In the early eighteenth century, when Cook was born, the Industrial Revolution had not yet begun, the nearby Durham Coalfield was still in its infancy, the Stockton and Darlington Railway was not thought of, and Middlesbrough, which now dominates the area, was only two or three buildings. Yarm, Stockton and Guisborough were the local market towns while York and Newcastle were a day's journey away. London, 400 kilometres to the south, was very distant and, in many ways, Edinburgh and Scotland were more accessible and influential. The whole area from Yorkshire to Edinburgh had once been part of the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria and, even now, its legacy remains.
In 1715 there had been an uprising, the Jacobite rebellion for the Old Pretender, and there had been much support for it in South Scotland and Northumbria. Kelso had been a rallying point for the rebellion and Cook Senior may have played a role, in which case he needed to avoid repercussions. Or he may have simply needed to move to find work and the prosperous farms of Cleveland offered prospects of a good job.
The church records for Stainton-in-Cleveland Parish Church show that James Cook and Grace Pace were married on October 10th 1725 when the groom was 31 and the bride was 23. Grace had grown up with her family in Thornaby-on-Tees, nearby to the northwest and across the River Tees from Stockton.
Around this time, farm work was seasonal and temporary so labourers moved wherever they could get work, attending hirings which were held in the market towns. The Cooks became part of this system and over the next few years they regularly moved round the Cleveland district, albeit a few kilometres on each occasion [0.02]. In 1727 they were living in Morton when their first child, John, was born and baptised in nearby Ormesby. Soon after they moved three kilometres northwest to Marton where Cook Senior had secured work with George Mewburn.
James Cook Senior was still not secure in his employment and the family soon moved again. Their third child, Christiana, was born in 1731 and baptised in Ormesby. By 1733 they had returned to Marton and their fourth child, Mary, was born (she was to die in 1736). The Cooks were still poor and pressures would dictate that all the children would work as soon as they were able. It is believed, therefore, that young James was already tending stock, watering horses and running errands by the age of five for the Walker family. In return Dame Walker taught him his alphabet and how to read.
It is thought that the Cooks lived in two separate homes in Marton but nothing remains of either of them. In 1736 the family left Marton to live at Aireyholme Farm on the slopes of Roseberry Topping near Great Ayton, six kilometres to the southeast. Aireyholme was owned by Thomas Skottowe, the Lord of the Manor of Great Ayton. The move represented promotion for Cook Senior who was the new hind or foreman on the farm. It also represented security for the family as it meant their travelling days were over and they would stay at the farm until 1755, a period of 19 years. At Ayton four more children were born: Jane born 1738 (died 1742); Mary (no.2) born 1740 (died 1741); Margaret born 1742; and William born 1745 (died 1748).
James, by now eight years old, went to the Postgate School in the village as well as working on the farm. It is thought that he was an average student though proficient in mathematics. He was a loner and obstinate but deserving respect from other boys. He attended the school until he was 12 when he began full-time work, probably for the Skottowe family. This brought him to the attention of Thomas Skottowe, who would prove to have a considerable influence on Cook's life.
Skottowe was also a Justice of the Peace for the North Riding of Yorkshire and would have attended sessions at Guisborough where it is probable he would have met William Sanderson. Sanderson was a shopkeeper from Staithes, who acted as a Constable in the district. The two men became friends and later even became related when their sons married sisters named Gill. In 1745, when James Cook was ready to leave home and get a job it was arranged that he should work for Sanderson in his haberdashery and grocery shop at Staithes on the coast between Redcar and Whitby.
Staithes is a small, cramped, fishing village nestled at the foot of cliffs where Roxby Beck enters the sea. Always a very close community, newcomers took a long time to be accepted and, for a young boy like Cook, away from home for the first time, it would have been a strange and lonely place. Staithes did introduce Cook to the sea and Sanderson, realising Cook was unsettled, used his connections and influence to introduce the boy to the Walker family in Whitby.
It is not known in which ships he sailed during his first year but in 1747 a new Act of Parliament was passed that decreed that all ships must keep Muster Rolls. From that time, therefore, there is a near complete record of the Whitby (and other) vessels on which Cook sailed. Cook is known to have sailed on the Freelove (1747-1748), the Three Brothers (1748-1751) and the Friendship (1751-1755), all owned by the Walkers. After his apprenticeship finished in 1749 he also spent some months on other vessels, the Mary and the Hopewell.
The North Sea Coal Trade had developed to meet the ever-expanding need London had for coal. The South Nothumberland coalfield, close to the coast and with good port facilities at the mouth of the River Tyne, had been best able to satisfy that need and fleets of ships sprang up to transport the coal down the East Coast to the capital. Whitby, along this trade route, became a major factor. Each round-trip could take over a month; a week to load the coal at North Shields, a week to unload at Wapping on the Thames and a week each way sailing along the East Coast. As the weather and conditions in the North Sea could be treacherous, the crew would be given a break of 2-3 months over the winter.
The Coal Trade gave Cook his introduction to London as the colliers sailed up the Thames to discharge the coal at the wharves along the north bank of the river, east of Tower Bridge. The Walkers dealt with Quaker families in Wapping and Shadwell and it is probable that Walker arranged accommodation for his crew in the area. Cook possibly stayed at the Bell Alehouse near Execution Dock in Wapping, which was owned and run by the Batts family. In 1762 the Batts' daughter Elizabeth married James Cook.
While the majority of Cook's experience was on the Tyne-Thames coal route he also visited Norway on the Three Brothers and he sailed into the Baltic Sea on the Mary. He may have even reached St. Petersburg. Cook was also on board the Three Brothers when it was commandeered to take British troops and horses from Middelburg in Zeeland to Dublin and Liverpool.
This period was crucial in Cook's life as it was now that he learned the skills in seamanship that would serve him well in the future. Cook was prepared to study and learn, which obviously impressed Walker so that a lasting friendship developed between the two men. Later Cook would write to Walker on his voyages and would visit him in Whitby between voyages. Cook's abilities singled him out and enabled him to progress from seaman to mate and he would have become a Master of one of Walker's ships had he not surprised everyone by volunteering for the Royal Navy in 1755.
Cook's mother, Grace, died in 1765 and was buried at All Saints Church, Great Ayton where five of Cook's brothers and sisters were already buried. In 1771 his father left Great Ayton and moved to live with Cook's sister Margaret who had married a Redcar fisherman called Fleck. Cook Senior died in 1779 and was buried at St. Germain's Church at Marske, near Redcar. Margaret lived until 1804 and it is from her that anyone claiming a family connection to James Cook must be descended (another sister, Christiana did marry a Mr. Cocker but it is not known whether they had any children).
When Cook returned from Newfoundland in December 1762 he married Elizabeth Batts at St. Margaret's Church in Barking. The couple made their first home at 126 Upper Shadwell and their first child was baptised in St. Paul's Church in Shadwell. When James Cook returned from Newfoundland the next year in 1763, the family moved one kilometre north to a new home at 7 Assembly Row on Mile End, between the London Hospital and Stepney Green. Assembly Row remained the Cook home until Elizabeth Cook moved to Clapham in 1788 but James Cook only spent short periods there between voyages. Later Cook children were baptised at St. Dunstan's Church in Stepney. The houses occupied by Cook have disappeared but plaques mark their locations.
When Cook was on HMS Eagle he came to Trinity House in Water Lane near Tower Bridge to sit his Master's examination. The Royal Naval Dockyard at Deptford, down river from Tower Bridge, fitted out all of Cook's ships and they all sailed from here. Further east is Greenwich where Cook spent a short period between his second and third voyages as a Captain at Greenwich Hospital. Cook is remembered in Greenwich by a permanent display at the National Maritime Museum and a statue near the Queen's House. There is another statue of Cook in Central London in the Mall outside The Admiralty, to which he would have been a regular visitor after his first and second voyages. At the other end of Whitehall, Cook is one of three Navigators remembered by a Memorial in Westminster Abbey.
Cook submitted several papers to the Royal Society and he was elected a Fellow of the Society. Cook attended their meetings at Crane Court off Fleet Street and their dinners in The Mitre Tavern nearby. The President of The Royal Society for many years was Sir Joseph Banks, who had sailed with Cook on the Endeavour voyage and Cook visited Banks' house in New Burlington Street in Mayfair. He may have also visited the Banks' family home on Paradise Row in Chelsea. Banks later lived in Soho Square.
After Cook's death Elizabeth Cook left Mile End in 1788 to live in Clapham on the High Street just north of the Common. She stayed here until her death in 1835, sharing it for most of the time with her cousin Isaac Smith.
With this background, in 1755 Cook, aged 26, surprised everyone when he left the Friendship at Wapping and enlisted as an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy. His reasons for this move and its timing remain unknown. It may have been to avoid the press-gang or he may have been ready for a change and a new challenge. His first posting was HMS Eagle under the command of Captain Joseph Hamar at Spithead off Portsmouth. Cook's ability was once again quickly identified when in July he was appointed Master's Mate. The Eagle sailed out to patrol St. George's Channel between the Scilly Isles and Cape Clear in Ireland, before returning to port at Plymouth in September 1755.
In late 1755 Hamar was replaced as Captain of HMS Eagle by Hugh Palliser. Palliser, who would feature often in Cook's life, took the Eagle out to resume patrolling, this time in the Channel's Western Approaches and the Bay of Biscay. In early March 1756 the Eagle, needing repairs, was back in Plymouth but later in the month it had set out again to patrol off Cherbourg, the Channel Islands and near the Isle de Batz off the Brittany coast. In early April, Cook wastransferred to a cutter and took part in actions near Morlaix and Les Triagoz. He was then taken on board HMS Falmouth and returned to Plymouth.
After six days in port, HMS St. Albans ferried Cook back out to the Eagle, which he rejoined on May 3rd. For several weeks they patrolled in the Bay of Biscay. Cook then helped take a captured prize, the Triton, back to London via Plymouth. He was back on board the Eagle in Plymouth in early July. The Eagle helped accompany several merchant ships down the Channel before joining the blockade off Ushant in August. Another return to Plymouth in November preceded a sortie out to the Isle of Wight at the end of December. A gale forced the Eagle into Spithead and back once more to Plymouth. In late January 1757 Captain Palliser took the Eagle out to join the patrol of the Bay of Biscay before returning to port in April.
At the end of May the Eagle sailed in company with HMS Medway. They attacked and captured a French East Indiaman, the Duc d'Aquitaine and took the prize back to Plymouth. Later in the year the Eagle sailed for North America but Cook was not aboard. His days with the Eagle were over as events were happening that would take him elsewhere.
Captain Palliser received a letter from William Osbaldestone, M.P. for Scarborough, written at John Walker's behest, suggesting that Cook be commissioned as an officer. Unfortunately a Master's Mate needed to have 6 years service before he could be considered for preferment so Cook was well short and Palliser did not himself have sufficient influence to hasten Cook's cause. Instead, Palliser did recommend Cook for a Master's warrant and Cook left HMS Eagle for London where he passed the Master's examination in June 1757.
Cook was then assigned to HMS Solebay, a 24 gun frigate commanded by Captain Robert Craig and currently in harbour at Leith near Edinburgh in Scotland. It was July 30th when Cook joined his new ship so it is probable that he made visit to his family and friends on the way north. HMS Solebay sailed from Leith on August 2nd on a patrol up the Scottish East Coast to Orkney and Shetland. The voyage kept close to the coast and the ship put in at Stonehaven and Peterhead on the mainland, Copinsay in Orkney and Fair Isle before reaching Lerwick in Shetland on August 9th. After a few days in Lerwick the Solebay returned via Stromness in Orkney to reach Leith in late August.
Cook did not sail again with the Solebay as he received a warrant transferring him to HMS Pembroke as Master. His short stay in Scotland, the country of his father, made an impression as he later used the name New Caledonia for an island in the Pacific, Caledonia being an ancient name for part of Scotland.
Cook travelled south to Portsmouth to join HMS Pembroke, 1250 tons and 64 guns, under the command of Captain John Simcoe in October 1757. The Pembroke, a new ship, sailed in December on a patrol through the Bay of Biscay to Cape Finisterre. This lasted until February 1758 when the ship returned to Plymouth. Cook's own ability and ambition undoubtedly contributed to his success but on board the Pembroke was another of the persons, who having recognised Cook's talents, helped him develop further. John Simcoe, following in the line of Skottowe, Sanderson, Walker and Palliser, gave Cook the opportunity and much encouragement to learn navigation, surveying, cartography and astronomy to add to his seamanship skills.
The Pembroke, with Cook on board, was part of the fleet under Admiral Boscawen that sailed from Plymouth in February 1758 via Tenerife in the Canary Islands and Bermuda to reach Halifax in Nova Scotia on May 9th. Despite being a new ship the Pembroke had had a rough crossing and needed repairs so it remained in port at Halifax for a month.
On June 12th 1758 the Pembroke reached Louisbourg to join the blockade of the fortress, which lasted until July 26th when the French finally surrendered. The next day Cook met Samuel Holland, an Army surveyor-engineer, surveying on the beach at Kennington Cove near Louisbourg. Cook was curious and, with Simcoe's permission, Holland began to teach Cook how to survey and draw charts. The British hesitated about pressing on to attack Quebec and, instead, made forays into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to attack other French positions. Cook and Holland were present during General Wolfe's attack on Gaspe and they surveyed the Harbour and Bay afterwards. This was James Cook's first known chart.
The British then returned to Halifax to spend the winter away from the ice and cold of the St. Lawrence. Cook would spend several of his next winters and all of 1761 in Halifax and he made charts of the Harbour. Ice detained the British early in 1759 but in May the fleet set off up the St. Lawrence for Quebec, under the command of Admiral Saunders. Tragedy struck on May 16th off Anticosti Island when Captain Simcoe died suddenly. He was replaced as Captain by Captain John Wheelock. The St. Lawrence was largely unknown to the British, except through captured charts. It was thought to be difficult to navigate so a vanguard of ships, including the Pembroke, was sent ahead to establish a route. Progress proved surprisingly quick and the British fleet anchored in The Bason just below Quebec in June.
Dislodging the French from Quebec was a much more difficult option and, over the next 11 weeks, the British tried many times and methods. Cook helped in a back-up role by ferrying troops and charting the river. Finally, on September 13th, the British made an audacious ascent to the Plains of Abraham and successfully attacked the French from the rear. Bougainville, the future French explorer of the Pacific, was Aide-de-Camp to the French General Montcalm throughout the campaign.
Cook had come to the attention of Admiral Saunders and he was soon transferred, on Saunders' orders, to the 70-gun HMS Northumberland, captained by Lord Colville. Saunders took most of the fleet back to Britain where he arranged for Cook's charts to be published. Meanwhile, Colville was left in charge of a small detachment, which sailed to Halifax to spend the winter of 1759-60 there. In April 1760 the Northumberland sailed back to Quebec and stayed up the St. Lawrence until October. It then returned to Halifax where it remained for 21 quiet and uneventful months until news arrived of a French attack on Newfoundland.
Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada, was important as a location from which to control the rich cod fishery on the nearby Grand Banks. Basque, French and British fishermen had been crossing the Atlantic for over 150 years to fish the cod and they had established settlements and fish factories around the coast. The British had nominal control of the Southeast of the island but had shown little interest in creating a permanent colony. As a final effort of the Seven Years War, and to ensure their continued interest in the cod fishery, the French captured St. John's in July 1762. Laperouse, who would become the greatest of French Pacific explorers, was in the French fleet that took St. John's. He escaped just before the British recaptured the town. News of the attack reached Nova Scotia and Colville immediately set off from Halifax in the Northumberland, with Cook aboard, to recapture Newfoundland.
The Seven Years War finished and, under the Treaty of Paris signed in February 1763, France retained the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the south coast of Newfoundland, but gave up all other claims to Canada. The Governor of Newfoundland, Thomas Graves, realised the need to have good charts of the coast, including the islands about to be passed back to France. Cook was the ideal choice to carry out the surveys and so, in May 1763, he accompanied Graves back to Newfoundland aboard the Antelope.
They reached Trepassey on June 14th where Cook transferred to HMS Tweed under Captain Douglas. He had less than two months to complete the task of surveying St. Pierre and Miquelon before they were handed over and, though he kept the French Governor waiting, Cook finished by late July. The Tweed sailed to St. John's where Governor Graves had a schooner, the Grenville, ready for Cook to begin his surveys of Newfoundland's coasts.
Graves was aware of a strong French presence around Petit-Nord (the Northern Peninsula), part of an area known as the French Shore and Cook was dispatched to make surveys. In September and October 1763 Cook charted the harbours of Croque, Noddy and Quirpon as well as Chateau Bay on the nearby Labrador coast. He then headed back to St. John's and on to London, which was reached on November 29th. Cook saw his first child, James, for the first time and the family moved to Mile End Road. Here Cook spent the winter drawing up his charts and plans.
Cook had begun what would be a regular schedule for the next few years: sail to Newfoundland in April; spend until October surveying; and return to London for the winter to produce final versions of the charts and associated sailing instructions and descriptions. Hugh Palliser, Cook's Captain on the Eagle, replaced Graves as Governor of Newfoundland and he and Cook sailed together on the Lark in May 1764 for St. John's.
1764 would be Cook's first full summer in Newfoundland and, having collected the Grenville, he sailed back up to Petit-Nord to begin surveying at Quirpon. He worked his way meticulously along the coast past Cape Onion, Pistolet Bay and Cape Norman as far as Pointe Ferolle before turning back in October. In August Cook had an accident at Unfortunate Cove when a powderhorn exploded damaging his hand (it was the scars from this injury that helped identify his remains after his death in Hawaii in 1779). Cook was rushed to Noddy Bay for treatment. Cook sailed the Grenville back to London where it was changed from a schooner to a brig. Cook arrived on the same day his second son, Nathaniel, was born.
Instead of continuing where he left off at Pointe Ferolle, Cook was directed to the south of Newfoundland when he returned in April 1765. The British had fears of renewed French activity out of their base at St. Pierre-Miquelon so Governor Palliser wanted the South Coast investigated first. In June, Cook began surveying at St. Lawrence on the Burin Peninsula and proceeded round the Peninsula past Lawn Bay, Lamaline, Fortune and Garnish into Fortune Bay. The Grenville ran aground in Long Harbour at the head of Fortune Bay and needed repairs. Cook carefully sailed the boat through Belle Bay, past Harbour Breton into Bay d'Espoir (Despair Bay) where repairs were carried out in Ship Cove (present day St. Albans). The season was over so Cook sailed for London, reaching the Thames on December 17th.
Cook sailed west again in April 1766 and was off Cape Race on May 29th. He proceeded to Bonne Bay, next to Bay d'Espoir where he had finished the previous year. From Bonne Bay, Cook surveyed west along the South Coast to Cape Ray and Cape Anguille, the southwest points of the island. Numerous bays including La Poile, Connoire, Facheux and White Bear were investigated, as were the island groups of Penguin, Ramea and Burgeo.
At the Burgeo Islands an auspicious event took place for Cook. Arriving at the islands in fog, it cleared just in time for Cook to observe a solar eclipse, the details of which he wrote up as a paper that Dr. John Bevis read to the Royal Society in London in April 1767. In this way Cook's name was brought to the attention of the Royal Society, the body that would be involved with sending the expedition to the South Pacific in 1768. On his way back to London Cook called in at St. John's where the frigate Niger was in port with Joseph Banks (Cook's Endeavour passenger) on board, but it is not certain whether the two men met at this time. Cook sailed on and was in London on November 30th 1766.
Cook was back in Newfoundland by May 1767 but the crossing had not been without incident as the Grenville had collided with a collier, the Three Sisters, while still in the Thames. Cook began at Cape Anguille in the southwest and worked up the West Coast towards Pointe Ferolle (previously charted in 1764), thus filling in the gap on this coast. Pointe Ferolle was reached in the August and Cook made his way back to the Bay of Islands, where he stayed for a month. He even made a rare trip inland rowing up the Humber River to Deer Lake. Leaving the Bay in September he sailed via St. John's and, having nearly run aground in the Thames near Sheerness, he was in London on November 15th 1767.
Cook did not return to Newfoundland and his assistant, Matthew Lane, completed what remained to be surveyed. Their combined charts were published in 1770. Cook had started his surveying career in a careful and correct fashion. As well as the charts themselves he recorded detailed sailing instructions in and out of every harbour, recommended new harbours and new fishing grounds and provided much other useful information. He used, wherever possible, local knowledge, employing local pilots or sailors to show channels, sandbanks, etc and to learn existing local names for places and features. He had been able to develop his leadership skills including the need for a healthy and happy crew, the brewing of spruce beer being a regular activity. Cook had also met local Beothuk and Micmac people giving him his first experiences of communicating with non-European peoples.
On Newfoundland there are many features and localities with Cook in the title but by no means all can be linked with James Cook. Cook's Harbour at the top of Petit-Nord and Cook's Brook and the Cook Ponds in the Bay of Islands are named for Cook. It is not so certain for Cook's Lookout at Burin and Cook Hill near Bonne Bay. There is a memorial to Cook on Crow Hill overlooking the Humber River in the Bay of Islands. A Captain Cook's Trail runs west along the south side of the Humber as far as Bottle Cove near Lark Harbour. A small memorial to Cook marks the end of the trail.
Since the acceptance of the earth being a sphere, there had been a theory that there had to be as much landmass in the southern hemisphere as was known in the north otherwise the world was unbalanced. People in Europe postulated that there was a southern continent waiting to be discovered and for its minerals, spices and other resources to be exploited. This Terra australis incognita was thought to stretch across most of the southern Pacific and include New Holland (Australia).
The Royal Society had no ships of its own to send to the Pacific and the Admiralty was approached to provide a vessel. The Admiralty agreed to participate in the voyage but would not agree to a non-Royal Navy person such as Dalrymple being in charge of one of their ships. In April 1768 a Whitby-built cat, previously a collier, was purchased as the ship for the voyage and renamed the Endeavour. James Cook was appointed by the Admiralty to command the venture later in April and presented to the Royal Society for their approval on May 5th. The Society had little choice but Cook's experience, ability and his having presented a paper to the Society helped to ease their acceptance of him. Dalrymple, though, was not so easily placated and remained convinced that only he could and should have commanded the expedition.
In May 1768 Captain Samuel Wallis returned to Britain from a voyage to the Pacific and reported favourably about the island of Tahiti, which lay in the ideal location for observing the Transit of Venus. Cook was promoted to Lieutenant on May 25th and took charge of HMB Endeavour the following day. The Endeavour was prepared for the voyage at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Deptford. As well as its Naval crew the ship had to accommodate extra persons, including Charles Green from the Royal Observatory who would be the astronomer aboard. Joseph Banks, a rich and enthusiastic botanist, had gained permission and was paying for himself and a retinue to sail.
On July 30th 1768 Cook received his secret instructions from the Admiralty and made ready to sail to the Pacific to observe the Transit of Venus and to search for Terra australis incognita, the Great Southern Continent.