Captain James Cook / Rob Mundle.

A biography of Captain James Cook (1728-1779). As a sailor, the author highlights the sailing and navigational challenges faced by Cook on his voyages. Born in Yorkshire, Cook joined the Royal Navy in 1755, participating in the Seven Years War and mapping the Newfoundland coast before undertaking the three voyages of discovery in the Pacific which made him famous. Commanding the Endeavour, Cook's first voyage in 1768 was to observe the transit of Venus. He went on to circumnavigate and map the coastline of New Zealand before sailing west to make the first recorded European contact with the eastern coast of Australia. Cook returned to the Pacific in 1772 in command of the Resolution to search for the hypothetical Terra Australis, circumnavigating the globe at an extreme southern latitude, one of the earliest to cross the Antarctic circle. Commanding the Resolution again on his third voyage of discovery and in search of the North West Passage, Cook stopped in Hawaii in 1779 where he was killed. Includes a bibliography and glossary of sailing terms.