Cook Street

Born in Yorkshire in 1728, James Cook was the son of a Scottish farm labourer and his local-born wife. James had five years schooling and then left in order to work for his father.

At the age of 16 James was apprenticed off to a grocer and haberdasher. After 18 months he was introduced to John and Henry Walker, prominent ship owners of a merchant fleet. James got taken on as an apprentice and spent time studying essential skills for navigating his own ship. James joined the Royal Navy in 1755, just as they were preparing for the Seven Years War.

In 1766 James embarked on the first of three major nautical expeditions. His first voyage on the HMS Endeavour was sponsored by the Royal Society who wanted him to try out some new technologies and observe the transit of Venus. On this voyage James charted the entire coastline of New Zealand and unknowingly renamed Mount Taranaki after John Percival, 2nd Earl of Egmont, the First Lord of the Admiralty who had promoted James's expeditions. Cook returned to England in 1771.

The second voyage in the HMS Resolution made Cook the first to cross the Antarctic Circle in 1773. Cook's third and fatal journey in 1776 was also on the HMS Resolution. Cook met his fate in Hawaii in 1779, but his legacy lives on today. Amongst other things, his navigational charts are still in use today and his methods for eradicating onboard scurvy are legendary.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.