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Captain Cook Birthplace Museum The museum explores the life and times of Britain's famous explorer and navigator. On three great voyages, Cook and his crew discovered many new peoples and lands, and his artists and scientists recorded the new and strange plants and animals of the South Seas and Americas. One aspect of the museum is the 'Endeavour Shuttle'. This launches you back through Cook's time, enabling you to find out such things as how Cook's ship was provisioned for 100 men for three years; what was portable soup; what were Cook's secret instructions? Audio-visual presentations and special effects retell the tales of his voyages. Born in 1728 in Yorkshire, as naval captain, navigator, and explorer, he discovered the seaways and coasts of Canada, conducted expeditions to the Pacific Ocean and his exploration ranged from the Antarctic ice fields to the Bering Strait and from the coasts of North America to Australia and New Zealand. Although he was to die on his voyages - in 1779 in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii - his contribution to exploration and science was huge, and he appears to have done it all without the exploitation that other 'explorers' have often resorted to. In 1745, he began work in a grocer's shop at Staithes, a fishing village only a short distance from the busy port of Whitby where Cook was introduced to the life of a sailor. In June 1755, he left Whitby, volunteered as an ordinary seaman in the Royal Navy and within a month was promoted to master's mate. In 1768, it was decided to dispatch a ship with members of the Royal Society to observe from Tahiti the transit of Venus across the sun and Cook was chosen in preference to others who had served longer in the Navy. He was offered the command of the Endeavour and given the rank of lieutenant. He was very familiar with the type of vessel chosen by the Admiralty, and the Endeavour was a Whitby-built collier, solidly built, able to withstand being run aground, capacious and able to carry many provisions. The ship could also be managed by a small crew if necessary. Cook and Endeavour came to lay the foundation for one of the most significant voyages in the history of exploration and the museum tells the story. Captain Cook Birthplace
Museum Information and photographs
courtesy of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum |
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