James Cook was an English explorer and navigator, whose achievements in the field of studying and drawing maps of the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia drastically changed the view of the world. He said for himself that everything he does, he does for the needs of ordinary sailors.
He was born on October 27, 1728, in a small village in Yorkshire. The main occupation of his entire family was focused on agriculture. At the age of 17, he moved to the coast, to the town of Whitby, where he started working as a coal trader. From 1755, he served in the Royal Navy in North America, where he learned to research and make nautical maps of coastal waters.
When the British government decided in 1769 to organize an expedition that would have the task of exploring the southern continents, Cook was chosen as the leader of the expedition. Astronomer Charles Green and botanist Joseph Banks were also on board. In April of the same year, they reached New Zealand, and then continued to the east coast of Australia, which the Europeans had not seen before. Cook called this coast British and named it New South Wales. In July 1771, Cook returned home with his crew.
The following year, dissatisfied with his previous achievements, Cook embarked with the crew on another voyage in search of the southern continents. His two ships reached almost the shores of Antarctica, but the cold forced them to return. After that, they visited New Zealand and Tahiti, and returned to England in 1775.
Cook's third voyage was made with the goal of finding the Northwest Passage, which was believed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, he failed in this endeavor, so he soon steered his ships south and found Hawaii, an island where he remained for the rest of his life.
In January 1778 he first visited the Hawaiian Islands.
Cook and his crew were greeted by enchanted Hawaiians, who admired the large ships of Europeans.
It is suspected that the Hawaiians attached religious importance to the Europeans’ first stay on their islands.
At the time of Cook’s arrival, the locals organized a festival dedicated to Lonoi, the fertility god. Cook and his compatriots were welcomed as gods and exploited the goodwill of Hawaiians for the next month. Their relationship first became strained after one of the crew members died, as his death showed that Europeans were also mortals.
On February 4, 1779, British ships sailed from Kealakekua Bay, but terrible sea storms damaged the top of the Resolution ship and after only a week at sea the expedition was forced to return to Hawaii. The Hawaiians stoned Cook and his men, on which occasion James Cook was killed.
