Polar Exploration and Explorers

Cook was an apprentice to a shipping company at age 18, and joined the British Navy at 27 in 1755. In 1768, the Navy appointed him leader of a scientific expedition to Tahiti to observe a solar eclipse by Venus. He also had secret orders to seek a southern continent geographers long believed kept the world in balance. He set out on his first voyage round the world in the ship Endeavour. The trip to Tahiti was successful. The search for the southern continent was not. In October of 1769 Cook was the first European to visit New Zealand. In April of 1770 he claimed the entire eastern coast of Australia for Great Britain. During his return trip to England in 1771, Cook was the first ship commander to prevent the outbreak of scurvy, by serving his crew fruit and sauerkraut to prevent the disease.

On Cook's second journey he sailed farther south than any other European. He circled Antarctica in his famous ship Resolution, but the ice surrounding the continent prevented the sighting of land. The existence of the Antarctica remained unproved until 1840. He returned to England in 1775 and was promoted to Captain.

In July of 1776 Cook set sail on his third voyage, again in Resolution. His mission was to look for a possible northern sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1778 he became the first know European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. Later in 1778 Cook sailed up the northwest coast of North America, and was the first European to land on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He continued up the coast through the Bering strait, and entered the Arctic Ocean. Great walls of ice blocked the expedition, so Cook headed back for the Hawaiian Islands. On February 14, 1779 Cook was stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives while investigating a theft of a boat by an islander. The expedition arrived back in England in October of 1780.