage of James Cook}}

On 25 May 1768,<ref name=kippis1>{{cite book|title=Narrative of the voyages round the world, performed by Captain James Cook; with an account of his life during the previous and intervening periods|first=Andrew|last=Kippis|date=1788|at=Chapter 2|url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77n/chapter2.html|access-date=3 October 2018|archive-date=3 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003100841/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77n/chapter2.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> the Admiralty commissioned Cook to command a scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the voyage was to observe and record the 1769 [[transit of Venus]] across the Sun which, when combined with observations from other places, would help to determine the distance of the Earth from the Sun.<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=95}}</ref> Cook, at age 39, was promoted to [[Lieutenant (navy)|lieutenant]] to grant him sufficient status to take the command.<ref name="Rigby30">{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=30}}</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911 |last=Beazley |first=Charles Raymond |wstitle=Cook, James |author-link= Charles Raymond Beazley|volume=7 |page=71|short=1}}</ref> For its part, the Royal Society agreed that Cook would receive a one hundred [[Guinea (coin)|guinea]] gratuity in addition to his Naval pay.<ref>{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1968|p=cix}}</ref>

The expedition sailed aboard {{HMS|Endeavour||6}}, departing England on 26 August 1768.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16774546|title=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=2 May 1931|access-date=4 September 2012|page=12|publisher=National Library of Australia|archive-date=12 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312061305/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16774546|url-status=live}}</ref> Cook and his crew rounded [[Cape Horn]] and continued westward across the Pacific, arriving at [[Tahiti]] on 13 April 1769, where the [[1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti|observations of the transit]] were made.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cook_captain_james.shtml|title=BBC – History – Captain James Cook|access-date=31 July 2017|archive-date=16 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016100346/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cook_captain_james.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> However, the result of the observations was not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped. Once the observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders, which were additional instructions from the Admiralty for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated rich southern continent of ''[[Terra Australis]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Secret Instructions to Captain Cook, 30 June 1768|publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|url=http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw1_doc_1768.pdf|access-date=3 September 2011|archive-date=27 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427203030/https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw1_doc_1768.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
Cook then sailed to New Zealand where he mapped the complete coastline, making only some minor errors. With the aid of [[Tupaia (navigator)|Tupaia]], a Tahitian priest who had joined the expedition, Cook was the first European to communicate with the [[Māori people|Māori]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Salmond|first=Anne|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26545658|title=Two worlds : first meetings between Māori and Europeans, 1642–1772|date=1991|publisher=Viking|isbn=0-670-83298-7|location=Auckland, N.Z.|oclc=26545658|access-date=18 July 2021|archive-date=12 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312061305/https://search.worldcat.org/title/26545658|url-status=live}}</ref> However, at least eight Māori were killed in violent encounters.<ref>{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1974|pp=198–200, 202, 205–07}}</ref> Cook then voyaged west, reaching the southeastern coast of Australia near today's Point Hicks on 19 April 1770, and in doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline.<ref group="NB">At this time, the [[International Date Line]] had yet to be established, so the dates in Cook's journal are a day earlier than those accepted today.</ref>[[File:Cook's landing at Botany Bay.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Cook landing at [[Botany Bay]] (Kamay)]]On 23 April, he made his first recorded direct observation of [[Aboriginal Australians]] at [[Brush Island]] near [[Bawley Point, New South Wales|Bawley Point]], noting in his journal: "... and were so near the Shore as to distinguish several people upon the Sea beach they appear'd to be of a very dark or black Colour but whether this was the real colour of their skins or the C[l]othes<!--not a mistake, don't change it--> they might have on I know not."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700422.html|title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 22 April 1770|access-date=21 September 2011|archive-date=27 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927080037/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700422.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 

''Endeavour'' continued northwards along the coastline, keeping the land in sight with Cook charting and naming landmarks as he went. On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the continent at a beach now known as [[Silver Beach (New South Wales)|Silver Beach]] on [[Botany Bay]] ([[Kamay Botany Bay National Park]]). Two Gweagal men of the Dharawal / Eora nation opposed their landing and in the confrontation one of them was shot and wounded.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Voices heard but not understood |url=https://www.gujaga.org.au/stories/voices-heard-but-not-understood |access-date=28 May 2022 |website=Gujaga Foundation |date=29 April 2020 |language=en-US |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308075129/https://www.gujaga.org.au/stories/voices-heard-but-not-understood |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="auto22">{{cite web |title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 29 April 1770 |url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700429.html |access-date=25 October 2019 |website=southseas.nla.gov.au |publisher=South Seas |archive-date=8 April 2011 |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20110408181719/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700429.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|pp=141–43}}</ref>

Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, collecting water, timber, fodder and botanical specimens and exploring the surrounding area. Cook sought to establish relations with the Indigenous population without success.<ref>{{Cite book |last=FitzSimons |first=Peter |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1109734011 |title=James Cook : the story behind the man who mapped the world |date=2019 |isbn=978-0-7336-4127-5 |publisher=Hachette Australia|location=Sydney, NSW |oclc=1109734011}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|pp=146–57}}</ref> At first Cook named the inlet "Sting-Ray Harbour" after the many stingrays found there. This was later changed to "Botanist Bay" and finally ''Botany Bay'' after the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists [[Joseph Banks]] and [[Daniel Solander]].<ref>{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1974|p=230}}</ref> This first landing site was later to be promoted (particularly by Joseph Banks) as a suitable candidate for situating a settlement and [[British colony|British colonial]] outpost.<ref>{{harvnb|Blainey |2020|p=287}}</ref>[[File:Endeavour replica in Cooktown harbour.jpg|left|thumb|[[HM Bark Endeavour Replica|''Endeavour'' replica]] in [[Cooktown, Queensland]] harbour&nbsp;– anchored where the original ''Endeavour'' was beached for seven weeks in 1770|204x204px]]After his departure from Botany Bay, he continued northwards. He stopped at Bustard Bay (now known as [[Seventeen Seventy, Queensland|Seventeen Seventy]]) on 23 May 1770. On 24 May, Cook and Banks and others went ashore. Continuing north, on 11 June a mishap occurred when ''Endeavour'' ran aground on a shoal of the [[Great Barrier Reef]], and then "nursed into a river mouth on 18 June 1770".<ref>{{harvnb|Robson|2004|p=81}}</ref> The ship was badly damaged, and his voyage was delayed almost seven weeks while repairs were carried out on the beach (near the docks of modern [[Cooktown, Queensland]], at the mouth of the [[Endeavour River]]).<ref name="collingridge" /> The crew's encounters with the local Aboriginal people were mostly peaceful, although following a dispute over green turtles Cook ordered shots to be fired and one local was lightly wounded.<ref>{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|pp=220–21}}</ref>

The voyage then continued and at about midday on 22 August 1770, they reached the northernmost tip of the coast and, without leaving the ship, Cook named it York Cape (now [[Cape York Peninsula|Cape York]]).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Cook|first=James|date=21 August 1770|title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries|url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700821.html|access-date=28 August 2020|website=National Library of Australia|archive-date=31 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031092849/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700821.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Leaving the east coast, Cook turned west and nursed his battered ship through the dangerously shallow waters of [[Torres Strait]]. Searching for a vantage point, Cook saw a steep hill on a nearby island from the top of which he hoped to see "a passage into the Indian Seas". Cook named the island [[Possession Island (Queensland)|Possession Island]], where he claimed the entire coastline that he had just explored as British territory.<ref>Cook, James, Journal of the HMS Endeavour, 1768–1771, National Library of Australia, Manuscripts Collection, MS 1, 22 August 1770</ref> 

===Return to England===
Cook returned to England via [[History of Jakarta|Batavia]] (modern [[Jakarta]], Indonesia), where many in his crew succumbed to [[malaria]], and then the [[Cape of Good Hope]], arriving at the island of [[Saint Helena]] on 30 April 1771.<ref>{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1968|p=468}}</ref> The ship finally returned to England on 12 July 1771, anchoring in The Downs, with Cook going to Deal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/the-first-voyage-1768-1771|title=The First Voyage (1768–1771)|publisher=The Captain Cook Society (CCS)|access-date=24 July 2019|archive-date=3 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200403121441/https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/the-first-voyage-1768-1771|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Interlude===
Cook's journals were published upon his return, and he became something of a hero among the scientific community. Among the general public, however, the aristocratic botanist Joseph Banks was a greater hero.<ref name="collingridge" /> Banks even attempted to take command of Cook's second voyage but removed himself from the voyage before it began, and [[Johann Reinhold Forster]] and his son [[Georg Forster]] were taken on as scientists for the voyage. Cook's son George was born five days before he left for his second voyage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://britain.docuwat.ch/videos/empire/captain-cook-obsession-discovery-part-1-of-4|title=Captain Cook: Obsession & Discovery. (Part 2 of 4) – Britain on DocuWatch – free streaming British history documentaries|year=2011|access-date=5 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130407143428/http://britain.docuwat.ch/videos/empire/captain-cook-obsession-discovery-part-1-of-4|archive-date=7 April 2013}}</ref>

==Second voyage (1772–1775)==
{{Main|Second voyage of James Cook}}
[[File:James Cook's portrait by William Hodges.jpg|thumb|Portrait of James Cook by [[William Hodges]], who accompanied Cook on his second voyage]]

Shortly after his return from the first voyage, Cook was promoted in August 1771 to the rank of [[Commander (Royal Navy)|commander]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=180}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|McLynn|2011|p=167}}</ref> In 1772, he was commissioned to lead another scientific expedition on behalf of the Royal Society, to search for the hypothetical Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south. Although he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, showing it to be continental in size, the Terra Australis was believed to lie further south. Despite this evidence to the contrary, [[Alexander Dalrymple]] and others of the Royal Society still believed that a massive southern continent should exist.<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=182}}</ref>

Cook commanded {{HMS|Resolution|1771|6}} on this voyage, while [[Tobias Furneaux]] commanded its companion ship, {{HMS|Adventure|1771|6}}. Cook's expedition circumnavigated the globe at an extreme southern [[latitude]], becoming one of the first to cross the [[Antarctic Circle]] on 17 January 1773. In the Antarctic fog, ''Resolution'' and ''Adventure'' became separated. Furneaux made his way to New Zealand, where he lost some of his men during an encounter with Māori, and eventually sailed back to Britain, while Cook continued to explore the Antarctic, reaching 71°10'S on 31 January 1774.<ref name="G_Williams" />

[[File:James Cook, English navigator, witnessing human sacrifice in Taihiti (Otaheite) c. 1773.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|left|Illustration from the 1815 edition of Cook's ''Voyages'', depicting Cook watching a human sacrifice in [[Tahiti]] {{circa|1773}}]]
Cook almost encountered the mainland of [[Antarctica]] but turned towards Tahiti to resupply his ship. He then resumed his southward course in a second fruitless attempt to find the supposed continent. On this leg of the voyage, he brought a young Tahitian named [[Omai]], who proved to be somewhat less knowledgeable about the Pacific than [[Tupaia (navigator)|Tupaia]] had been on the first voyage. On his return voyage to New Zealand in 1774, Cook landed at the [[Tonga|Friendly Islands]], [[Easter Island]], [[Norfolk Island]], [[New Caledonia]], and [[Vanuatu]].{{cn|date=February 2024}}

Before returning to England, Cook made a final sweep across the South Atlantic from [[Cape Horn]] and surveyed, mapped, and took possession for Britain of [[South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands|South Georgia]], which had been explored by the English merchant [[Anthony de la Roché]] in 1675. Cook also discovered and named [[Clerke Rocks]] and the [[South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands|South Sandwich Islands]] ("Sandwich Land"). He then turned north to South Africa and from there continued back to England. His reports upon his return home put to rest the popular myth of Terra Australis.<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=263}}</ref>

[[File:Cook-1777.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|James Cook's 1777 South-Up map of [[South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands#South Georgia|South Georgia]], which he named after King [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]]]
Cook's second voyage marked a successful employment of [[Larcum Kendall#K1|Larcum Kendall's K1]] copy of [[John Harrison]]'s H4 [[marine chronometer]], which enabled Cook to calculate his longitudinal position with much greater accuracy. Cook's log was full of praise for this time-piece which he used to make charts of the southern Pacific Ocean that were so remarkably accurate that copies of them were still in use in the mid-20th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/package/30/links-cook.php|title=Captain James Cook: His voyages of exploration and the men that accompanied him|publisher=[[National Maritime Museum]]|access-date=10 October 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070421232853/http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/package/30/links-cook.php|archive-date=21 April 2007}}</ref>

Upon his return, Cook was promoted to the rank of [[post-captain]] and given an honorary retirement from the Royal Navy, with a posting as an officer of the [[Greenwich Hospital, London|Greenwich Hospital]]. He reluctantly accepted, insisting that he be allowed to quit the post if an opportunity for active duty should arise.<ref name="Beaglehole">{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1974|p=444}}</ref> His fame extended beyond the Admiralty; he was made a [[Royal Society|Fellow of the Royal Society]] and awarded the [[Copley Medal|Copley Gold Medal]] for completing his second voyage without losing a man to [[scurvy]].<ref name="Rigby79">{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|p=79|2002}}</ref> [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland]] painted his portrait; he dined with [[James Boswell]]; he was described in the [[House of Lords]] as "the first navigator in Europe".<ref name="G_Williams" /> But he could not be kept away from the sea. A third voyage was planned, and Cook volunteered to find the [[Northwest Passage]]. He travelled to the Pacific and hoped to travel east to the Atlantic, while a simultaneous voyage travelled the opposite route.<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=268}}</ref>

==Third voyage (1776–1779)==
{{Main|Third voyage of James Cook}}

===Hawaii===
On his last voyage, Cook again commanded HMS ''Resolution'', while Captain [[Charles Clerke]] commanded {{HMS|Discovery|1774|6}}. The voyage was ostensibly planned to return the [[Pacific Islander]] [[Omai]] to Tahiti, or so the public was led to believe. The trip's principal goal was to locate a [[Northwest Passage]] around the American continent.<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=327}}</ref> After dropping Omai at Tahiti, Cook travelled north and in 1778 became the first European to begin formal contact with the [[Hawaiian Islands]].<ref name="Collingridge 2003 380">{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=380}}</ref> After his initial landfall in January 1778 at [[Waimea, Kauai County, Hawaii|Waimea]] harbour, [[Kauai]], Cook named the [[archipelago]] the "Sandwich Islands" after the [[John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich|fourth Earl of Sandwich]]—the acting [[Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty|First Lord of the Admiralty]].<ref name="Collingridge 2003 380"/>

===North America===
From the Sandwich Islands, Cook sailed north and then northeast to explore the west coast of North America north of the Spanish settlements in [[Alta California]]. He sighted the Oregon coast at approximately 44°30′ north latitude, naming [[Cape Foulweather]], after the bad weather which forced his ships south to about [[43rd parallel north|43° north]] before they could begin their exploration of the coast northward.<ref name="Hayes 1999 42–43">{{harvnb|Hayes|1999|pp=42–43}}</ref> He unknowingly sailed past the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]] and soon after entered [[Nootka Sound]] on [[Vancouver Island]]. He anchored near the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] village of [[Yuquot, British Columbia|Yuquot]]. Cook's two ships remained in Nootka Sound from 29 March to 26 April 1778, in what Cook called Ship Cove, now Resolution Cove,<ref>{{cite bcgnis|18990|Resolution Cove|access-date=6 March 2013}}</ref> at the south end of [[Bligh Island (Canada)|Bligh Island]]. Relations between Cook's crew and the people of Yuquot were cordial but sometimes strained. In trading, the people of Yuquot demanded much more valuable items than the usual trinkets that had been acceptable in Hawaii. Metal objects were much desired, but the lead, pewter, and tin traded at first soon fell into disrepute. The most valuable items which the British received in trade were [[sea otter]] pelts. During the stay, the Yuquot "hosts" essentially controlled the trade with the British vessels; the natives usually visited the British vessels at Resolution Cove instead of the British visiting the village of Yuquot at Friendly Cove.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fisher|1979}}</ref>

After leaving Nootka Sound in search of the Northwest Passage, Cook explored and mapped the coast all the way to the [[Bering Strait]], on the way identifying what came to be known as [[Cook Inlet]] in Alaska.<ref name="Hayes 1999 42–43"/> In a single visit, Cook charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline on world maps for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gaps in Russian (from the west) and Spanish (from the south) exploratory probes of the northern limits of the Pacific.<ref name="G_Williams" />

[[File:John Cleveley the Younger, Views of the South Seas (No. 3 of 4).jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|HMS ''Resolution'' and ''Discovery'' in Tahiti]]
By the second week of August 1778, Cook was through the Bering Strait, sailing into the [[Chukchi Sea]]. He headed northeast up the coast of Alaska until he was blocked by sea ice at a latitude of 70°44′ north. Cook then sailed west to the [[Siberia]]n coast, and then southeast down the Siberian coast back to the Bering Strait. By early September 1778, he was back in the [[Bering Sea]] to begin the trip to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands.<ref>{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1968|pp=615–23}}</ref> He became increasingly frustrated on this voyage and perhaps began to suffer from a stomach ailment; it has been speculated that this led to irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they had pronounced inedible.<ref>{{harvnb|Obeyesekere|1992}}</ref>

===Return to Hawaii===
Cook returned to Hawaii in 1779. After sailing around the archipelago for some eight weeks, he made landfall at [[Kealakekua Bay]] on [[Hawaii (island)|Hawai'i Island]], the largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Cook's arrival coincided with the ''[[Makahiki]]'', a Hawaiian [[harvest festival]] of worship for the Polynesian god [[Lono]]. Coincidentally the form of Cook's ship, HMS ''Resolution'', or more particularly the mast formation, sails and rigging, resembled certain significant artefacts that formed part of the season of worship.<ref name="collingridge" /><ref>{{harvnb|Obeyesekere|1992}}</ref> Similarly, Cook's clockwise route around the island of Hawaii before making landfall resembled the processions that took place in a clockwise direction around the island during the Lono festivals. It has been argued (most extensively by [[Marshall Sahlins]]) that such coincidences were the reasons for Cook's (and to a limited extent, his crew's) initial [[Apotheosis|deification]] by some Hawaiians who treated Cook as an incarnation of Lono.<ref name="Sahlins1985">{{harvnb|Sahlins|1985}}</ref> Though this view was first suggested by members of Cook's expedition, the idea that any Hawaiians understood Cook to be Lono, and the evidence presented in support of it, was challenged in 1992 by [[Gananath Obeyesekere]] in the so-called [[Sahlins–Obeyesekere debate]].<ref>{{harvnb|Obeyesekere|1992}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Obeyesekere|1997}}</ref>

===Death===
{{Main|Death of James Cook}}
[[File:Hawaii WikiC 9015.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Marker at the shoreline of Kealakekua Bay, near the spot where Captain Cook was slain]]

After a month's stay, Cook attempted to resume his exploration of the northern Pacific. Shortly after leaving Hawaii Island, ''Resolution''{{'}}s foremast broke, so the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay for repairs.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

Tensions rose, and quarrels broke out between the Europeans and Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay, including the theft of wood from a Hawaiian burial ground under Cook's orders.<ref name="Sparks1847">{{cite book |author=[[Jared Sparks|Sparks, Jared]] |title= Life of John Ledyard, American Traveller |year= 1847 |publisher=[[C. C. Little and J. Brown]] |pages= 136–139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136 |access-date=12 February 2018 |archive-date= 14 April 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210414030149/https://books.google.com/books?id=ftw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136 |url-status= live }}</ref> On 13 February 1779, an unknown group of Hawaiians stole one of Cook's longboats. By then the Hawaiian people had become "insolent", even with threats to fire upon them.<ref name="Obeyesekere1997">{{harvnb|Obeyesekere|1997|pp=310–}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=February 2023}} Cook responded to the theft by attempting to kidnap and ransom the [[Alii Aimoku of Hawaii|King of Hawaiʻi]], [[Kalaniʻōpuʻu]].{{cn|date=February 2024}}

The following day, 14 February 1779, Cook marched through the village to retrieve the king. Cook took the king (aliʻi nui) by his own hand and led him away. One of Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favourite wives, [[Kanekapolei]], and two chiefs approached the group as they were heading to the boats. They pleaded with the king not to go. An old [[kahuna]] (priest), chanting rapidly while holding out a coconut, attempted to distract Cook and his men as a large crowd began to form at the shore. At this point, the king began to understand that Cook was his enemy.<ref name="Obeyesekere1997" />{{Failed verification|date=February 2023}} As Cook turned his back to help launch the boats, he was struck on the head by the villagers and then stabbed to death as he fell on his face in the [[Breaking wave|surf]].<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=410}}</ref> He was first struck on the head with a club by a chief named [[Kalaimanokahoʻowaha]] or Kanaʻina (namesake of [[Charles Kana'ina]]) and then stabbed by one of the king's attendants, Nuaa.<ref name="Samwell(Jr)1791">{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Samwell |first2=Ebenezer (Jr) |last2=Townsend |first3=George |last3=Gilbert |author4=Hawaiian Historical Society |first5=Joseph |last5=Ingraham |first6=John |last6=Meares |first7=Bruce |last7=Cartwright |title=Extracts from Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the Northwest Coast of America: With an Introductory Narrative of a Voyage Performed in 1786, from Bengal in the Ship "Nootka" |year=1791 |publisher=Paradise of the Pacific Press |page=76 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=USMOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA76 |access-date=9 November 2015 |archive-date=18 May 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160518181233/https://books.google.com/books?id=USMOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA76 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Sheldon |last=Dibble|title=History of the Sandwich Islands|publisher=Press of the Mission Seminary|author-link=Sheldon Dibble|location=Lahainaluna|page=[https://archive.org/details/historysandwich00dibbgoog/page/n74 61]|url=https://archive.org/details/historysandwich00dibbgoog|date=1843}}</ref> The Hawaiians carried his body away towards the back of the town, still visible to the ship through their spyglass. Four marines, Corporal James Thomas, Private Theophilus Hinks, Private Thomas Fatchett and Private John Allen, were also killed and two others wounded in the confrontation.<ref name="Samwell(Jr)1791" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Muster for HMS Resolution during the third Pacific voyage, 1776–1780|url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/Portals/ccs/Files/Musters/3resolution3muster1.pdf|website=Captain Cook Society|access-date=27 October 2014|page=20|date=15 October 2012|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923200409/http://www.captaincooksociety.com/Portals/ccs/Files/Musters/3resolution3muster1.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Cook Three Voyages 59.png|thumb|upright=1.75|The routes of Captain James Cook's voyages. The first voyage is shown in '''<span style="color:red;">red</span>''', second voyage in '''<span style="color:green;">green</span>''', and third voyage in '''<span style="color:blue;">blue</span>'''. The route of Cook's crew following his death is shown as a dashed blue line.]]

===Aftermath===
The esteem which the islanders nevertheless held for Cook caused them to retain his body. Following their practice of the time, they prepared his body with funerary rituals usually reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of the society. The body was [[Disembowelment|disembowelled]] and baked to facilitate [[Excarnation|removal of the flesh]], and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the [[Middle Ages]]. Some of Cook's remains, thus preserved, were eventually returned to his crew for a formal [[burial at sea]].<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=413}}</ref>

Clerke assumed leadership of the expedition and made a final attempt to pass through the Bering Strait.<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=412}}</ref> He died of tuberculosis on 22 August 1779 and [[John Gore (Royal Navy captain)|John Gore]], a veteran of Cook's first voyage, took command of ''Resolution'' and of the expedition. [[James King (Royal Navy officer)|James King]] replaced Gore in command of ''Discovery''.<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=423}}</ref> The expedition returned home, reaching England in October 1780. After their arrival in England, King completed Cook's account of the voyage.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/better-conceiv-d-than-describ-d-the-life-and-times-of-captain-james-king-1750-84-captain-cook-s-friend-and-colleague-steve-ragnall-2013|title=Better Conceiv'd than Describ'd: the life and times of Captain James King (1750–84), Captain Cook's Friend and Colleague. Steve Ragnall. 2013|work=The Captain Cook Society (CCS)|access-date=10 October 2017|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155340/http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/better-conceiv-d-than-describ-d-the-life-and-times-of-captain-james-king-1750-84-captain-cook-s-friend-and-colleague-steve-ragnall-2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Legacy==

===Ethnographic collections===
{{Main|James Cook Collection: Australian Museum}}
[[File:H000104- Feather Cape.jpg|thumb|Hawaiian [[ʻAhu ʻula]] (feather cloak) held by the [[Australian Museum]]]]

The [[Australian Museum]] acquired its "Cook Collection" in 1894 from the [[Government of New South Wales]]. At that time the collection consisted of 115 artefacts collected on Cook's three voyages throughout the Pacific Ocean, during the period 1768–1780, along with documents and memorabilia related to these voyages. Many of the [[Ethnography|ethnographic]] artefacts were collected at a time of first contact between [[Pacific Islander|Pacific Peoples]] and Europeans. In 1935 most of the documents and memorabilia were transferred to the Mitchell Library in the [[State Library of New South Wales]]. The provenance of the collection shows that the objects remained in the hands of Cook's widow Elizabeth Cook, and her descendants, until 1886. In this year John Mackrell, the great-nephew of [[Isaac Smith (Royal Navy officer)|Isaac Smith]], Elizabeth Cook's cousin, organised the display of this collection at the request of the NSW Government at the [[Colonial and Indian Exhibition]] in London. In 1887 the London-based [[Agent-General]] for the New South Wales Government, Saul Samuel, bought John Mackrell's items and also acquired items belonging to the other relatives Reverend Canon Frederick Bennett, Mrs Thomas Langton, H.M.C. Alexander, and William Adams. The collection remained with the Colonial Secretary of NSW until 1894, when it was transferred to the Australian Museum.<ref name="Thomsett, History of Acquisition">{{cite web|last=Thomsett|first=Sue|title=Cook Collection, History of Acquisition|url=http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/NarrativeDisplay.php?irn=35&QueryPage=./NarrativeQuery.php|work=Electronic Museum Narrative|publisher=Australian Museum|access-date=9 November 2021|archive-date=18 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218090450/http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/NarrativeDisplay.php?irn=35&QueryPage=.%2FNarrativeQuery.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Navigation and science===
[[File:Cooks Karte von Neufundland.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3| A 1775 chart of [[Newfoundland]], made from James Cook's [[Seven Years' War]] surveyings]]
Cook's 12 years sailing around the Pacific Ocean contributed much to Europeans' knowledge of the area. Several islands, such as the Hawaiian group, were encountered for the first time by Europeans, and his more accurate navigational charting of large areas of the Pacific was a major achievement.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O5AqNKtDqX0C&pg=PA222|title= A voyage to the Pacific Ocean |via=Google Books|last1= Cook|first1= James|last2= Clerke|first2= Charles|author-link2= Charles Clerke|last3= Gore|first3= John|author-link3= John Gore (Royal Navy captain)|last4= King|first4= James|author-link4= James King (Royal Navy officer)|publisher= W. and A. Strahan|location= London|volume= 2|access-date= 8 July 2014|date= 1784|archive-date= 29 March 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140329031811/http://books.google.com/books?id=O5AqNKtDqX0C&pg=PA222|url-status= live}}</ref> To create accurate maps, latitude and longitude must be accurately determined. Navigators had been able to work out latitude accurately for centuries by measuring the angle of the sun or a star above the horizon with an instrument such as a [[backstaff]] or [[Quadrant (instrument)|quadrant]]. Longitude was more difficult to measure accurately because it requires precise knowledge of the time difference between points on the surface of the Earth. The Earth turns a full 360 degrees relative to the Sun each day. Thus longitude corresponds to time: 15 degrees every hour, or 1 degree every 4 minutes.{{cn|date=August 2022}} Cook gathered accurate longitude measurements during his first voyage from his navigational skills, with the help of astronomer [[Charles Green (astronomer)|Charles Green]], and by using the newly published [[The Nautical Almanac|''Nautical Almanac'']] tables, via the [[Lunar distance (navigation)|lunar distance]] method – measuring the angular distance from the Moon to either the Sun during daytime or one of eight bright stars during night-time to determine the time at the [[Royal Observatory, Greenwich]], and comparing that to his local time determined via the altitude of the Sun, Moon, or stars.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

On his second voyage, Cook used the K1 chronometer made by [[Larcum Kendall]], which was the shape of a large pocket watch, {{convert|5|in|cm}} in diameter. It was a copy of the [[Harrison Number Four|H4]] clock made by [[John Harrison]], which proved to be the first to keep accurate time at sea when used on the ship ''Deptford''{{'}}s journey to [[Jamaica]] in 1761–62.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://dl.nfsa.gov.au/module/1318/|title= Captain Cook – Cook's Chronometer |work=English and Media Literacy, Documentaries|via= dl.nfsa.gov.au|year= 2011|access-date= 8 August 2011|archive-date= 20 February 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110220205340/http://dl.nfsa.gov.au/module/1318/|url-status= live}}</ref> He succeeded in circumnavigating the world on his first voyage without losing a single man to [[scurvy]], an unusual accomplishment at the time. He tested several preventive measures, most importantly the frequent replenishment of fresh food.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fernandez-Armesto|2006|p=297}}</ref> For presenting a paper on this aspect of the voyage to the Royal Society he was presented with the [[Copley Medal]] in 1776.<ref>{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p= 105}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url= https://archive.org/details/philtrans08393052|title= The Method Taken for Preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty's Ship the Resolution during Her Late Voyage Round the World|volume= 66|pages= 402–06|first= Captain James|last= Cook|journal= Philosophical Transactions|year= 1767|access-date= 10 April 2019|doi= 10.1098/rstl.1776.0023|s2cid= 186212653}}</ref> Cook became the first European to have extensive contact with various people of the Pacific. He correctly postulated a link among all the Pacific peoples, despite their being separated by great ocean stretches {{Crossreference|(see [[Malayo-Polynesian languages]])}}. Cook theorised that Polynesians originated from Asia, which scientist [[Bryan Sykes]] later verified.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sykes| 2001}}</ref> In New Zealand the coming of Cook is often used to signify the onset of the [[colonisation]].<ref name="collingridge" /><ref name="horwitz">{{Harvnb|Horwitz|2003}}</ref>

[[File:Hodges, Resolution and Adventure in Matavai Bay.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|[[William Hodges|William Hodges']] painting of [[HMS Resolution (1771)|HMS ''Resolution'']] and [[HMS Adventure (1771)|HMS ''Adventure'']] in [[Matavai Bay]], [[Tahiti]]]]
Cook carried several scientists on his voyages; they made significant observations and discoveries. Two botanists, Joseph Banks and the Swede Daniel Solander, sailed on the first voyage. The two collected over 3,000 plant species.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/about2.dsml|title= The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations at the Natural History Museum|publisher= Natural History Museum|year= 2011|access-date= 8 August 2011|archive-date= 5 July 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110705011718/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/about2.dsml|url-status= live}}</ref> Banks subsequently strongly promoted British settlement of Australia,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/banks_sir_joseph.shtml|title= Sir Joseph Banks|publisher= BBC|year= 2011|access-date= 8 August 2011|archive-date= 25 January 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120125072305/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/banks_sir_joseph.shtml|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| chapter-url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/solander-daniel-2677|chapter=Solander, Daniel (1733–1782)|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher= National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|first=L. A.|last=Gilbert |access-date=22 September 2011|archive-date=19 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919080043/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/solander-daniel-2677|url-status=live}}</ref> leading to the establishment of New South Wales as a penal settlement in 1788. Artists also sailed on Cook's first voyage. [[Sydney Parkinson]] was heavily involved in documenting the botanists' findings, completing 264 drawings before his death near the end of the voyage. They were of immense scientific value to British botanists.<ref name="collingridge" /><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/people.dsml|title= The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations at the Natural History Museum|publisher= Natural History Museum|year= 2011|access-date= 8 August 2011|archive-date= 5 July 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110705011619/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/people.dsml|url-status= live}}</ref> Cook's second expedition included [[William Hodges]], who produced notable landscape paintings of Tahiti, [[Easter Island]], and other locations. Several officers who served under Cook went on to distinctive accomplishments. [[William Bligh]], Cook's [[sailing master]], was given command of {{HMS|Bounty||6}} in 1787 to sail to Tahiti and return with [[breadfruit]]. Bligh became known for the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|mutiny of his crew]], which resulted in his being set adrift in 1789. He later became [[Governor of New South Wales]], where he was the subject of another mutiny—the 1808 [[Rum Rebellion]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_william_bligh.htm|title= Biography: William Bligh |work= Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard |year= 2011|access-date= 7 August 2011|archive-date= 9 December 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131209022850/http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_william_bligh.htm|url-status= live}}</ref> [[George Vancouver]], one of Cook's [[Midshipman|midshipmen]], led a [[Vancouver Expedition|voyage of exploration to the Pacific Coast of North America]] from 1791 to 1794.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url= http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/vancouver-george-2755|chapter= Vancouver, George (1757–1798)|title= Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher= National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|first= Nan|last= Phillips|access-date= 22 September 2011|archive-date= 15 August 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110815203650/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/vancouver-george-2755|url-status= live}}</ref> In honour of Vancouver's former commander, his ship was named {{HMS|Discovery|1789|2}}. [[George Dixon (Royal Navy officer)|George Dixon]], who sailed under Cook on his third expedition, later commanded his own.<ref>{{cite DCB |first= Barry M.|last= Gough|title= Dixon, George|volume= 4|url= http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/dixon_george_1776_91_4E.html|access-date= 7 August 2011}}</ref> 

Cook's contributions to knowledge gained international recognition during his lifetime. In 1779, while the [[Thirteen Colonies|American colonies]] were [[American Revolutionary War|fighting Britain for their independence]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] wrote to captains of colonial warships at sea, recommending that if they came into contact with Cook's vessel, they were to "not consider her an enemy, nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her, nor obstruct her immediate return to England by detaining her or sending her into any other part of Europe or to America; but that you treat the said Captain Cook and his people with all civility and kindness ... as common friends to mankind."<ref name="Franklin1837">{{cite book|last= Franklin|first= Benjamin|author-link= Benjamin Franklin|title= The works of Benjamin Franklin|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vVc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA124|access-date= 22 September 2011|date= 1837|publisher= Tappan, Whittemore, and Mason|pages= 123–24|archive-date= 28 May 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130528054931/http://books.google.com/books?id=vVc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA124|url-status= live}}</ref>

===Memorials===
[[File:Memorial tablet – Captain James Cook and his family, Church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Memorial to James Cook and family in the church of [[St Andrew the Great]], Cambridge]]

A U.S. coin, the 1928 [[Hawaii Sesquicentennial half-dollar]], carries Cook's image. Minted for the 150th anniversary of his discovery of the islands, its low mintage (10,008) has made this example of an [[Early United States commemorative coins|early United States commemorative coin]] both scarce and expensive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.coinsite.com/content/commemoratives/Hawaii.asp|title=Hawaii Sesquicentennial Half Dollar|work=coinsite.com|year=2011|access-date=8 August 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814135925/http://www.coinsite.com/content/Commemoratives/Hawaii.asp|archive-date=14 August 2011}}</ref> The [[Kealakekua Bay|site where he was killed in Hawaii]] was marked in 1874 by a white obelisk. This land, although in Hawaii, was deeded to the United Kingdom by Princess [[Likelike]] and her husband, [[Archibald Scott Cleghorn]], to the British Consul to Hawaii, James Hay Wodehouse, in 1877.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gray|first1=Chris|title=Captain Cook's little corner of Hawaii under threat from new golf|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/captain-cooks-little-corner-of-hawaii-under-threat-from-new-golf-course-623120.html|access-date=12 January 2018|work=The Independent|date=11 November 2000|archive-date=6 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180506175006/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/captain-cooks-little-corner-of-hawaii-under-threat-from-new-golf-course-623120.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Coulter |first=John Wesley |date= June 1964 |title=Great Britain in Hawaii: The Captain Cook Monument |journal=The Geographical Journal |publisher=The Royal Geographical Society|location=London |volume=130 |issue=2 |pages= 256–61 |doi=10.2307/1794586 |jstor=1794586 |bibcode=1964GeogJ.130..256C }}</ref>{{Failed verification|reason=article says land was bought by British consul general, and its status is unclear, not that it was deeded to the UK |date=April 2020}} A nearby town is named [[Captain Cook, Hawaii]]; several Hawaiian businesses also carry his name. The [[Apollo 15]] [[Apollo Command/Service Module|Command/Service Module]] ''Endeavour'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Call Signs |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-17_Call_Signs.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228032512/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-17_Call_Signs.htm |archive-date=28 February 2020 |access-date=21 May 2011 |publisher=[[NASA]]}}</ref> the {{ship|Space Shuttle|Endeavour||6}},<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Endeavour.html|work=John F. Kennedy Space Center website|title=Space Shuttle Endeavour|publisher=NASA|access-date=21 May 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521101826/http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/endeavour.html|archive-date=21 May 2011}}</ref> and the [[Crew Dragon Endeavour|Crew Dragon ''Endeavour'']];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-053020a-spacex-crew-dragon-name-endeavour.html|title=Astronauts name SpaceX spaceship 'Endeavour' after retired shuttle|date=30 May 2020|access-date=2 June 2020|archive-date=3 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603035942/http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-053020a-spacex-crew-dragon-name-endeavour.html|url-status=live}}</ref> are named after Cook's ship. Another Space Shuttle, [[Space Shuttle Discovery|''Discovery'']], was named after Cook's {{HMS|Discovery|1774|6}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Discovery.html|work=John F. Kennedy Space Center website|title=Space Shuttle Discovery|publisher=NASA|access-date=21 May 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610033909/http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Discovery.html|archive-date=10 June 2011}}</ref>

[[Cooks' Cottage]], his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in [[Melbourne]], Australia, having been moved from England at the behest of the Australian philanthropist Sir [[Russell Grimwade]] in 1934.<ref name="CityMelb">{{cite web |title=Cooks' Cottage |url=https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/PlacesToGo/CooksCottage/Pages/CooksCottage.aspx |accessdate=6 August 2017 |publisher=[[City of Melbourne]] |archive-date=31 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131055807/https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/PlacesToGo/CooksCottage/Pages/CooksCottage.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=1 July 1933 |title=CAPTAIN COOK'S COTTAGE. :ANOTHER CENTENARY GIFT.:Mr. Russell Grimwade's Generosity. |page=21 |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |issue=((27,105)) |location=Melbourne |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4746055 |accessdate=6 September 2017 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=12 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312061306/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4746055 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="horwitz" /> The first institution of higher education in North Queensland, Australia, was named after him, with [[James Cook University]] opening in [[Townsville]] in 1970.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jcu.edu.au/about|title=About James Cook University|publisher=James Cook University|year=2011|access-date=7 January 2014|archive-date=20 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220112811/http://www.jcu.edu.au/about/|url-status=live}}</ref> Numerous institutions, landmarks and place names reflect the importance of Cook's contributions, including the [[Cook Islands]], [[Cook Strait]], [[Cook Inlet]] and the [[Cook (crater)|Cook crater]] on the Moon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1292|title=Planetary Names: Crater, craters: Cook on Moon|work=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature|publisher=[[USGS]]/NASA|access-date=21 September 2011|archive-date=17 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117182806/http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1292|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Aoraki / Mount Cook]], the highest summit in New Zealand, is named for him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mtcooknz.com/mackenzie/Mount_Cook/|title=Aoraki Mount Cook National Park & Mt Cook Village, New Zealand|access-date=21 September 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001060533/http://www.mtcooknz.com/mackenzie/Mount_Cook/|archive-date=1 October 2011}}</ref> Another [[Mount Cook (Saint Elias Mountains)|Mount Cook]] is on the border between the U.S. state of Alaska and the Canadian [[Yukon]] territory, and is designated Boundary Peak 182 as one of the official [[List of Boundary Peaks of the Alaska – British Columbia/Yukon border|Boundary Peaks]] of the [[Hay–Herbert Treaty]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geodata.us/canada_names_maps/maps.php?featureid=KABJR&f=311|title=Map of Mount Cook, Yukon, Mountain – Canada Geographical Names Maps|access-date=21 September 2011|archive-date=18 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118224628/http://www.geodata.us/canada_names_maps/maps.php?featureid=KABJR&f=311|url-status=live}}</ref>

There are [[Statue of James Cook, Hyde Park|statues]] of Cook in [[Hyde Park, Sydney|Hyde Park]] in Sydney, and at [[St Kilda, Victoria|St Kilda]] in [[Melbourne]].<ref name="Sum 2024">{{cite news |last1=Sum |first1=Eliza |last2=Carey |first2=Adam |date=25 January 2024 |title=Second statue targeted after vandals hack off Captain Cook sculpture on eve of Australia Day |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/captain-cook-statue-sawn-off-in-pre-australia-day-attack-20240125-p5ezw4.html |access-date=25 January 2024 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |archive-date=25 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240125001101/https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/captain-cook-statue-sawn-off-in-pre-australia-day-attack-20240125-p5ezw4.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

One of the earliest monuments to Cook in the United Kingdom is located at [[The Vache]], erected in 1780 by Admiral [[Hugh Palliser]], a contemporary of Cook and one-time owner of the estate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu4166.htm|title=CCS – Cook Monument at the Vache, Chalfont St Giles – Access Restored|access-date=22 September 2011|archive-date=5 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205214655/http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu4166.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> A large obelisk was built in 1827 as a monument to Cook on [[Easby Moor]] overlooking his boyhood village of [[Great Ayton]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.great-ayton.org.uk/tourism/cook/cook_monument/|title=Great Ayton – Captain Cook's Monument|access-date=20 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027202118/http://www.great-ayton.org.uk/tourism/cook/cook_monument/|archive-date=27 October 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> along with a smaller monument at the former location of Cook's cottage.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17137751|title=Captain Cook|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|location=NSW|date=26 January 1935|access-date=27 September 2013|page=16|publisher=National Library of Australia|archive-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109015431/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17137751|url-status=live}}</ref> There is also a monument to Cook in the church of [[St Andrew the Great]], [[St Andrew's Street, Cambridge]], where his sons Hugh, a student at Christ's College, and James were buried. Cook's widow Elizabeth was also buried in the church and in her will left money for the memorial's upkeep. The 250th anniversary of Cook's birth was marked at the site of his birthplace in [[Marton, Middlesbrough|Marton]] by the opening of the [[Captain Cook Birthplace Museum]], located within [[Stewart Park Middlesbrough|Stewart Park]] (1978). A granite vase just to the south of the museum marks the approximate spot where he was born.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.captcook-ne.co.uk/ccbm/index.htm|title=The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, Marton, Middlesbrough|work=captcook-ne.co.uk|year=2011|access-date=8 August 2011|archive-date=20 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720010546/http://www.captcook-ne.co.uk/ccbm/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Tributes also abound in post-industrial [[Middlesbrough]], including a primary school,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/04/school_tables/primary_schools/html/806_2370.stm|title=Captain Cook Primary School|publisher=BBC|date=2 December 2004|access-date=21 September 2011|archive-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109015533/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/education/04/school_tables/primary_schools/html/806_2370.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> shopping square<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.captaincookshopping.com/|title=Captain Cook Shopping Square|publisher=Captaincookshopping.com|access-date=8 March 2010|archive-date=28 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328130339/http://www.captaincookshopping.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> and the ''Bottle 'O Notes'', a public artwork by [[Claes Oldenburg]], that was erected in the town's Central Gardens in 1993. Also named after Cook is [[James Cook University Hospital]], a major teaching hospital which opened in 2003 with a railway station serving it called [[James Cook railway station|James Cook]] opening in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glendalehouse.co.uk/pages/captainCook.html|title=Captain Cook and the Captain Cook Trail|access-date=22 September 2011|archive-date=6 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906040659/http://www.glendalehouse.co.uk/pages/captainCook.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Royal Research Ship [[RRS James Cook|RRS ''James Cook'']] was built in 2006 to replace the [[RRS Charles Darwin|RRS ''Charles Darwin'']] in the UK's Royal Research Fleet,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/facilities/marine/jamescook.asp|title=RRS James Cook|publisher=Nautical Environment Research Council|year=2011|access-date=5 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703104025/http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/facilities/marine/jamescook.asp|archive-date=3 July 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Stepney Historical Trust]] placed a plaque on Free Trade Wharf in the Highway, Shadwell to commemorate his life in the East End of London. A [[Statue of Captain James Cook, The Mall|statue]] erected in his honour can be viewed near [[Admiralty Arch]] on the south side of [[The Mall, London|The Mall]] in London. In 2002, Cook was placed at number 12 in the BBC's poll of the [[100 Greatest Britons]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml/|title=BBC – Great Britons – Top 100|access-date=19 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021204214727/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml/|archive-date=4 December 2002|work=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

[[File:Annual_re-enactment.of_Cook's_visit._Cooktown_1999.jpg|thumb|Annual re-enactment of James Cook's visit in [[Cooktown, Queensland|Cooktown]], Queensland]]
In 1959, the Cooktown Re-enactment Association first performed a re-enactment of Cook's 1770 landing at the site of modern [[Cooktown, Queensland|Cooktown]], Australia, and have continued the tradition each year, with the support and participation of many of the local [[Guugu Yimithirr people]]. They celebrate the first act of [[Reconciliation in Australia|reconciliation]] between [[Indigenous Australians]] and non-Indigenous people, when a Guugu Yimithirr elder stepped in after some of Cook's men had violated custom by taking [[green turtle]]s from the river and not sharing with the local people. He presented Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering, thus preventing possible bloodshed. Cook recorded the incident in his journal.<ref name="kim">{{cite web |last1=Kim |first1=Sharnie |last2=Stephen |first2=Adam |date=19 June 2020 |title=Cooktown's Indigenous people help commemorate 250 years since Captain Cook's landing with re-enactment |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/cooktown-indigenous-commemorate-captain-cook-250th-anniversary/12363526 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706200313/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/cooktown-indigenous-commemorate-captain-cook-250th-anniversary/12363526 |archive-date=6 July 2020 |access-date=6 July 2020 |publisher=ABC News |location=Australia}}</ref>

===Culture===
Cook was a subject in many literary creations. [[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]], a popular poet known for her sentimental romantic poetry,<ref>{{cite web |last=Jacolbe |first=Jessica |date=23 May 2019 |title=Life of Forgotten Poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon |url=https://daily.jstor.org/on-the-life-of-forgotten-poet-letitia-elizabeth-landon/ |access-date=9 October 2022 |website=Jstor Daily |archive-date=9 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009122415/https://daily.jstor.org/on-the-life-of-forgotten-poet-letitia-elizabeth-landon/ |url-status=live }}</ref> published a poetical illustration to a portrait of Captain Cook in 1837.<ref>{{cite book|last=Landon|first=Letitia Elizabeth|title=Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=49BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA68|year=1837|publisher=Fisher, Son & Co.|section=portrait|access-date=10 October 2022|archive-date=10 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221010033952/https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=49BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA68|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Landon|first=Letitia Elizabeth|title=Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=49BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA71|year=1837|publisher=Fisher, Son & Co.|section=poetical illustration|page=23|access-date=9 October 2022|archive-date=9 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009104117/https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=49BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA71|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1931, [[Kenneth Slessor]]'s poem "[[Five Visions of Captain Cook]]" was the "most dramatic break-through" in Australian poetry of the 20th century according to poet [[Douglas Stewart (poet)|Douglas Stewart]].<ref>Herbert C. Jaffa, ''Kenneth Slessor: A Critical Study'', Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1977, p. 20.</ref>

Cook appears as a symbolic and generic figure in several [[Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology|Aboriginal myths]], often from regions where Cook did not encounter Aboriginal people. Maddock states that Cook is usually portrayed as the bringer of Western colonialism to Australia and is presented as a villain who brings immense social change.<ref>Maddock, K. (1988). "Myth, History and a Sense of Oneself". In Beckett, J. R. (ed.). ''Past and Present: The Construction of Aboriginality''. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. pp. 11–30. {{ISBN|0-85575-190-8}}</ref>

Cook has been depicted in numerous films, documentaries and dramas.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/05-2017/captain_cook_obsesson_and_discovery_tn.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126131107/https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/05-2017/captain_cook_obsesson_and_discovery_tn.pdf |archive-date=26 January 2024 |url-status=live |title=Teacher's Notes: Captain Cook - Obession and Discovery |publisher=National Film and Sound Archive of Australia |access-date=13 April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/reviews/2009/12/10/the-futons-first-look-captain-cooks-extraordinary-atlas-abc-33808/20091210_captaincooksextraordinaryatlas/|title=Rants & Reviews - The Futon's First Look: "Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas" (ABC) &#124; TheFutonCritic.com|website=www.thefutoncritic.com|access-date=26 January 2024|archive-date=12 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312061805/http://www.thefutoncritic.com/reviews/2009/12/10/the-futons-first-look-captain-cooks-extraordinary-atlas-abc-33808/20091210_captaincooksextraordinaryatlas/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.creativespirits.info/resources/movies/cooked|title=Cooked (Film)|first=Jens |last=Korff|date=17 July 2022|website=Creative Spirits|access-date=26 January 2024|archive-date=26 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126131106/https://www.creativespirits.info/resources/movies/cooked|url-status=live}}</ref> The Australian slang phrase "Have a Captain Cook" means to have a look or conduct a brief inspection.<ref>{{cite web |last=Khoury |first=Matt |date=12 July 2017 |title=Australian slang: 33 phrases to help you talk like an Aussie |url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/australian-slang-phrases/index.html |access-date=9 December 2021 |website=CNN |archive-date=9 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209103345/https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/australian-slang-phrases/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Controversy===
[[File:Hyde_Park Captain Cook.JPG|thumb|[[Statue of James Cook, Hyde Park|Statue of James Cook]], Hyde Park, Sydney. The rear inscription reads: "Discovered this territory, 1770".]]

The period 2018 to 2021 marked the 250th anniversary of Cook's first voyage of exploration. Several countries, including Australia and New Zealand, arranged official events to commemorate the voyage,<ref>{{Cite web|title=250th anniversary of Captain Cook's voyage to Australia|url=https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/cultural-heritage/250th-anniversary-captain-cooks-voyage-australia|access-date=15 March 2021|website=Australian Government, Office for the Arts|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308172046/https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/cultural-heritage/250th-anniversary-captain-cooks-voyage-australia|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Tuia Enounters 250|url=https://mch.govt.nz/tuia250|access-date=15 March 2021|archive-date=6 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306135019/https://mch.govt.nz/tuia250|url-status=live}}</ref> leading to widespread public debate about Cook's legacy and the violence associated with his contacts with Indigenous peoples.<ref name="Daley 2020">{{Cite web|last=Daley|first=Paul|date=29 April 2020|title=Commemorating Captain James Cook's arrival, Australia should not omit his role in the suffering that followed|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2020/apr/29/commemorating-james-cooks-arrival-australia-should-not-omit-his-role-in-the-suffering-that-followed|access-date=16 March 2021|website=The Guardian|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308230636/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2020/apr/29/commemorating-james-cooks-arrival-australia-should-not-omit-his-role-in-the-suffering-that-followed|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Roy|first=Eleanor Ainge|date=8 October 2019|title=New Zealand wrestles with 250th anniversary of James Cook's arrival|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/08/new-zealand-wrestles-with-250th-anniversary-of-james-cooks-arrival|access-date=15 March 2021|website=The Guardian|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414030255/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/08/new-zealand-wrestles-with-250th-anniversary-of-james-cooks-arrival|url-status=live}}</ref> In the lead-up to the commemorations, various memorials to Cook in Australia and New Zealand were vandalised, and there were public calls for their removal or modification due to their alleged promotion of colonialist narratives.<ref>{{Cite web|date=23 August 2017|title=Australia debates Captain Cook 'discovery' statue|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41020363|access-date=15 March 2021|website=BBC News|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414030114/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41020363|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=13 June 2020|title=Captain James Cook statue defaced in Gisborne|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/captain-james-cook-statue-defaced-in-gisborne/RH3B2TD2CNMR6D2AP3QWSBX2F4/|access-date=16 March 2021|website=[[The New Zealand Herald]]|archive-date=9 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309004905/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/captain-james-cook-statue-defaced-in-gisborne/RH3B2TD2CNMR6D2AP3QWSBX2F4/|url-status=live}}</ref> There were also campaigns for the return of Indigenous artefacts taken during Cook's voyages (see [[Gweagal shield]]).<ref>{{cite web |date=13 November 2020 |title=Shots Fired |url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/shots-fired/12868096 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307042709/https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/shots-fired/12868096 |archive-date=7 March 2021 |access-date=12 March 2021 |website=ABC Radio National}}</ref>

In July 2021, a statue of Cook in [[Victoria, British Columbia]], Canada, was torn down in protests about the [[Canadian Indian residential school system|deaths of Indigenous residential school children]] in Canada.<ref>{{Cite web|date=3 July 2021|title=Capt. James Cook statue recovered from Victoria Harbour; what's next is undecided|url=https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/capt-james-cook-statue-recovered-from-victoria-harbour-what-s-next-is-undecided-1.24337872|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703145332/https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/capt-james-cook-statue-recovered-from-victoria-harbour-what-s-next-is-undecided-1.24337872|archive-date=3 July 2021|access-date=4 July 2021|website=Times Colonist}}</ref> In January 2024, a statue of Cook in [[St Kilda, Melbourne]] was cut down in a protest against colonialism;  the premier of [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]] pledged to work with the local council to repair the statue.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-victoria/captain-cook-statue-cut-down-on-eve-of-australia-day/news-story/aa6aa1f84cf25bc70dab5765d42a9031?amp&nk=89c859e6bc39eb7b8000c7309289cfd8-1706162324|last=Ellis|first=Fergus|title=Captain Cook statue cut down on eve of Australia Day, vandals brazenly share footage|work=Herald Sun|date=25 January 2024|access-date=26 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="Sum 2024" /><ref>{{cite news |date=25 January 2024 |title=Melbourne statues of Queen Victoria and Captain Cook vandalised on Australia Day eve |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-25/melbourne-captain-cook-queen-victoria-statues-vandalised/103386996 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240125000119/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-25/melbourne-captain-cook-queen-victoria-statues-vandalised/103386996 |archive-date=25 January 2024 |access-date=25 January 2024 |work=[[ABC News Online]]}}</ref>

Alice Proctor argues that the controversies over public representations of Cook and the display of Indigenous artefacts from his voyages are part of a broader debate over the [[Indigenous decolonization|decolonisation]] of museums and public spaces and resistance to colonialist narratives.<ref>Proctor, Alice (2020) Chs 11, 21; pp. 255–62 and ''passim''</ref> While a number of commentators argue that Cook enabled British imperialism and colonialism in the Pacific,<ref name="Daley 2020" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Proctor|first=Alice|title=The Whole Picture: The colonial story of the art in our museums and why we need to talk about it|publisher=Cassell|year=2020|isbn=978-1-78840-155-5|location=London|page=243}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gapps |first=Stephen |date=28 April 2020 |title=Make no mistake: Cook's voyages were part of a military mission to conquer and expand |url=https://theconversation.com/make-no-mistake-cooks-voyages-were-part-of-a-military-mission-to-conquer-and-expand-134404 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=The Conversation}}</ref><ref>{{Harvp|Thomas|2003|p=xxxiii}}</ref> [[Geoffrey Blainey]], among others, notes that Banks promoted Botany Bay as a site for colonisation after Cook's death.<ref>{{harvnb|Blainey|2020|p=287}}</ref> [[Robert Tombs]] has defended Cook, arguing: "He epitomized the [[Age of Enlightenment]] in which he lived" and in conducting his first voyage "was carrying out an enlightened mission, with instructions from the Royal Society to show 'patience and forbearance' towards native peoples".<ref>{{cite news|last=Tombs|first=Robert|date=4 February 2021|title=Captain Cook wasn't a 'genocidal' villain. He was a true Enlightenment man|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/02/04/captain-cook-wasnt-genocidal-villain-true-enlightenment-man/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/02/04/captain-cook-wasnt-genocidal-villain-true-enlightenment-man/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=9 December 2021|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
| image             = James_Cook_Coat_of_Arms.svg
| year_adopted      = 3 September 1785
| crest             = On a Wreath of the Colours, An Arm embowed, vested in the Uniform of a Captain of the Royal Navy, in the Hand the Union-Jack on a Staff proper; the Arm encircled by a Wreath of Palm and Laurel.
| escutcheon        = Azure, between the two Polar Stars Or, a Sphere on the plane of the Meridian, North Pole elevated, Circles of Latitude for every ten degrees and of Longitude for fifteen, showing the Pacific Ocean between fifty and two hundred and forty West, bounded on one side by America, on the other by Asia and New Holland, in memory of his having explored and made Discoveries in that Ocean so very far beyond all former Navigators; His Track thereon marked with red Lines.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n88ElePn |access-date=29 January 2023 |title=Grant of arms made to Mrs Cook and to Cook's descendants in 1785 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129163800/https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n88ElePn |archive-date=29 January 2023}}</ref>
| motto             = '''NIL INTENTATUM RELIQUIT''' & '''CIRCA ORBEM'''
| notes             =  Cook's coat of arms was granted to his widowed wife, the only known example of a posthumous grant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/makingamark/teaching-resources/objects/cook-coat-of-arms |access-date=29 January 2023 |title=Cook coat of arms |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129164549/https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/makingamark/teaching-resources/objects/cook-coat-of-arms |archive-date=29 January 2023}}</ref> The Letters Patent further detail that [[Elizabeth Batts Cook]] petitioned for the grant six years after his death to preserve the memory of her late husband and to be placed on any monuments and memorials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/cook-s-coat-of-arms |access-date=29 January 2023 |title=Cook's Coat of Arms |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630202740/https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/cook-s-coat-of-arms |archive-date=30 June 2022}}</ref>
}}

==See also==
* [[New Zealand places named by James Cook]]
* [[Australian places named by James Cook]]
* [[European and American voyages of scientific exploration]]
* [[Exploration of the Pacific]]
* [[List of places named after Captain James Cook]]
* [[List of sea captains]]
* ''[[Death of Cook]]'' (paintings)
* [[Port-Christmas]]

{{Clear}}

==References==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|group="NB"}}

===Citations===
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book|title =The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery|volume=I: The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771| editor-last=Beaglehole|editor-first= J. C. |editor-link=John Cawte Beaglehole| year =1968 | publisher =Cambridge University Press | oclc=223185477}}
* {{cite book|last=Beaglehole|first=John Cawte|title=The Life of Captain James Cook|author-link=John Cawte Beaglehole|publisher=[[A & C Black]]|year =1974|isbn=978-0-7136-1382-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Blainey|first=Geoffrey|title=Captain Cook's Epic Voyage: the strange quest for a missing continent|publisher=Viking|year=2020|isbn=978-1-76089-509-9|location=Australia}}
* {{cite book|last=Collingridge|first=Vanessa|author-link=Vanessa Collingridge|title=Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer|year=2003|publisher=Ebury Press|isbn=978-0-09-188898-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Fernandez-Armesto|first=Felipe|title=Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration|date=2006|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-06259-5|url=https://archive.org/details/pathfindersgloba00fern}}
* {{cite book|last=Fisher|first=Robin|title=Captain James Cook and his times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhsOAAAAQAAJ|date=1979|isbn=978-0-7099-0050-4|publisher=Taylor & Francis}}
* {{cite book|last=Hayes|first=Derek|title=Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery|date=1999|publisher=Sasquatch Books|isbn=978-1-57061-215-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl57oHrVXGoC}}
* {{cite book|last=Horwitz|first=Tony|author-link=Tony Horwitz|title=Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before|date=October 2003|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-0-7475-6455-3}}
* {{cite book|title=Captain James Cook|first=Richard|last=Hough|date=1994|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|author-link=Richard Hough|isbn=978-0-340-82556-3}}
* {{cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea|last1=Kemp|first1=Peter|first2=I. C. B. |last2=Dear|date=2005|publisher=OUP|isbn=978-0-19-860616-1}}
* {{cite book|title=Narrative of the voyages round the world, performed by Captain James Cook; with an account of his life during the previous and intervening periods|first=Andrew|last=Kippis|date=1788|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77n/complete.html|access-date=16 July 2012|archive-date=22 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322140625/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77n/complete.html|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book|author-link=Frank McLynn|last=McLynn|first=Frank|date=2011|title=Captain Cook: Master of the Seas|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-11421-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Moorehead|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Moorehead|date=1966|title=Fatal Impact: An Account of the Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767–1840|url=https://archive.org/details/fatalimpactaccou0000moor|url-access=registration|publisher=H Hamilton|isbn=978-0-241-90757-3}}
* {{cite book|author-link=Rob Mundle |last= Mundle |first= Rob|title=Cook: from Sailor to Legend| year= 2013 |publisher= ABC Books |isbn=978-1-4607-0061-7}}
* {{cite book|title=The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific|publisher=Princeton University Press|last=Obeyesekere|first=Gananath|date=1992|isbn=978-0-691-05680-7}}
* {{cite book|url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4886604/mod_resource/content/1/Gananath%20Obeyesekere-The%20Apotheosis%20of%20Captain%20Cook_%20European%20Mythmaking%20in%20the%20Pacific-Princeton%20University%20Press%20%281992%29.pdf|title=The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific|publisher=Princeton University Press|last=Obeyesekere|first=Gananath|date=1997|isbn=978-0-691-05752-1|quote=With new preface and afterword replying to criticism from Sahlins}}
* {{cite book|title=Captain Cook in the Pacific|first1=Nigel|last1=Rigby|last2=van der Merwe|first2=Pieter|date=2002|publisher=National Maritime Museum, London|isbn=978-0-948065-43-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Robson|first=John|date=2004|title=The Captain Cook Encyclopædia|publisher=Random House Australia|isbn=978-0-7593-1011-7}}
* {{cite book|title=Captain Cook's War and Peace: The Royal Navy Years 1755–1768|first=John|last=Robson|date=2009|publisher=University of New South Wales Press|isbn=978-1-74223-109-9}}
* {{cite book|title=Islands of history|url=https://archive.org/details/islandsofhistory00sahl|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Chicago Press|first=Marshall David|last=Sahlins|author-link= Marshall David Sahlins|date=1985|isbn=978-0-226-73358-6}}
* {{cite book|title=How "Natives" Think: About Captain Cook, for example|publisher=University of Chicago Press|last=Sahlins|first=Marshall David|date=1995|isbn=978-0-226-73368-5}}
* {{cite book|title=The Australian Language: An Examination of the English Language and English Speech as Used in Australia, from Convict Days to the Present|last=Sidney|first=John Baker|location=Melbourne|publisher=Sun Books|date=1981|isbn=978-0-7251-0382-8}}
* {{cite book|title=James Cook Maritime Scientist|publisher=Caedmon of Whitby Press|last=Stamp|first= Tom and Cordelia|date=1978|location=Whitby|isbn=978-0-905355-04-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Sykes|first=Bryan|title=The Seven Daughters of Eve|publisher=Norton Publishing: New York City and London|isbn=978-0-393-02018-2|date=2001|title-link=The Seven Daughters of Eve}}
* {{cite book|last=Wagner|first=A. R.|title=Historic Heraldry of Britain|date=1972|publisher=Phillimore & Co Ltd|location=London|isbn=978-0-85033-022-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historicheraldry0000wagn}}
* {{cite book|title=Captain Cook's Journal during his first voyage round the world made in H.M. Bark "Endeavour" 1768–71|first=W. J. L.|last=Wharton|author-link=William Wharton (Royal Navy officer)|date=1893|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77j/complete.html|access-date=16 July 2012|archive-date=22 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322055659/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77j/|url-status=dead}}

==Further reading==
{{Further|Exploration of the Pacific#Bibliography}}
* {{Cite book |last=Aughton |first=Peter |title=Endeavour: The Story of Captain Cook's First Great Epic Voyage |date=2002 |location=London |publisher=Cassell & Co. |isbn=978-0-304-36236-3}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Cook, James |volume= 7 |last= Beazley |first= Charles Raymond |author-link= Charles Raymond Beazley | pages = 71-72 |short= 1}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Edwards |editor-first=Philip |title=James Cook: The Journals |url=https://archive.org/details/journalsofcaptai00jame|date=2003|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=978-0-14-043647-1|quote=Prepared from the original manuscripts by J. C. Beaglehole 1955–67}}
** {{Cite book |editor-last=Edwards |editor-first=Philip |year=2019 |title=Captain James Cook: The Journals |location=London |publisher=Folio Society |oclc=1066235678}}  Three volumes and chart; deluxe edition.
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Forster|editor-first=Georg|title=A Voyage Round the World|editor-link=Georg Forster|date=1986|publisher=Wiley-VCH|isbn=978-3-05-000180-7|quote=Published first 1777 as: ''A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5''}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Hawkesworth |first1=John |author-link1=John Hawkesworth (book editor) |last2=Byron |first2=John |author-link2=John Byron |last3=Wallis |first3=Samuel |author-link3=Samuel Wallis |last4=Carteret |first4=Philip |author-link4=Philip Carteret |last5=Cook |first5=James |author-link5=James Cook |last6=Banks |first6=Joseph |author-link6=Joseph Banks |date=1773 |title=An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of His present Majesty for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour drawn up from the journals which were kept by the several commanders, and from the papers of Joseph Banks, esq |title-link=An Account of the Voyages |location=London |publisher=Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell |oclc=9299044}} [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv01/contents.html Volume I]; [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv23/contents.html Volume II–III]. 
* {{Cite book|last=Igler |first=David|date=2013 |title=The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199914951 |oclc=811599695}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kippis |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Kippis |date=1904 |title=The Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandvoyagesc00kippgoog |location=London; New York |publisher=George Newnes Ltd.; Charles Scribner's Sons |oclc=1836297}}
* {{Cite book |last=Richardson |first=Brian |year=2005 |title=Longitude and Empire: How Captain Cook's Voyages Changed the World |location=Vancouver |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |isbn=0-7748-1190-0 |oclc=58930493}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sides |first=Hampton |year=2024 |title=The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=9780385544764 |oclc=1416012934 |access-date=}}
* {{Cite book |title=Captain Cook: His Artists • His Voyages: The Daily Telegraph Portfolio of Original Works by Artists Who Sailed with Captain Cook |url=https://archive.org/details/captaincookhisar0000unse/page/n3/mode/2up |url-access=registration |location=Sydney |publisher=Australian Consolidated Press |year=1970 |oclc=896726172}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Nicholas |year=2003 |title=The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook |location=New York |publisher=Walker & Co. |isbn=0-8027-1412-9 |oclc=1030721339}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Uglow |first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Uglow |date=7 February 2019 |title=Island Hopping; Reviewed: ''Captain James Cook: The Journals'', selected and edited by Philip Edwards, London, Folio Society, three volumes and a chart of the voyages, 1,309 pp.; and William Frame with Laura Walker, ''James Cook: The Voyages'', McGill-Queen University Press, 224 pp. |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/02/07/captain-cook-island-hopping/ |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |pages=18–20 |volume=LXVI |issue=2 |access-date=4 April 2024}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Villiers |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Villiers |date=Summer 1956–57 |title=James Cook, Seaman |url=https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/1956/ |url-access=subscription |journal=[[Quadrant (magazine)|Quadrant]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=7–16 |issn=0033-5002}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Glyndwr |editor-link=Glyndwr Williams |date=1997 |title=Captain Cook's Voyages: 1768–1779 |location=London |publisher=The Folio Society |oclc=38549967}} "A selection of Cook's published journals (about one-fifth of the original)." —OCLC
* {{Cite book |last=Withey |first=Lynne |year=1987 |title=Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific |url=https://archive.org/details/voyagesofdiscove0000with/page/n7/mode/2up |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=William Morrow and Company |isbn=0688051154 |oclc=15488483}}

==External links==
{{Library resources box
|onlinebooks=no|by=no|lcheading=Cook, James, 1728–1779}}
{{Commons and category|James Cook|James Cook}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Wikivoyage|Voyages of James Cook}}
* [http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ Captain Cook Society]
* [http://ns1763.ca/hfxrm/cookjmon.html Captain Cook historic plaque, Halifax]
* {{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/explorer-navigator-coloniser-revisit-captain-cooks-legacy-with-the-click-of-a-mouse-137390|title=Explorer, navigator, coloniser: revisit Captain Cook's legacy with the click of a mouse|work=The Conversation|date=29 April 2020|access-date=29 April 2020}}
* {{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/au/topics/captain-cook-43377|title=Articles on Captain Cook|website=The Conversation|date=2017–2020|access-date=23 December 2020}}
* {{ws|[[s:Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838/Captain Cook|Captain Cook]]}}, a poetical illustration to [[John Keyse Sherwin|Sherwin]]'s engraving of [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland|Nathaniel Dance]]'s portrait by [[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]] in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838.
* [https://www.google.com/maps/d/view?mid=1aCgWHxt6Lbic-tMXhVS39EOnVJop4HA&ll=-29.451594269458518%2C162.7671631965635&z=4 Map showing locations of Cook landings and Cook monuments in Australia and New Zealand]

===Biographical dictionaries===
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Cook, James (1728–1779)|encyclopedia=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cook-james-1917/text2279|access-date=8 January 2016|year=1966|edition=online}}
* {{cite DCB |first=Glyndwr|last=Williams|title=Cook, James|volume=4|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cook_james_4E.html}}
* {{DNZB |Mackay |David |1C25 |Cook, James}}

===Journals===
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms1 ''The Endeavour'' journal (1)] and [http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/endeavour/ ''The Endeavour'' journal (2)], as kept by James Cook&nbsp;– digitised and held by the [[National Library of Australia]]
* [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/ The South Seas Project]: maps and online editions of the Journals of James Cook's First Pacific Voyage, 1768–1771. Includes full text of journals kept by Cook, Joseph Banks and Sydney Parkinson, as well as the complete text of John Hawkesworth's 1773 Account of Cook's first voyage.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110606103401/http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/corral/adm55/adm55_index.html Digitised copies of log books from James Cook's voyages] at the [http://badc.nerc.ac.uk British Atmospheric Data Centre]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Cook,+James|name=James Cook}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Cook}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1650}}
* [http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00058/1 Log book of Cook's second voyage]: high-resolution digitised version in Cambridge Digital Library
* [http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/virt-exhib/TapaCloth/index.htm Digitised Tapa cloth catalogue] held at [[Auckland Libraries]]

===Collections and museums===
* [http://www.nma.gov.au/cook/ Cook's Pacific Encounters: Cook-Forster Collection online] Images and descriptions of more than 300 artefacts collected during the three Pacific voyages of James Cook.
* [https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/10800 Images and descriptions of items associated with James Cook at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* [http://www.captcook-ne.co.uk/ccbm/index.htm Captain Cook Birthplace Museum Marton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720010546/http://www.captcook-ne.co.uk/ccbm/index.htm |date=20 July 2011 }}
* [http://www.cookmuseumwhitby.co.uk/ Captain Cook Memorial Museum Whitby]
* [http://uwm.edu/libraries/agsl/cook-maps/ Cook's manuscript maps] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150201032617/http://uwm.edu/libraries/agsl/cook-maps/ |date=1 February 2015 }} of the south-east coast of Australia, held at the American Geographical Society Library at UW Milwaukee.
* {{PM20|FID=pe/003445}}

{{Captain James Cook}}
{{Copley Medallists 1751–1800}}
{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, James}}
[[Category:James Cook| ]]
[[Category:1728 births]]
[[Category:1779 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English people]]
[[Category:18th-century British explorers]]
[[Category:Death in Hawaii]]
[[Category:English explorers of the Pacific]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the French and Indian War]]
[[Category:British navigators]]
[[Category:British people executed abroad]]
[[Category:Circumnavigators of the globe]]
[[Category:English cartographers]]
[[Category:English explorers of North America]]
[[Category:English hydrographers]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:English sailors]]
[[Category:Explorers of Alaska]]
[[Category:British explorers of Antarctica]]
[[Category:Explorers of Australia]]
[[Category:Explorers of British Columbia]]
[[Category:Explorers of New Zealand]]
[[Category:Explorers of Oregon]]
[[Category:Explorers of Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Hydrographers]]
[[Category:Maritime writers]]
[[Category:People from Middlesbrough]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers]]
[[Category:Q150 Icons]]
[[Category:Sea captains]]
[[Category:Royal Navy captains]]
[[Category:Military personnel from North Yorkshire]]
[[Category:18th-century Royal Navy personnel]]