James Cook

James and Grace Cook lived in a cottage in the village of Marton in Cleveland, where he worked as a farm labourer. It was here on 27th October 1728, their second son, James Cook was born, destined to cross the oceans of the world and venture further as any man might. As a small boy, the family moved to Aireyholme Farm, three miles from Great Ayton. The nearby Roseberry Topping prominent against the sky, was the first of many conquered quests to befall James Cook.

Thomas Skottowe, the Lord of the Manor of Ayton, who owned the lands on which the Cook family farmed, was a benevolent and kindly master, caring for his tenants. He had noticed that the second son of the Cook family, was a bright boy and arranged for him to attend the local village school.

James Cook had been taught to read and write by Mrs Walker in his Marton years and under the guidance of the Great Ayton schoolmaster, Mr Pullen, his studies showed special aptitudes to mathematics. Skottowe`s interest in the boy James did not end there, but followed him throughout his life. It was Skottowe`s influence in the county, that many years later, was very instrumental in the persuading the local Members of Parliament to write to the Admiralty and highly recommending Cook.

School years were followed by a period of working on his father`s farm. Then at the age of sixteen, James went to work in a shop in Staithes, a fishing village not far from Whitby. This again may have been through the direct influence Skottowe was having on the development of James Cook, as the shop keeper was Skottowe`s wife`s brother in law, named William Sanderson. Staithes was a busy thriving fishing port of some one thousand people. The nature of the place was to shape James Cook to become a part of the seafaring community. It was no longer work on his father`s farm that occupied his leisure time, but it was his new found friend`s living in Staithes, that of the sea and not the land.

It was in Staithes that James first learnt the art of quietly bringing a small boat and navigating a passage to the shore in the dark. This was a necessity for the coastal smugglers of the day. Cook`s experience amongst the folk of Staithes fishing community was to be a vital and direct influence in shaping his career. He soon found that a shop- keeper`s boy was not the life for him and expressed his feelings to William Sanderson, having the desire to go to sea.

William Sanderson took James to the port of Whitby, where he introduced him to his friend, John Walker, who was a trader, with ships at sea. When James Cook came to take up a post in Whitby, he arrived to a very busy seaport, where ships were being built, sail making, rope and cordage skills prevailed in their manufacture, together with all the allied trades that went with these. The ancient town and seaport of "Whitby", with its monastic and maritime associations, stretching back to the earliest times, was the very port exactly fitted to capture the imagination and foster the ambitions of such a man as James Cook.

The forty year old John Walker, to whom James was now apprenticed, owned with his brother Henry, several ships. The Walkers were a respected Quaker family and lived in Grape Lane in the town. The house still stands today and the visitor will see the initials of Mark and Susanah Dring, who were the first to live in the house having had it built in 1688. The Walker ships were in the moving of coal by sea trade and the ships were known as "Cats", being extremely sturdy, stubby with bottoms flat and suitable to their type of trading in tidal ports. It was in these ships that James Cook learnt his seamanship.

The "Freelove" on which James Cook served his first voyage to sea, was about 450 tons in weight. James soon made his mark and came under the approving eye of his masters. James helped in the rigging of a new ship being built by the Walker family. She was larger than the Freelove, being about 600 tons and was named "The Three Brothers" During the winter months, when the weather was too severe and the sea too heavy to sail in, the ships underwent the re-rigging, cleaning of the ship`s bottom and general overhaul. James learnt all these skills and they would hold him in good stead on his voyages around the world. At these times of winter, James Cook and other prentice lads staying at the masters house, worked the days on the ships and spent long evenings reading the skills required to be masters of their own ships. James was said to thrive on the knowledge of others and could not wait to put this knowledge into practice.

Having served the Walker family in their ships, James eventually was due for promotion to Captain in the Merchant Navy Service, but took the exceptional step of volunteering for the Royal Navy, as an Able Seaman, (at the time people did not volunteer for such a position, the ships requiring the needs of Able Seamen, went out and "press ganged" people into the service). James rose through the ranks until he became Master, the highest non commissioned post you could obtain. He was highly regarded for his work for General Wolfe, at the siege of Quebec, producing maps, enabling the fleet to move up the Saint Lawrence river. This lead to the defeat of the French General Montcalme on the Heights of Abraham.

Shortly after this event, the Admiralty in combination with the Royal Society, were planning a major expedition to the South Seas. It was the custom for the Captain of his Majesty`s ships to be one of rank and was much sought after, that bribes or corruption took place to fill these posts. The Lords of the Admiralty resisted such pressures and appointed a newly promoted Lieutenant, James Cook. On James Cook`s advice, the Admiralty bought a Whitby built ship known as "Cats", its name was the "Earl of Pembroke" built in 1765 and was used for moving coal from Newcastle to London. The Royal Navy had it refitted and renamed her the "HMS Endeavour Bark". She was little more than 100 feet long, broad in beam and shallow in draft, with blunt bows and flattened stern. This was the ideal ship for Captain James Cook, built stoutly to withstand the pounding seas, built by the trustworthy shipwrights of Whitby, a craft James knew very well.

HMS Endeavour Bark The Endeavour Bark sailed from the sheltered waters of Plymouth in England on August 26th 1768, sailing alone with no other vessel as support ship. She carried 94, officers, scientists and crew, two greyhounds plus a milking goat and stores for the voyage. As she was originally built to carry a crew of seventeen, she must have been bursting at her seams. The Endeavour Bark returned to port in 1771, a voyage of three years, having been reported missing, lost to the unknown seas, but the battered Whitby built ship with pennants flying and the great Royal Navy Ensign clearly to be seen on her quarter deck, sailed up the Channel and anchored off the Downs. There were only 56 aboard her now, plus the indestructible goat. The Endeavour Bark - Resolution - Adventurer and the Discovery, a splendid quartet of Whitby built ships, commanded by Cook, conveys a maritime memorial to his aspirations and to the skills of Whitby shipwrights.

On Captain James Cook`s third voyage, he was killed by the natives of "Owhyhee", one of the Sandwich Islands. His body was never to be seen again, believed to be eaten by those natives. The story of Cook`s ships after his death is largely one of neglect and indifference. These splendid vessels which had served England well and had successfully opened up the Southern Ocean, revealed the nature and extent of the islands of New Zealand, the continent of Australia and gone to the very gates of Antarctica, had voyaged with the greatest maritime explorer of all time and yet were allowed to fall into oblivion. By contrast, Lord Nelson`s "Victory" had been preserved, becoming a place to pay homage to one of England`s other great mariners. Captain James Cook`s and the Whitby built ships, sturdy in all that came their way, should therefore take a place alongside the "Santa Maria", the "Mayflower" as well as the "Victory". Great ships, all of them, carving out the destiny of men and giving historical events for the world to remember them by.

1728 : 27th October. Born at Marton in Cleveland, England

1735 : Family move to Aireyholme Farm.

1740 : Schooling at Great Ayton.

1745 : Works in Sanderson`s shop in Staithes.

1747 : Apprenticed to the Walker family of Whitby.

1748 : Servant on the "Freelove" Oct` 47 - April 48

1749 : Seaman on the "Three Brothers" June 48 - Dec 49.

1750 : Seaman on the "Mary" Feb` 50 - Oct` 50.

1751 : Seaman on the "Three Brothers" July 51 - Jan` 52.

1752 : Mate on the "Friendship" Mar` 52 - June 55.

1755 : Joins Royal Navy on the HMS Eagle as an Able Seaman.

1757 : Master of HMS Pembroke.

1759 : Master of HMS Northumberland taking part in surveying the St.Lawrence River,Canada.

1760 : Surveys Newfoundland St.Pierre, Miquelon off the coast of Canada on HMS Grenville.

1768 : August, The Endeavour Bark, sails on first voyage.

1771 : July, the Endeavour Bark returns home.

1772 : July, the Resolution and Adventurer sail on the second voyage around the world.

1775 : July, the Resolution and Adventurer return home.

1776 : July, the Resolution and Discovery sail on the third voyage around the world.

1779 : Captain James Cook is killed in the Sandwich Islands, known today as Hawaii.

1780 : October, the remnants of that fatal third voyage return home.The Resolution

The genius of Captain James Cook was readily recognised by the Admiralty after the first great voyage of discovery. Plans were made almost immediately for a second voyage - this time to make a complete circumnavigation in the high Antarctic latitudes.

Cook had very vivid memories of near disaster while sailing through unknown waters and his choice of ships was accepted by the Admiralty who were very conscious of the magnitude of the undertaking.

The Navy Board purchased two vessels, the Marquis of Granby and the Marquis of Rockingham. Both were similar types to the Endeavour but were not really barks or barques. They could have been classed as ship-rigged sloops-of-war and were built by Thomas Fishburn in 1770 at Whitby. They were commissioned under the names of Drake and Raleigh. Lord Rockford, Secretary of State, thought the names might offend the Spanish and consulted both the King and the Earl of Sandwich. The Earl advised him they were to be renamed the Resolution and Adventure.

The Resolution impressed Cook greatly and he called her "the ship of my choice", the fittest for service of any I have seen". She was 14 months old and her tonnage of 462 was 100 more than the Endeavour. She had the same flat-floored, apple-cheeked hull as the Endeavour.

Her dimensions were:-

Lower deck length 110 ft 8 inches;

Keel 93 ft 6 inches;

Maximum beam 35 ft 3½ inches and

depth 13 ft l½ inches.

She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including a Gregory Azimuth Compass, ice anchors and the latest apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water. Twelve carriage guns and twelve swivel guns were carried. At his own expense Cook had brass door-hinges installed in the great cabin.

The Resolution cost the Admiralty £4,151. It was originally planned that Joseph Banks with an appropriate entourage would sail again with Cook. A heightened waist, an additional upper deck and a raised poop or round house were built to suit Banks, but the ship was found to be top heavy in short sea trials. Under Admiralty instructions, the offending structures were removed. Banks refused to travel under "adverse conditions" and was replaced by Johann Forster and his son, George. The conversion bill had cost a further £6565.

Her complement when she sailed from Plymouth on 13 July 1772 was 112, and this included 20 volunteers from the Endeavour. On her second voyage (Cook's third voyage) she again carried 112.

On his first voyage Cook had calculated longitude by the usual method of lunars but on her second voyage the Board of Longitude spared no expense. It sent William Wales, a highly qualified astronomer, with Cook and entrusted a new chronometer, recently completed by Larcum Kendall (K1), together with three chronometers made by John Arnold of Aldophi. Kendall's K1 was remarkably accurate and was to prove to be most efficient in determining longitude on board the Resolution.

The Resolution was responsible for some remarkable feats and-was to prove one of the great ships of history. She was the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle (17 January 1773) and crossed twice more on the voyage. The third crossing on 3 February 1774, was the deepest penetration - Latitude 71° 10' South, Longitude 106° 54' W. As a consequence the Resolution was instrumental in proving Dalrymple's Terra Australis Incognita (Southern Continent) to be a myth. On his third voyage, Cook in the Resolution crossed the Arctic Circle on 17 August 1778. Charles Clerke, who took over the command after Cook's tragic death again crossed it on 19 July 1779.

The Resolution was back in England in 1780. She was converted into an armed transport and sailed for the East Indies in March 1781. She was captured by De Suffrens squadron on June 9, 1782. His journal states he was joined by the Sylphide and her prize the Resolution, a ship made famous by the voyages of Captain Cook. After the action at Negapostam, the Resolution was sent to Manila for wood, biscuit and rigging, and to enter any seaman she found there. She sailed on July 22, 1782 and on June 5, 1783 De Suffren expressed a notion that she had either foundered or fallen into the hands of the English and was last seen in the Straits of Sunda. An extract from the Melbourne Argus, February 25, 1879 says that the Resolution ended her days as a Portuguese coal-hulk at Rio de Janeiro, but this is unconfirmed. In the possession of Viscount Galway, a Governor-General of New Zealand, is a ship's figurehead described as that of the Resolution. A photograph of it does not agree with the figurehead depicted in Holman's watercolour.

It was zeal and resolution which kept Cook at his tasks and helped him surmount so many obstacles. It is so befitting the man that such a noble ship of his choice should have been called the Resolution.

There are 57 stamps issued which depict the Resolution, and there is no doubt this number will be greatly increased by the anniversary of Cook's death. The 1968 Cook Island issue is a beautiful set, but for sheer atmosphere my choice is the 1973 Norfolk Island 35c stamp issued for the Bicentenary of the First Crossing of the Antarctic Circle. It has been adapted from a watercolour by William Hodges.