Questions about explorier james cook?

Question

1st did he only explore in 1769/1770and 1776

2nd why was he exploreing ?was it a job from the mechant navy or something different

what was he looking for i have read he found australia new zealand and that but was he looking for that or something different also im asking if anyone knows a fun childhood story or something that happened to him im going around in circles here reading all this stuff and cant find anything about his childhood

i hope you dont think im being lazy im really stuck even if you could provide a link i will read it all if i can find it thanks in advance

Answer 1

EXPLORATION - James Cook    



Seafarer and explorer born in Yorkshire, U.K., on 27th October 1728.

His first job was an 18 month apprenticeship in a grocery and haberdashery but he gained a release from his employer and joined shipowners John and Henry Walker, working on colliers based at Whitby.

By 1752 he was a mate and knew how well these sturdy vessels performed in the seas around Britain.

Cook joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and was quickly promoted for his skills in navigation.

Cook married in December, 1762, and spent the next 5 years charting and surveying the coastline of Labrador and Newfoundland.

Captain James Cook's three epic voyages to the South Seas, between 1768-1779.

James Cook's first voyage (1768-1771)

Cook's second Pacific voyage (1772-1775)

Cook's third, and final, Pacific voyage (1776-1779)

He was killed at Kealakekua Bay in the Hawaiian Islands, on 14 February 1779.

James Cook's first voyage (1768-1771) aboard the Endeavour began on 27 May 1768. Cook's first goal was to establish an observatory at Tahiti to record the Transit of Venus, when that planet passed between the earth and the sun, on 3 June 1769.

The second goal was the continuing pursuit of the Great South Land. The final aim of the expedition was to record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks.

The continued search for the legendary Great South Land also motivated Cook's second Pacific voyage (1772-1775). This voyage aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent in what we now know as Antarctica. Cook's crew included naturalists, an astronomer, and the expedition's official artist, William Hodges. While Hodges drew coastal views for navigation purposes, his main work was to gather material for landscape paintings.

Cook's third, and final, Pacific voyage (1776-1779) was as important for exploration of the North Pacific as the earlier two had been for the South. The voyage aimed to find a north west passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In the process, Cook made the major discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in January 1778. It was to be his final achievement, for it was in Hawaii that he was later killed at Kealakekua Bay, on 14 February 1779.

Between the years 1768 and 1771 an epic voyage of discovery was sailed by James Cook and his crew on board HMB Endeavour Ninety-four men, a goat, and two dogs departed on a sea journey to visit unknown lands and people, to make scientific discoveries and to search for the mythical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita.

You can read excerpts from James Cook's Journal: http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/endeavour/mant...

Answer 2

This is an excellent online biography of James Cook.

http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~coo...