National Library of Australia

Provided by The Australian Dictionary of Biography

COOK, JAMES (1728-1779), navigator, was born on 27 October 1728 at Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England, the son of a Scottish labourer and his Yorkshire wife. He grew up on a farm at Great Ayton, attending the village school, and at 17 was apprenticed to a shopkeeper at Staithes. After eighteen months, with the consent of all concerned, he gave this up for a more enticing apprenticeship of three years under John Walker, a Quaker coal-shipper of Whitby. Here he made some headway with mathematics and navigation and served two years before the mast in the Baltic trade. In 1755 Walker offered him a command, but instead Cook joined H.M.S. Eagle and within a month was master's mate. After two years on the Channel service, he was promoted master of the Pembroke, and in 1758 crossed the Atlantic in her and took part in the siege of Louisburg and the survey of the St Lawrence River that led to the capture of Quebec. Transferred to the Northumberland, he began surveying the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, in the winter months at Halifax reading solidly in his chosen subjects.

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Uniform title: Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Plates. French
by Cook, James, 1728-1779
A Paris : Hotel de Thou ... , 1785
 
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