Captain Cook is well known for being one of Britain’s great navigator and explorer. James Cook was born on October 27 1728, in a small town near Middlesbrough, England. Captain James Cook was born in a mud house. His father, James, was originally from Scotland, and had married Grace Pace. His father was an agricultural laborer. They moved around the area to find work on local farms to make a living. His parents wished for him to live a better life than they did. The family moved between Marton and Ormesby more than once to find better work and housing.
Cook was fascinated with exploring and decided to be a navigator as his career. At the age of fifteen, he went to sea for the first time as a ship boy on a small ship called the Freelove. While working on the ship, Cook spent his free time learning math and navigation. James learned everything he knew about navigating there. Navigating in the stormy North Sea was a hard job especially as a fifteen-year-old boy.
At the age of 17, Cook moved to the coast finding work with a coal merchant. He learned his trade on runs from Newcastle to London into the North seas. Then in 1755, age 27; he decided to enlist with the Royal Navy. Serving he learned how to handle coastal waters and he completed the simplest task to control violent drafts in harbors and attacking ships. His extraordinary skills at navigation gained him a promotion.
Captain Cook went on many expeditions to the “Pacific Ocean, the Antarctic, the Arctic, and around the world.” Cook's first journey lasted from August 26,1768 to July 13, 1771. He sailed The Endeavour from Plymouth, England, to Brazil, around the southern tip of South America and to Tahiti where he stayed. He went to observe a rare event visible only in the s...
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...iron dagger falling into the water.
A few days later, the Englishmen retaliated by firing their cannons and muskets at the shore, killing about 30 Hawaiians. His ship returned to England eighteen months later, in October of 1780.
Cook was the first ship's captain to stop the disease scurvy. Scurvy is cause by the lack of vitamin C and his crew was provided with fresh fruits. This encouraged other sailors to provide fruits to prevent scurvy.
Captain Cooks mission in all three of his voyages was to extend knowledge in astronomy. On his first voyage, his mission was to observe Venus. On his second voyage he was disappointed that he didn’t succeed his mission so he gave it a second attempt. Lastly on his second voyage he had difficulties sailing in the Antarctic to find the southern continent. So his last voyage was to find an ice-free sea route, which ended deadly.
His first voyage took place in 1598 with his uncle. He was on his own for his next trip which lasted 2 years. He was in France from 1603 until 1607. They then found some West Indians that
The British chose to attack the Americans from the north by way of Isle aux Pois in the mouth of the Pearl River because this was the only only stable water they had found that ships could ride and anchor. When hearing that the british where coming this way, Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones and his five gunboats went to try and Barackade the Rigolets trying to make sure they wouldn’t enter. His 185 men and 23 guns awaited the British. At 10:30 on December 14th 1814 three columns of British ships, 42 to 45, armed with 43 guns and 1,200 under the command of Captain Lockyer met the American blockade. Fierce fighting began and the British had finally captured the five American boats. Losses were 17 British and 6 Americans killed, 77 British and 35 Americans wounded. This gave Gerneral Andrew Jackson six days more to improve his defenses. The British at the very beginning of the war had demolished almost all of Jacksons sea power. Jackson only had the Carolina, Louisiana, and one gunboat left.
	At the age of thirteen he boarded a ship to Whitehaven, which was a large port across the Solway Firth. There he signed up for a seven year seaman's apprenticeship on The Friendship of Whitehaven, whose captain was James Younger, a prosperous merchant and ship owner. His first voyage took him across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados and Fredericksburg, Virginia at which he stayed with his older brother William, a tailor, who had left Scotland for America over thirteen years before, and who now was living comfortably and flourishing.
In 1802 Jefferson had started to strategize an expedition to explore out west all the way out to the Pacific. President Jefferson commenced preparations for this expedition in the same year after inspiration from the writings of Canadian explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie. These writings were called the Voyages from Montreal. After reading these fascinating excerpts, Jefferson knew he wanted an American expedition out west. Jefferson’s expedition was also impacted by the journeys of Captain George Vancouver and James Cook in tha...
Washington Irving, Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus (New York: Frederick Unger Publishing Company,) 323.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
Henry Hudson (English seamen) started sailing with his ship named “the half moon” in 1609 for the VOC. Officially he was searching for a new trading route to Asia. He was searching for the Northwest Passage through North America on the west of the Half Moon. A lot of explorers did the same thing before him. But he didn’t found the Northwest Passage. But he did find something else, the New Netherlands. It had beautiful woods, animals and ...
"Early Explorers of the Western Hemisphere." World Almanac & Book of Facts 2000, 1999, p456.
A Description of New England: or The Observations, and Discoveries, of Captain John Smith (Admiral of that Country), in the North of America, in the year of our Lord, 1614; London, 1616. Reprinted in: Dow, George Francis (1921). Two Centuries of Travel in Essex County Massachusetts: A Collection of Narratives and Observations Made by Travelers 1605-1799. The Perkins Press, Topsfield.
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. However, even after centuries later, little is truly known of the mysterious voyage and findings of the new world.1 By examining “Letter from Columbus to Luis Santangel”, one can further contextualize the events of Columbus' exploration of the New World. The letter uncovers Columbus' subtle hints of his true intentions and exposes his exaggerated tone that catered to his lavish demands with Spain. Likewise, The Columbian Voyage Map read in accordance with the letter helps the reader track Columbus' first, second, third, and fourth voyage to the New World carefully and conveniently. Thus, the letter and map's rarity and description render invaluable insight into Columbus' intentionality of the New World and its indigenous inhabitants.
Although there is much debate about Magellan and his crew, facts show that Magellan achieved great success and he proved that the world could be navigated by sea. He successfully routed and crossed the Strait of Magellan even though it was unknown to Europeans and despite the various obstacles (Doc. C). In total, the voyage of Magellan took three years, and although Magellan never returned to Spain, he discovered the route to Asia through the Western Hemisphere which opened up trade and expanded European knowledge about the
Drake’s real opportunity came in 1577 when Queen Elizabeth gave him a grant to make the first circumnavigation of the world by an Englishman. On December 13th Drake sailed from Plymouth in the Golden Hind with four other small ships and about 160 men. They were set out to raid the Spanish property on the Pacific coast of the New World. He abandoned two ships in the Rio de Plata in South America, and, with the remaining three, navigated the Straights of Magellan.
He didn't have a very exciting life when he was younger but he did grow up sailing on short trips on the English coast. Since a young age he knew he wanted to be on the water. When he was older he sailed on countless voyages.
Food science has led to find cures for diseases such as scurvy. Scurvy is a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by swollen bleeding gums and the opening of previously healed wounds, which particularly affected poorly nourished sailors until the end of the 18th century. This disease was very common among sailors because in the 18th century they didn’t have refrigerators, so their diets lacked perishable foods while sailing the sea. Today, if you come across this problem you can just eat a vitamin C tablet. This is just one of the many examples food science has promoted a balanced diet by the study of nutrients in our food.
From rigorous voyages at sea, to rugged journeys across land, explorers have helped shape the world’s achievements and history into what they have transpired to today through natural curiosity and crave for adventure. One such adventurer that we know of today as Vasco da Gama created a turning point in the history of exploring when he put to test the bravery of man by sailing into the uncharted waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in hopes of finding a route to India. His discovery opened a door for exploration and trade while establishing a foundation for others to live up to and strive for.