James Cook (1728 - 1779)

Ask almost any english person who James Cook was, and you will probably get the answer, “Didn`t he discover Australia? In fact, thes man did for more than that. In the course of ten years, he undertook three great expeditions to explore the South Pacific. He discovered and charted the east coast of Australia, and also all the coasts of New Zealand and many smaller Pacific islands. He also sailed into the Antarctic and proved that there was no great inhabitable south continent to be colonized, as England believed.
In 1788, more than two hundred years ago, six transports carrying 750 convects from England, male and female, arrived in Botany Bay as a result of Cook`s landing there in 1770 on the Endeavour. This is why James Cook is sometimes called the farher of Australia. James Cook had a very unusual career. He was born in Yourkshire, the son of a farm labourer, and learned to read and write at the local village school. His first job was as a grocer`s assistrant in a nearby fishing port. When he was 18 he went to sea in a merchant ship, aiming to improve his status by becoming master, and later an owner, of a ship. But after nine years at sea, he left to serve with the Royal Navy in the 7 Years` War against France. His brilliance in navigation enabled him to get his Master`s Certifacate two years later. After successful service as naval surveyor and chart-maker in Canada, he was the natural choice to lead the first expedition to the South Pacific. It was his navigational skill, together with the invention of new instruments of navigation, that made his voyages so successful.

As was the custom in those days, there were both botanists and natural history artists on board to record in exact detail the plant and animal life that they found. The artists also did land- and sea-scape drawings and paintings. Sadly two of the artists died on the way home, but their pictures were completed by other artists from notes. Captain Cook himself was killed by natives in Hawaii on his third voyage in 1779.