Captain James Cook was one of the world's greatest explorers. He was born in 1728 in the tiny farming village of Marton in North Yorkshire, now part of modern Middlesbrough. Apprenticed to a ship owner in Whitby when he was eighteen years old he later joined the Royal Navy in 1755. By the time of his death, at the hands of Hawaiians in 1779, he had circumnavigated the globe twice, charted vast areas of the Pacific and the coasts of New Zealand and claimed the east coast of Australia (New Holland) for Britain. He had sailed further south than anyone else, sought a sea passage around north-western North America and visited Vancouver Island. This well-illustrated account of Cook's life, by a past curator of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Middlesbrough and president of the Captain Cook Society, re-examines his early life in Cleveland. The book includes new information and previously unpublished pictures relating to Cook's life and times in the area.
