As for Cook, he was now 47 years old and, though much recovered, he was no longer the fit man who had sailed in the Endeavour. He was sailing against the wishes of his wife Elizabeth, who had just given birth to their sixth child, Hugh, in May 1776. Two other boys were still alive, James now 12 and Nathaniel now 11, while Elizabeth, Joseph and George had already died.
The crew chosen to sail on the Resolution included as First Lieutenant John Gore, who had sailed with Cook on the Endeavour. Not included on the Second Voyage, Gore had taken Banks and Solander on their scientific expedition to Iceland. The other Lieutenants were James King, who would later edit the Journals of this Voyage, and James Williamson. No scientists were taken (possibly Cook refused to have any on board after his experiences with the Forsters on the previous voyage) and Surgeon William Anderson doubled as naturalist and ethnologist. John Webber sailed as artist while Midshipman Henry Roberts proved skilled at drafting charts. The most famous person on board, other than Cook, was William Bligh, the Master, who would later gain notoriety as Captain of HMS Bounty and Governor of New South Wales.
With Clerke on the Discovery were Lieutenants James Burney and John Rickman. The ship's Master was Thomas Edgar and its Surgeon was David Samwell. The Surgeon's assistant, William Ellis, contributed many drawings. William Bayly was the Astronomer and David Nelson was aboard to collect botanical specimens for Joseph Banks. George Vancouver, who would later lead his own expeditions to the Pacific, was a Midshipman.
While wine, water and supplies were taken on board the ship Cook met Captain Borda, a Frenchman who was using chronometers to fix the longitude of the island's Pico de Teide. This mountain had long been used by sailors as the base marker for determining longitude when setting out on their voyages so it was important that its co-ordinates were as accurate as possible.
Sailing again on August 4th the Resolution made for the Cape Verde Islands but Cook and his crew were taken by surprise when, on the 10th, they nearly ran aground on Boa Vista Island. Either Cook or the ship's Master, William Bligh, was guilty of an unusually slack piece of sailing but disaster was avoided and the ship sailed on. Cook paused outside Port Praia on Sao Tiago Island but decided not to call in and pressed on to the south. The Equator was crossed in early September and the ship then steered for the Brazilian coast.
Cook kept a course down this coast before making a large sweep across the South Atlantic to Cape Town. This leg was uneventful except for sightings of birds on October 8th, suggesting to the crew that they were near Gough Island (discovered 45 years earlier but whose exact location was uncertain). They were in fact closer to Tristan da Cunha. On October 17th Africa was sighted and the Resolution arrived at Cape Town the following day. The ship had been leaking and needed repairing. Cook was entertained by the Governor and wrote letters to Britain, which were taken north by French ships then in port.
The Discovery, meanwhile, had finally sailed from Plymouth on August 1st three weeks after Cook. The ship was delayed further by gales close to Cape Town after an otherwise straightforward voyage and reached port on November 10th. It also needed repairs.
The stock animals were taken ashore but sheep and cattle were stolen, forcing Cook to buy replacements. Anderson and Nelson went on a botanical and scientific expedition to Stellenbosch and Paarl in the hinterland. An observatory was set up ashore but the same gale wrecked it that delayed Clerke; fortunately the instruments were rescued.
After the experiences on the previous voyage when the ships had been separated Cook gave Clerke instructions that they should rendezvous at Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand should they be parted on the next stage of the voyage. Cook had met Crozet, a French Captain, at Cape Town in 1775 who had shown him charts and told him about French exploration and discoveries in the Southern Ocean. Cook sailed on December 1st to investigate those discoveries.
A high small isle, Kerguelen's Ile de Croy, emerged from fog on December 24th. The ships worked round this and several other small isles and rocks including Ilot du Rendezvous (Bligh's Cap) before anchoring in the first harbour encountered on the main island. This was Baie de l'Oiseau but given the date Cook called it Christmas Harbour. They stayed for four days finding water, seals and many birds, especially penguins, but no trees or shrubs. Surgeon Anderson, in his capacity as naturalist, produced the first of many excellent reports on natural history. A bottle was found, left by Kerguelen, and Cook added his own message. Cook climbed Table Mount but the views afforded were only of snow-covered mountains, glaciers and rocks.
On the 29th they sailed along the North coast past many inlets and islands to anchor in an inlet that Cook called Port Palliser. Cook went ashore while Bligh surveyed the harbour. Sailing again they rounded a large peninsula and went a little way down the island's East coast before striking off to the East on December 30th 1776. Cook called this inhospitable island Isle of Desolation but the name Kerguelen Island has become the accepted norm. The largest glacier on the island is called Cook Glacier.
They crossed a large bay, now known as D'Entrecasteaux Channel but called Storm Bay by Cook, before rounding Penguin Island to anchor in Adventure Bay on January 26th. Cook and the crew went ashore and obtained plenty of wood and water from around the bay and Penguin Island. After three days local Aboriginal people visited the parties ashore but communication was nearly impossible. Cook realised that these people were similar to those he had met further north seven years earlier but he described various differences. More locals visited the next day, including women and children. On the 30th Cook sailed, crossing (modern) Storm Bay and past Tasman Peninsula before making for New Zealand. He had not realised that his landing spot had been on a small island, later to be called Bruny Island.
When Cook had sailed in the Endeavour in 1770 across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand to New Holland (as it then was) he had intended to make land at Van Diemen's Land but conditions had forced him north instead. In 1773 Furneaux had only sailed along the South and East coasts and Cook had reproached him for not investigating the possibility of Van Diemen's Land being an island. Now when he himself had the chance to explore he sailed off instead to New Zealand. This was, perhaps, the first indication that, on this voyage, Cook had lost some of his drive and curiosity.
It would be left to Bass and Flinders in the late 1790s to show that Tasmania, as the land was later named, was indeed an island. Various things around Adventure Bay mark Cook's visit; Cook Creek, Cookville and Mount Cook. Bligh, the Resolution's Master, would return later in his own ship and a museum records that and visits by other European explorers, including Cook.
Crossing the Tasman Sea the Discovery lost a marine, George Moody, overboard before Rocks Point on the West coast of Te Wai Pounamu, New Zealand, was sighted on February 10th. The ships sailed round Cape Farewell to anchor in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound on the 12th. The Maori were from the same tribe or iwi that had been in the sound during the previous visit in 1774 and, while they came to the ships, they were very wary. Cook realised that the Maori expected retaliation or utu for the attack carried out at Grass Cove on that last voyage when men in Furneaux's crew had been killed. Members of Cook's crew and Omai, the Tahitian aboard, also expected Cook to take some action but he surprised them all by not doing so. Instead he even entertained Kahura, the local Chief suspected of leading the attack. Cook did set a guard of marines every time a party went ashore.
An observatory was set up and spruce beer was brewed at Ship Cove. Gradually a small village grew up as the Maori became friendlier and many moved to live at the cove. The ships were carrying many farm animals destined to be gifts to people of the Pacific and much grass and hay needed to be taken on board as feed. Cook was keen to know the progress of gardens he had planted on Motuara Island but, on visiting, he found the island deserted and the gardens untended.
Cook also visited Grass Cove (Whareunga) to inspect the site where Rowe and other members of the Adventure's crew had been killed. He wondered about a longer trip to find the source of the greenstone (or pounamu that gave the South Island its local name Te Wai Pounamu) but did not go. Cook was ready to depart and on February 24th he stood off Motuara Island before sailing out of the Sound the next day for, what would prove for Cook, the last time.
Sailing on northwards they saw another island, Atiu, two days later but lack of wind delayed their arrival there. Cook again sent Gore off to attempt to land on Atiu but the reef stopped them getting ashore. A double canoe brought a Chief out to the ships. He presented Cook with a pig and made a speech asking for a dog. Mai gave the Chief one of his dogs. On April 3rd canoes took Gore, Anderson, Mai and Burney ashore where the sailors were presented to three Chiefs. They stayed all day on the beach while an umukai was prepared for them. Mai feared they were about to be eaten but eventually they were returned unharmed to the ships.
Cook left on the April 4th for a smaller sandy isle that could be seen to the northwest. The animals needed feed and Gore obtained scurvy grass and coconuts. This isle, Takutea, was uninhabited. Cook then sailed north for Manuae (his Hervey Island that he had visited four years earlier), which he reached on April 6th. It was now inhabited, which surprised Cook as he had seen no signs of life in 1773.
The ships set sail west towards Tonga via Palmerston Atoll, off which they anchored on April 14th. More grass and young coconut palms were collected as feed for the animals from Tom's and Cook's Isles before the ships continued on their way on the 17th. Cook never visited Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, nor any of the Northern Cooks.
Finau, who would prove a regular companion for Cook over the next few weeks, accompanied him on the Resolution. Reefs and shoals forced Cook round Kotu and then, with care, he sailed east between Fotuha'a and Lofanga. On May 17th the Resolution anchored off the northern end on Lifuka and Cook went ashore near Kuolo. Over the next few days there were feasts and entertainments, such as dancing, boxing and wrestling, and the British let off fireworks. Afterwards it emerged that the entertainments had been part of a plot to kill Cook but the Tongans could not agree about the time or the method and Cook escaped. Finau left to go north to the Vava'u Group of islands but lied to Cook about suitable anchorages there for Cook's ships when Cook wanted to accompany him. Cook instead decide to sail south and made a stop at the southern end of Lifuka.
Fatafehi Paulaho, the Tu'i Tonga (a King), suddenly arrived and, after gift exchanges and ceremonies, they all sailed south. Bligh recommended that they should return the way they came to avoid more reefs, so they made for Niniva and Fotuha'a before heading to Lofunga. There was supposed to be a safe anchorage but none was located. They continued on to be, on May 30th, off Kotu where conditions forced them to ply back and forth. Many of the Tongans on board were alarmed and they were put ashore on Kotu.
Cook arrived back at Nomuka on June 5th where he was rejoined the next day by Finau and, on the 7th, by the Tu'i Tonga. Cook was able to observe the hierarchy of Tongan Society and the protocols involved. On the 8th they all departed for Tongatapu, passing the two outlying islands of Hunga Ha'apai and Hunga Tonga. Tongatapu was sighted on June 9th. Tongan pilots on board helped Cook bring the ships through the reefs to a safe anchorage off Holeva Point on the North Coast of the island.
The British were welcomed by the Tu'i Tonga. Cook arranged for the animals to be taken ashore and had an observatory erected near the Point. He himself visited Pangaimotu for water and arranged for repairs to be carried out on the ships. However, during the stay on Tongatapu more of the signs of a differently behaved Cook appeared. He stayed on the island for a month doing little except taking part in feasts and entertainments. His drive to be always exploring and investigating seemed to dry up and stories about nearby and yet unvisited island groups, such as Samoa and Fiji, failed to fire Cook's imagination. Also, Cook's tolerance and good nature were not in evidence, as he reacted to the prevalent thieving by having offenders flogged and taking hostages until items were returned.
On June 12th, Cook was taken, in the King's canoe, to visit Maealiuaki (the King's father) at Mu'a on the central lagoon. A banyan tree (Captain Cook's Tree) and a monument mark the visit. Unfortunately Maealiuaki was not present but he did appear at Holeva the next day. A further round of entertaining followed with Cook making gifts of cattle, sheep and horses to the Tu'i, Maealiuaki and Finau.
All repairs had been completed by June 25th but Cook decided to wait to observe a solar eclipse on July 5th, which was only partly successfully recorded. The ships were then loaded but could not sail, so Cook was invited by the Tu'i to a ceremony for one of his sons at Mu'a that lasted two days.
Finally on July 10th the ships sailed but only make slow progress via the Piha Passage out to the east. They came to 'Eua on the 12th where they were welcomed by Ta'aufa'a. Already, they needed fresh water but found little on the island. Cook went across to and climbed a hill from which he admired the island. His servant, William Collett, was attacked and robbed so Cook decided to leave, sailing on July 17th.
Three days later on August 12th Mehetia and the southernmost end of Tahiti Iti were sighted. The ships anchored near Tautira at the mouth of the Vaitepiha River the next day. Cook was welcomed warmly. However, the previous Chief or Vehiatua had died and had been replaced by his brother who was not present at that moment. The British learned that Spanish ships from Peru had made two visits since their own last visit and that the Spanish had made attempts to convert islanders to Roman Catholic Christianity.
On August 23rd, Cook transferred to Matavai Bay where crews set about general repairs and restocking. Cook soon found himself being entertained by and entertaining local dignitaries, of whom Tu was still the Paramount Chief. At the time of Cook's previous visit a warfleet had been assembled with the purpose of attacking Moorea and Cook was now informed that the conflict was still happening. The fleet's commander To'ofa tried to involve Cook but, to To'ofa's disgust, Cook declined. Instead he accepted an invitation to attend a ceremony at Atehuru Marae where a human sacrifice was made to the gods to gain assistance against Moorea.
To'ofa went across to Moorea and engaged in a short battle before a peace was declared, prompting another ceremony that Cook, being ill, was unable to attend. Tu's female relatives gave Cook a series of massages and he recovered.
Mahine then appeared and, during the welcome, he asked for goats. A short time later two animals were stolen, which lead to a series of incidents. One goat disappeared completely and so did Mahine. Cook was informed they had gone to the south of the island and dispatched two midshipmen to recover the goat. They returned empty-handed so Cook, by now angry, marched over the island's central hills himself to Maatea but even he did not find the goat. He then returned via the West Coast burning some houses and destroying several canoes along the way in an uncharacteristic display of temper. Cook went on to Paopao Bay (now known as Baie de Cook) and destroyed more canoes before, eventually, the goat was recovered. Cook was ready to leave and did so on October 11th.
The ships arrived at Fare on Huahine to find that Cook's friend Ori was no longer the Chief. Their reason for visiting Huahine was to install Mai on the island. Land was purchased and the ships' carpenters set about building him a house. On November 2nd Cook sailed leaving a sad Mai with his retinue.
Chief Orio welcomed the ships to Raiatea. Cook stayed for a month, prolonged by the desertion of crew members and the time taken for search parties to locate them. Cook went after two men to Tahaa only to find they had gone on to Tupai. Another man went round to eastern Raiatea. Cook had never landed on Bora Bora and, on December 7th, he headed there from Raiatea. Cook had heard that Chief Puni of Bora Bora had acquired an anchor from one of Bougainville's ships. Cook wished to purchase it so he would have a source of iron.
On December 8th they stood off the West Coast of Bora Bora as winds and tides prevented them entering Teavanui Harbour. Cook went ashore in a small boat but had to wait for the anchor to be retrieved from Teveiora Island. Various gifts, including sheep, were exchanged before Cook sailed north, leaving the Society Islands for the last time.
As they crossed the Equator on December 22nd Captain Clerke and Surgeon Anderson were already very ill with tuberculosis. On the 24th they came to a new island and they anchored off its southwest point. After the Masters had sounded the coast and a large lagoon, the ships were moved north to a new anchorage. An observatory was set up on a small isle, Cook Island, where Cook sighted a solar eclipse on December 30th, 1777. Parties went ashore on what was an uninhabited, hot and fairly-barren island to collect fish and turtles. Two seamen, delirious because of sunstroke and lack of water, were lost for over 24 hours. Cook left a note in a bottle to record his visit to Christmas Island, as he named the island. The ships sailed north on January 2nd 1778.
Cook was amazed to find he could communicate with the Hawaiians, another example of the Polynesian diaspora. He speculated about the sailing and navigation ability of the Polynesians that had enabled them to spread all round the Pacific. The crews began obtaining water while Cook was taken a little way up the Waimea Valley and shown a Heiau (but not far enough to see the dramatic Waimea Canyon). Returning to the beach Cook found everyone trading. Waimea now has a statue of Cook in the middle of town, and a cairn in Lucy Wright Beach Park marks the spot where Cook landed.
Cook raised the Resolution's anchor on January 23rd and moved west looking for a better mooring. Strong winds drove them back and, after regaining the Discovery, the ships sailed across to the neighbouring island of Nihau. Conditions were difficult and it took until the 29th to reach Nihau. Bligh was dispatched near the southeastern point, Kawaihoa Point, to find a landing and water. Cook meantime sailed round the point and anchored between Pahau and Leahi Points near Keelinawai.
Gore went ashore first but heavy surf prevented returning to the ship or Cook joining him ashore. Cook did get ashore the next day and went for a walk, climbing Mauuloa, a small hill. On February 2nd the ships sailed north having, at first, been forced south towards Kaula.
Cook's lack of activity earlier in Tonga and the Society Islands was partly attributable to his realisation that he needed to be heading into northern waters in February-March so as to be able to reach Arctic waters in the northern summer months of July and August. He had reached the Pacific too late in 1777 and so had had to find other activities to fill his time. It was the reverse of his previous experience of high latitude sailing as, before now, he had only been south of the Equator in the South Pacific and he was now moving into new waters.
Cook did have, to help him, a copy of Muller's map of the North Pacific that showed the paths and discoveries of the Russian voyages of 1741, as well as some of the Spanish discoveries further south. In 1741 Bering, who had previously shown that the Bering Strait lay between Asia and America, took two ships on an expedition east from Kamchatka. His ship, the St. Peter, was soon separated from the St. Paul, under Chirikov, but both ships sailed on to make some discoveries on the American mainland.
The Spanish had sailed north from their base at Monterey in California to explore the coast and to lay claims to new lands. Among many inlets shown on their charts was a large bay, seen by Juan de Fuca at 49°N.
Before gales forced them further out to sea on March 13th Cook identified a larger cape as Cape Blanco, named by Martin de Agualar. Having established his bearings Cook turned north and regained the coast on the 22nd at 47°N. He sighted some rocks, the Flattery Rocks, near a headland he called Cape Flattery before being driven off the coast again by a series of gales that lasted several days. Cook was mistakenly dismissive of the Spanish charts and records and was not to know that Cape Flattery was the southern entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait as depicted on Muller's chart.
Several days later they steered towards snow-covered, mountainous land, being in need of a harbour in which to repair the ships. A midshipman on the Discovery, George Vancouver, would sail into Juan de Fuca Strait 15 years later and show that the land Cook was now approaching was, in fact, an island. It would be named Vancouver Island after him, and in Victoria, the island's largest city there is a statue of Cook in front of the Empress Hotel near the Inner Harbour. There is also a Captain Cook Room in the British Columbia Maritime Museum.
As Cook approached land on March 29th he described a stretch of coast between Point Estevan and Woody Point as Hope Bay (a name no longer used) and steered into an inlet near Point Estevan. Cook's Woody Point was later renamed Cape Cook. It lies on the Brooks Peninsula where there is also a Cape Clerke and a Solander Island.
Lack of wind necessitated the ships being towed into the inlet,Nootka Sound. The inlet divided into several channels, where Cook and King looked for an anchorage before Cook settled on a small cove near the entrance of the right-hand channel, the Zuclarte Channel. This was Ship Cove, later called Resolution Cove. Over 30 canoes full of local people paddled around the ships as they arrived and trading commenced immediately. The local people were selling animal skins, especially those of the sea otter (sea beaver).
For two very wet weeks the crews worked to replace rigging and masts using timber that was felled from coniferous forests growing down to the water's edge. The local people were, for once, not Polynesian but North American Indian (or Native American) and communication was difficult. Gradually though communication was established and Surgeon Anderson produced a vocabulary of the local language but a mistake was made about the name of the place and the people. Cook thought it was Nootka (or Nutka) and the inlet became Nootka Sound (Cook called it King George's Sound but the name soon lapsed). On April 20th Cook set off to explore and went first to the village of Yuquot in Friendly Cove near the mouth of the inlet. The British were made very welcome and shown all around the village and into houses. From Yuquot they rowed up Cook Channel past the Saavedra Islands and across the mouths of the Kendrick and Tahsis Channels. Cook remarked that the trees here were the tallest he had ever seen (probably Douglas Firs). They landed at another village where they received a much cooler reception. Proceeding, they realised that they had rounded an island (Bligh Island) against which they were anchored. More Nootkans visited the ships, entertaining them with music from their canoes. Many features in Nootka Sound now carry names associated with people from the visit.
The next day a mountain was observed and called Mount Edgcombe. It is on Kruzof Island, to the east of Baranof Island. Cook could see many small inlets and channels, such as Olga Strait and Salisbury Sound, and speculated about them joining up to form islands of the visible land. Cook had reached Alaska. The islands to the north were Chichagof and Yakobi where Chirikov may have landed and where some of his men may have been stranded 37 years earlier. Cape Cross and Cross Sound, seen on May 3rd, mark the northern end of the islands.
The coast had begun trending more to the northwest and a high mountain, Mount Fairweather, dominated this part of it. They were approaching the area explored by Bering and, as yet, had seen no likely Passage. Cook was having difficulty identifying features on the chart with what he could see, but on the 5th he saw another snow-covered mountain ahead that he equated with Bering's Mount St. Elias. Cook was confused though about a bay on the chart visited by Bering. Dry, Yakutat and Icy Bays were all possibilities but Yakutat Bay is most likely. A mountain overlooking Yakutat Bay is called Mount Cook.
On May 10th the Resolution and the Discovery approached some islands and a headland (called Cape Suckling by Cook after the Navy Controller). Cook was keen to repair leaks and landed briefly on the largest island but decided to sail on. He left a bottle with some coins on the island, which he called Kayes' Island but is now known as Kayak Island.
The ships sailed on May 17th and waited off Bligh Island before heading southwest, having given up on the inlet being the Passage. Cook called the inlet Sandwich Sound but the Earl of Sandwich later changed it to Prince William Sound. Cook sailed through the Montague Strait past Green Island and between Montague Island and the mainland.
King landed at Possession Point, near Fire Island and buried a bottle. On the return journey south Cook nearly ran aground on shoals but by June 6th he had left the inlet tha the Earl of Sandwich later directed should be called Cook's River. George Vancouver changed it to Cook Inlet. Anchorage, at the head of Cook Inlet, has a statue of Cook in Resolution Park.
Passing the Barren Islands to be back in the open ocean, Cook was concerned that the trend of the coast was now to the southwest and, instead of being in latitude 65°N, he was now at 58°N and sailing south. Valuable time for exploring higher latitudes appeared to be disappearing quickly. He sailed to the east of land, not aware that it was a cluster of islands separated from the mainland by Shelikof Strait. The two largest islands are Kodiak Island and Afognak Island. Cook identified Bering's St. Hermogenes with Marmot Island, off Afognak Island. Fog slowed their progress as they crossed Marmot Bay between the two larger islands and passed down the coast of Kodiak Island. Sightings of land were confused and infrequent but, on June 14th , Cook was able to sail west, passing Sitkinak and Tugidak Islands. Cook called these the Trinity Islands.
The presence of Russians in the area was demonstrated when local people, Aleuts, approached them in kayaks and passed on notes written in Russian. Rocks and breakers forced the ships south of the Sanek Islands (Cook's Halibut Island). Fog continued to slow progress but on June 21st a volcano, Shishaldin, on Unimak Island, the first island in the Aleutian Chain was seen. After two more days Cook approached the western end of Unimak but turned back before realising there was a passage through Unimak Pass to the north. Instead he steered south of the Krenitzin Islands and on the 26th was lucky to anchor off Sedanka Island having narrowly avoided large rocks in thick fog.
The next day they changed their anchorage to one between Egg and Sedanka Islands. They sailed north through Unalga Pass before taking shelter in Samgoonoodha Harbour (English Bay) on Unalaska Island. Here they met more Aleuts, with whom they traded, before Cook sailed north out into the Bering Sea on July 2nd.
The ships continued past the Walrus and Round Islands and sighted Calm Point on Hagemeister Island on July 13th before stopping near a headland. Cook sent Williamson ashore to climb it, Cape Newenham, from where he could see the coastline, stretching to the north. Cook attempted to sail north into Kuskokwim Bay but shoals prevented him doing so and he turned west past Nunivak Island.
On July 29th the Resolution and the Discovery neared the island of St. Matthew in the Bering Sea. While Cook did have maps on board he was not happy with their accuracy and mistakenly called the island Bird Island. The ships then headed northeast but there was sadness on August 3rd when the surgeon, and one of Cook's favourites, William Anderson, died. Shortly after, another island was sighted that Cook, unsure of his position, called Anderson Island (it was Bering's St. Lawrence Island). Sailing on, they approached the Alaskan shore and anchored near a small island on the 5th. Going ashore, they found a sledge, which gave the island its name, Sledge Island.
Following the coast northwards past Cape Rodney and King Island the ships came to Bering Strait on August 8th. Cook called the westernmost point of America (unseen by Bering) Cape Prince of Wales before passing the Diomede Islands to reach the Asian Coast. The ships worked southwest to an inlet, St. Lawrence Bay, where Cook landed for a few hours and met some of the local Chukchi people. Returning to sea Cook sailed back through the Bering Strait on August 11th past the East Cape (Cape Dezhneva) of Asia into the Chukchi Sea and the Arctic Ocean. He headed northeast to Alaska and came to the coast again near the Mulgrave Hills.
In increasingly cold conditions they sailed north and round Cape Lisburne hoping to find the Northwest Passage but on August 18th near Icy Cape and at 70°44'N ice fields stopped their progress. Cook turned and, for ten days, he sailed west across the Arctic Ocean but the ice prevented any attempts to go any further north. Cook had not found the Northwest Passage but he was probably the first person to have crossed both the 70° lines of latitude.
Sailing on, Cook headed east, possibly to have a final search for the Passage in that part of the Alaskan coast he had not already investigated. On September 8th the ships passed to the south of Cape Darby and entered a large bay. This was Norton Bay, the inner part of Norton Sound. Cook anchored in two places, near Capes Darby and Denbigh, and he went ashore. He sent parties to explore possible "passages" such as Koyuk River. They met local people at Shaktoolik.
By now Cook despaired of the Russian maps he was using and decided to sail south to winter in the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. He sailed south on the 17th round Norton Sound and past Cape Stephens and Stuart Island into waters that shoaled. Cook decided to give them a wide berth and sailed west thus avoiding the shallows off the Yukon Delta that protrudes out into the Bering Sea. He sighted a point to the south and named it Point Shallow Water (probably Cape Romanov).
On September 20th they were off St. Lawrence Island yet again and also sighted the Punuk Islets off its eastern cape. They tried unsuccessfully to land. Three days later they were back at St. Matthew Island (Cook now called it Gore's Island) where they saw and named the nearby Hall Island and Pinnacle Rocks.
They pressed on and after four gruelling months in Arctic waters Cook arrived back at Unalaska on October 2nd. They entered Unalaska Bay on the north coast where the Russians had a post at Dutch Harbour/Unalaska but Cook left straight away without attempting contact. He moved back to Samgoonoodha at the eastern end of the island. Work began refitting both ships. Notes in Russian were received and on the 8th Cook sent John Ledyard to Unalaska to make enquiries. Ledyard returned with three Russians with whom communication was possible if difficult. Another Russian, the Factor Gerassim Gregoriev Ismailov, came with charts from which Cook made copies, especially of the Aleutian Islands. Cook pointed out the errors in Muller's and Stahlin's maps that he had been using. Ismailov gave Cook letters of introduction to the Governor of Kamchatka while Cook wrote a letter to the Admiralty, which he asked Ismailov to forward across Russia (it reached London!).
The Resolution and the Discovery sailed along the north coast of Maui to stand off Kahulu from where many canoes came to visit the ships. After moving east to be near the northeast point of the island, Cook was visited by Kalani'opu'u, the King of the Island of Hawaii, and by Kamehameha, the future King of the whole Hawaiian chain.
Cook decided to visit Hawaii Island and as he approached Opolu Point on December 1st he could see the snow-covered volcano of Mauna Kea. For unknown reasons Cook now began a slow clockwise circumnavigation of the island without trying to land, even though the ships were leaking. The nature of the coast made it hard to land and strong winds made it difficult for the ships to stay together. They had reached Cape Kumukahi, the easternmost point on the island, by December 19th only to be forced back north. Working their way south they rounded the south of the island in early January 1779, passing Ka Lae on the 5th. Reaching the West Coast they sailed north before Cook asked Bligh to sound a large bay that might prove an anchorage. Bligh reported favourably, and on January 17th the Resolution and the Discovery anchored in Kealakekua Bay. The ships' crews were all very tired and more than ready to go ashore. They had not understood why Cook had skirted the island for six weeks without landing.
The reception by the Hawaiians remains a topic for speculation and debate by American academics. They continue to argue as to whether Cook was regarded as a God by the Hawaiian people. Certainly the ships were greeted by a flotilla of over 1000 canoes and Cook was welcomed ashore by Chiefs Palea and Kanina and the Priests Koaa and Keli'ikea in a ceremony at Hikiau Heiau. Cook arrived at the time of Makahiki, a part of the year associated with the Hawaiian God Lono, and, while people accorded Cook a special status and treated him with reverence, the debate exists as to whether Cook was actually equated with Lono.
Land near the heiau was acquired for an observatory and as a work area for repairs. Relations were most cordial and trade was brisk. On January 25th King Kalani'opu'u appeared (Cook had met him previously off Maui) and settled at Kaawaloa across the bay. Gifts were exchanged the next day near the heiau at Napoopoo.
Things began to deteriorate on February 1st. Relations were seriously harmed by members of crew not respecting local religious sensibilities when, collecting firewood, they took fence posts and wooden carvings from the heiau. Then William Watman, a sailor, died and was buried near the heiau, showing the mortality of the Europeans.
Cook realised it was time to leave and did so on February 4th. They were escorted by canoes and the Priest Koaa came on board to sail with them. Before they had cleared the north of the island gales began and Bligh took Koaa ashore in Kaiwaihoe Bay. The gales continued and broke the Resolution's mast, forcing Cook to return, reluctantly, to Kealakekua Bay where Kamehameha received him on the 11th.
Their reception this time was not so warm. The British had already overstayed their welcome and King Kalani'upu'u made known his displeasure at the return. Relations were now strained and incidents began to happen. Thieving became more frequent and shore parties were harrassed. After one incident Cook went ashore at Kaawaloa early in the morning of February 14th, intending to take the King hostage. Before Cook could return to his ship a fight broke out on the foreshore in which he, four marines and several Hawaiians died.
Charles Clerke assumed command of the Resolution with Gore switching to take charge of the Discovery. Everyone was in a state of shock but Clerke quickly decided to take no reprisals, instead concentrating on recovering the remains of Cook and the marines. Cook had been dismembered and his body parts distributed to various people so their retrieval took time. The Priest Koaa acted as an intermediary and, on the 20th , some parts of Cook were handed over. The parts included the hand burned 16 years earlier in Newfoundland, which acted as a proof of identity. Cook was buried in the waters of Kealakekua Bay on February 21st and the ships sailed the next day. Relations between the two sides were largely restored.
On 2 March the ships anchored again at Waimea on Kauai. Their reception was cool and the British wondered if the news of Cook's death had preceded them. Hundreds gathered on the beach to watch the crew get water. However, a "civil war" had just occurred and matters had not yet settled down. Contact gradually improved and many pigs were obtained. Queen Tu'mutta'ha'no, recently restored to power, visited the ships and gifts were exchanged.
Clerke wanted more yams for the voyage ahead and felt Nihau would provide a better source so on March 8th the ships sailed across to anchor near Leahi Point. They landed but found that yams were in short supply. The ships were caulked while Bligh located another anchorage further north, near Nonopapa. Clerke, though, was ready to leave but before he sailed canoes arrived from Queen Tu'mutta'ha'no of Kauai laden with yams and pigs.
The Resolution and the Discovery set sail for Kamchatka on March 15th intending to make Petropavlosk in Avacha Bay their base for a renewed search for the Northwest Passage. Sailing west from Nihau, brief but unsuccessful efforts were made to locate another islet beyond Kaula from where the Hawaiians obtained turtles. Continuing, the ships held a westerly course until they reached 180°W and there struck northwards. After this sweep of the North Pacific, where no land was seen, the ships approached Kamchatka on April 24th but fog separated the ships and delayed their arrival.
Emissaries arrived from the Governor inviting them to visit but, given Clerke's failing health, it was King, Gore and Webber who left on May 7th for Bol'sheretsk. The party used boats to go up the Avacha River as far as Karatchin, from where sledges took them over to Nachiki. Reverting to canoes, they travelled down past Apacha to the Sea of Okhotsk. On May 12th they were met and entertained by Governor Behm. After four days they returned, accompanied by the Governor who met Clerke on board the Resolution on May 16th.
In the meantime Clerke had been receiving milk and cheese from a Priest at Paratunka and, on May 31st, Gore and Samwell led a party that visited the Priest, Feodowitz Vereshagin. Twenty cows arrived from Verkhene, further north on the peninsula, to be fresh beef for the crews. Midshipman Riou made a detailed chart of Avacha Bay.
The ships sailed across the Gulf of Anadyr to pass between Cape Chaplina, on the Chukotskiy Peninsula, and St. Lawrence Island and head up to the Bering Strait. Sailing through the Strait on July 6th they made for the American shore but pack ice forced them west and even south. On the 12th they went north again and then worked east to look for the Passage. However, they admitted defeat on the 18th in latitude 70°33'N, not very far from where Cook gave up a year earlier.
They returned south with Clerke, whose health had continued to worsen, very ill. The ships crossed the Chukchi Sea to reach Cape Serdtse Kamen on July 27th and pass through the Bering Strait on the 30th. Sailing south across the Bering Sea they kept a more easterly course, meeting no land until they saw Mednyy Island in the Komandor Group on August 17th. On the 21st Sopka Zhupanova on the Kamchatka Peninsula was sighted.
Captain Charles Clerke died of consumption on August 22nd, so two sombre ships re-entered Avacha Bay two days later with Gore in command. The British wanted to bury Clerke and, after some discussion, Priest Vereshagin finally agreed to Clerke being buried in Petropavlosk at the site of its future church. Meanwhile the ships were repaired. On September 10th a Russian sloop arrived in the harbour with letters and supplies from Governor Behm. In return copies of letters and journals were sent to Behm with the request that, as he was returning to St. Petersburg, he take them and forward them to London. Behm was as good as his word and it was through him that the first news of Cook's death reached Europe in January 1780.
Ivashkin, a translator, arrived from Verkhene and he took Gore on a bear shoot while Smyslov, Behm's replacement as Governor, came to visit on September 22nd. Priest Vereshagin brought his family to visit the ship. Gore had escutcheons for Clerke made and erected at Paratunka and Petropavlosk. There is still a memorial to Clerke in Petropavlosk.
After passing the southern tip of Kamchatka, Cape Lopatka, winds forced them away from land and they sailed south without seeing the Kuril Islands . On October 26th they sighted Cape Shiriya, the northeast point of the Japanese island of Honshu. Working down Honshu's East Coast, often in strong gales, they saw many Japanese ships but none would make contact or respond to signals. The southeast point, Cape Inubo, was seen on November 1st and behind it the volcanic mountain of Fuji Yama.
Winds drove the ships from land out to the east before they could resume sailing south. They then passed through sea with much pumice floating on the surface. They sailed close to Iwo Jima (Sulphur Island) on November 14th and headed west for Macao in South China. Their route took them through the Bashi Channel between Formosa (Taiwan) and the Philippine Island of Luzon. Gore was looking out for the Bashi Islands but missed them.
The ships passed Pratas before rounding the Lema Islands, south of Hong Kong, to arrive at the Portuguese port of Macao on 4 December 1779. Anchoring off Taipa Island they found supplies difficult to obtain in Macao itself. King was dispatched in a sampan up the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) to merchants at Wampoo (Huang Pu) and on to Canton (Guang Zhou). Supplies were obtained but, more significantly, sea otter pelts, obtained in North America, were sold for very high prices. This started a flourishing trade in which several men who had sailed with Cook took part. More importantly it nearly killed off the sea otter.
Gore sailed on from Con Son on January 28th and made for Sumatra. The ships negotiated the Bangka Strait on Sumatra's north coast and then sailed through the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java. They obtained fresh water from Krakatoa (this is the volcanic island that exploded so violently in 1883) and Princes Island in the Sunda Strait. This was somewhat surprising, as they had avoided Jakarta because of health risks but Princes Island had proven equally unhealthy on the Endeavour voyage in 1770.
The passage across the Indian Ocean was uneventful. Approaching Cape Town though, the ships could not make it round the Cape of Good Hope and into Table Bay. Instead they sailed into False Bay to anchor at Simon's Bay on April 13th. They restocked and fitted a new rudder on the Resolution. They heard about the American War of Independence and that Britain was at war with France and Spain. They also heard that France had guaranteed their neutrality and would not attack Captain Cook's ships. Gore, therefore, determined to sail home unaccompanied by any other British ships that might undermine their position.
Gore amazed everyone by staying in port when conditions would have allowed them to continue. After six days the winds changed, preventing their departure. The midshipmen wrote letters in which they voiced their disapproval and frustration about being so close to home and yet not home. King was dispatched in early September via Aberdeen to the Admiralty with the remaining Journals and Charts. With his departure Burney took over command of the Discovery. Marine Sergeant Gibson, who had sailed on all three of Cook's voyages, was married on Orkney.
After proceeding slowly up the Thames the ships tied up in their home port, the Discovery at Woolwich and the Resolution at Deptford, on October 7th, 1780 after being away for over four and a half years. Most of the crew were paid off, while Lieutenant King was kept busy helping edit the Journals of the Voyage, and Midshipman Roberts helped prepare the Charts for publication.
The Voyage was unable to find the Northwest Passage and the ships returned to Britain without its two Captains, Cook and Clerke, but even so it was not a failure. The expedition returned having explored and charted a large section of the North American Coast from Oregon to Alaska and a similar stretch of the Asian coastline from Kamchatka northwards. In the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Island Group had been located, together with islands in the Cook, Tonga and Austral Groups while Kerguelen Island in the Indian Ocean had been better described. As with the Second Voyage, part of its success came from not finding land, thus showing that the Pacific was a very large mass of water with only scatterings of tiny isolated islands.
In death, Cook's status rose. Poems and plays were written about him. The Royal Society had a medal struck and in 1785 Cook was granted posthumously a coat of arms. However, no official statue or monument was erected and it was left to Cook's friend, Hugh Palliser, to erect a monument on his estate, The Vache, near Chalfont St. Giles.
No biography of Cook was written until 1788 when Andrew Kippis published his "Life of Captain James Cook". It seems to have been written with a minimum of research as, for example, he appears not to have travelled north to consult people who knew Cook in Cleveland. Cook's life prior to the First Voyage is dealt with in seven and a half pages, replete with many errors that later writers would perpetuate. Similarly, he met only briefly with Elizabeth Cook and with friends of Cook such as Banks and Palliser. Unfortunately Elizabeth Cook also destroyed most of Cook's letters and other personal belongings, which has made the job of Cook biographers even more difficult. Such omissions and errors have made it very difficult for other biographers to write about Cook the person.
Of their remaining children, Nathaniel was the first to die when HMS Thunderer, the ship on which he was a midshipman, sank in the Caribbean during a hurricane in 1780. He was 16. Hugh, the youngest child, attended Christ's College, Cambridge but he died from fever in December 1793, aged 17. A month later his older brother and last surviving child, James, died in strange circumstances in Poole Harbour near the Isle of Wight. He was 31 and had been Commander of the sloop, the Spitfire.
When Elizabeth Cook died in 1835 she was buried with several of her children in St. Andrew the Great Church in Cambridge. In the North of England, Cook's father died in April 1779, just two months after Cook died in Hawaii and before the news of Cook's death reached England. He had been living with his daughter Margaret in Redcar and was buried in nearby Marske. He was 85 years old. Margaret had married a local fisherman named James Fleck and they had eight children. It is through them that anyone claiming a family relationship to Cook must trace a link as none of the Cooks' children had children of their own. Margaret died in 1804, aged 62, and was buried in Marske. Another sister, Christiana, had married a man called Cocker but details of their life and whether they had children remain largely unknown. It is believed that Christiana died in 1795, aged 64.