Captain James Cook
Captain James Cook is one of the most famous English explorers, adventurers and navigators who ever lived. He was born in 1728 at Marton in Cleveland in Yorkshire, north-east England, and was apprenticed to ship owners in Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast. In 1755 Cook joined the Royal Navy, where he became a Master, and spent eight years surveying the St Lawrence River and Newfoundland coast. From 1768-71 he was in command of the Endeavour, during which time he circumnavigated New Zealand, explored much of the South Pacific and charted the east coast of Australia and claimed the land for Great Britain. His second long voyage was from 1772-75, when he was given the task of discovering how far north the lands of Antarctica spread. He also explored Tahiti, the New Hebrides and other groups of islands. What proved to be Cook's final voyage lasted from 1776-79, and the main purpose was to try to find a passage from the Pacific Ocean around the top of the North American landmass to the Atlantic Ocean. It was during this voyage that he visited the west coast of North America, traveling as far north as the Bering Strait. Forced to turn back, he sailed south to Hawaii where he was killed by natives on February 14, 1779, during a dispute over a stolen boat. Cape Flattery, Washington In March 1778 Captain James Cook sailed up the coast of Oregon and Washington, which at the time was known as New Albion. He approached a cape which he and his crew thought might lead them into a safe harbor or, as he described it in his famous and very readable Diaries: 'the land which flatered us with hopes of finding a harbour'. When it slowly became obvious that there was no harbor here, he decided to name the cape Cape Flatery. Cape Perpetua and Cook's Chasm, Oregon The undersea cave known as Cook's Chasm, near Cape Perpetua south of Yachats in Oregon, was named after Captain Cook though there is no evidence that he ever even saw the cave. He did, however, name Cape Perpetua as he first saw it on March 7, 1778, which was St Perpetua's Day. Cape Foulweather, Oregon It was in his Journal on March 7, 1778, that Captain James Cook describes his first sight of the densely-wooded landscape of the Pacific coast. To the far north he could see a cape, which he christened Cape Foul Weather as that's what he almost immediately ran into.
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