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media type="youtube" key="yELis7kuGsw" height="244" width="296" align="left" This article is about the British explorer. For other uses, see [|James Cook (disambiguation)]. Cook joined the British [|merchant navy] as a teenager[|[][|4][|]] and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the [|Seven Years' War], and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the [|Saint Lawrence River] during the siege of [|Quebec]. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the [|Admiralty] and [|Royal Society]. This notice came at a crucial moment both in his personal career and in the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of [|HM Bark //Endeavour//] for the first of three Pacific voyages. Cook charted many areas and recorded several islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. His achievements can be attributed to a combination of [|seamanship], superior surveying and cartographic skills, courage in exploring dangerous locations to confirm the facts (for example dipping into the [|Antarctic Circle] repeatedly and exploring around the [|Great Barrier Reef]), an ability to lead men in adverse conditions, and boldness both with regard to the extent of his explorations and his willingness to exceed the instructions given to him by the Admiralty.[|[][|4][|]] Cook was killed in Hawaii in a fight with [|Hawaiians] during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779 James Cook, portrait by [|Nathaniel Dance], c.  1775, [|National Maritime Museum], [|Greenwich] || [|Marton], Yorkshire, England || Hawaii || Born: October 27, 1728 Died: February 14, 1779) The English navigator James Cook, possibly the greatest explorer of the 18th century, is known for his voyages to the Pacific Ocean and his application of scientific methods to exploration and to cartography. Born on Oct. 27, 1728, he was the son of a poor Scotsman who had settled in Yorkshire as an agricultural labourer. After a short time in a haberdasher's shop at Stainthes, he became a bound apprentice to a Whitby ship owner, and spent several years in coasting and Baltic trade. He joined the Royal Navy in 1755 as an able-bodied seaman, soon became a mate, and within four years became a master. In 1759, during the Seven Years' War, Cook was given command of the Mercury, sailing to Canada and up the St. Lawrence River, where he helped to survey the river channel. He was responsible for the successful piloting of the fleet, which took Quebec. After the war ended in 1763, Cook, commanding the schooner Grenville, spent four years surveying the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. He also studied mathematics in order to master the science of navigation. His charts of the coasts, considered both important and accurate, were published. Cook had observed a solar eclipse in 1766 and used it to determine the longitude of Newfoundland; these findings were published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. After his return to England in 1767, Cook was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Cook was born in the village of [|Marton] in Yorkshire, now a suburb of [|Middlesbrough].[|[][|5][|]] He was baptised in the local church of St. Cuthbert, where his name can be seen in the church register. Cook was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm [|labourer], and his locally born wife, Grace Pace, from [|Thornaby-on-Tees].[|[][|4][|]][|[][|5][|]] In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at [|Great Ayton], where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe paid for him to attend the local school (now a museum). In 1741, after five years schooling, he began work for his father, who had by now been promoted to farm manager. For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, [|Roseberry Topping], enjoying the opportunity for solitude.[|[][|6][|]] [|Cooks' Cottage], his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having been moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick, in 1934.[|[][|7][|]] Portrait of James Cook by [|John Webber], date unknown – before 1793. In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles (32 km) to the fishing village of [|Staithes], to be apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and [|haberdasher] William Sanderson.[|[][|5][|]] Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.[|[][|4][|]] After 18 months, not proving suitable for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of [|Whitby], to be introduced to friends of Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker.[|[][|7][|]] The Walkers were prominent local ship-owners and [|Quakers], and were in the coal trade. Their house is now the [|Captain Cook Memorial Museum]. Cook was taken on as a [|merchant navy] apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His first assignment was aboard the [|collier] //Freelove//, and he spent several years on this and various other [|coasters], sailing between [|the Tyne] and London. As part of this apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of [|algebra], [|geometry], [|trigonometry], [|navigation] and [|astronomy], all skills he would need one day to command his own ship.[|[][|4][|]] His three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the [|Baltic Sea]. He soon progressed through the merchant navy ranks, starting with his 1752 promotion to Mate (officer in charge of navigation) aboard the collier [|brig] //Friendship//. In 1755, within a month of being offered command of this vessel, he volunteered for service in the [|Royal Navy], as [|Britain] was re-arming for what was to become the [|Seven Years' War]. Despite the need to start back at the bottom of the naval hierarchy, Cook realised his career would advance more quickly in military service and entered the Navy at Wapping on 7 June 1755 [|Captain] **James Cook** [|FRS] [|RN] (7 November 1728[|[][|1][|]] – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of [|Newfoundland] prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of [|Australia][|[][|2][|]] and the [|Hawaiian Islands] as well as the first recorded [|circumnavigation] of New Zealand.[|[][|3][|]] Cook joined the British [|merchant navy] as a teenager[|[][|4][|]] and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the [|Seven Years' War], and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the [|Saint Lawrence River] during the siege of [|Quebec]. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the [|Admiralty] and [|Royal Society]. This notice came at a crucial moment both in his personal career and in the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of [|HM Bark //Endeavour//] for the first of three Pacific voyages
 * ~ James Cook ||
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Captainjamescookportrait.jpg/220px-Captainjamescookportrait.jpg width="220" height="278" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Captainjamescookportrait.jpg"]]
 * ~ Born || 7 November [[|O.S.] 27 October] 1728
 * ~ Died || 14 February 1779 ( 1779-02-14 ) (aged 50)
 * ~ Nationality || British ||
 * ~ Education || Postgate School, [|Great Ayton] ||
 * ~ Occupation || Explorer, navigator, cartographer ||
 * ~ Title || [|Captain] ||
 * ~ Spouse || Elizabeth Batts ||
 * ~ Children || James Cook, Nathaniel Cook, Elizabeth Cook, Joseph Cook, George Cook, Hugh Cook ||
 * ~ Parents || James Cook, Grace Pace ||
 * ~ Signature || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/James_Cook_Signature.svg/150px-James_Cook_Signature.svg.png width="150" height="72" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James_Cook_Signature.svg"]] ||

James Cook was an English navigator and in the 18th Century. He was famous for his voyages to the Pacific Ocean. James Cook was born on 27 October, 1728 in Yorkshire and died on 14 February, 1779 in Hawaii.

He became an apprentice to a ship owner and in 1755 joined the Royal Navy as an able-bodied seaman.