The First Expedition

1768-1771

In 1768 Cook was chosen to lead an expedition to the South Seas to observe the Transit of Venus and to secretly search for the unknown Great Southern Continent (terra australis incognita). Cook and his crew of nearly 100 men left Plymouth (August 1768) in the Endeavour and travelled via Madeira (September), Rio de Janiero  and Tierra del Fuego to Tahiti. At Tierra del Fuego Cook’s men went ashore and met the local people. Leaving Tierra del Fuego Endeavour rounded Cape Horn and sailed into the Pacific Ocean. Samuel Wallis on the ship Dolphin ‘discovered’ Tahiti in 1767. He recommended the island for the Transit of Venus observations and Cook arrived here in April 1769. Cook, like Wallis two years before him, anchored his ship in the shelter of Matavai Bay on the western side of the island. In Matavai Bay Cook established a fortified base, Fort Venus, from which he was to complete his first task – the observation of the Transit of Venus (3rd June 1769).
  Cook and his crew experienced good relations with the Tahitians and returned to the islands on many occasions, attracted by the friendly people of this earthly paradise.  Just as Cook was planning to leave Tahiti two members of Endeavour’s crew.. Endeavour left the Society Island in August 1769. Tupaia acted as interpreter when they came into contact with other Polynesian peoples and helped Cook to make a map of the Pacific islands.
  Cook sailed in search of the Southern Continent (August-October 1769) before turning west to New Zealand. The first encounters with the native Maori of New Zealand in October were violent, their warriors performing fierce dances, or hakas, in attempts to threaten and challenge the ship’s crew. Some of their warriors were killed when Cook’s men had to defend themselves. Eventually relations improved and Cook was able to trade with the Maori for fresh supplies. Exploring different bays and rivers along the way Cook circumnavigated New Zealand and was the first to accurately chart the whole of the coastline. He discovered that New Zealand consisted of two main islands, north (Te Ika a Maui) and south (Te Wai Pounamu) islands (October 1769-March 1770).

The Second Expedition

1772-1775

  In July 1772 Resolution ship, commanded by Captain Cook, and Discovery, commanded by Lieutenant Furneaux, set sail from Britain  towards the Antarctic in search of the Great Southern Continent. The ships sailed on to rendezvous in New Zealand (May 1773). The ships became the first known to have crossed the Antarctic Circle (17 January 1773). The ships in New Zealand (February-May 1773) set off to explore the central Pacific, calling at Tahiti (August), where, from the island of Raiatea, they took aboard Omai . After visiting Amsterdam and Middelburg, two islands that Cook called the Friendly Islands (October) the ships became separated and never met again. Both ships returned separately to New Zealand. (November) A boat’s crew from the Adventure were killed by Maori (17 December) and the ship sailed for Britain, arriving July 1774.

 Cook on Resolution attempted another search for the Great Southern Continent (November 1773), crossing the Antarctic Circle on 20th December 1773. However, the ice and cold soon forced him to turn north again and he made another search in the central Pacific for the Great Southern Continent. In January 1774 he turned south again, crossing the Antarctic Circle for the second time. Cook sailed north, arriving at Easter Island in March 1774. Cook was too ill to go ashore but a small party explored the southern part of the island. The artist William Hodges painted a group of the large statues of heads (moia) for which the island has become famous. Cook then sailed to the Marquesas (March); Tahiti (April) and Raiatea (June); past the Cook Islands and Niue, or Savage Islands as Cook called them; Tonga (June); Vatoa, the only Fijian Island visited by Cook (July); New Hebrides (July-August); New Caledonia (September) and Norfolk Island (October); before returning to New Zealand (October 1774).
In July 1772 Resolution ship, commanded by Captain Cook, and Discovery, commanded by Lieutenant Furneaux, set sail from Britain  towards the Antarctic in search of the Great Southern Continent. The ships sailed on to rendezvous in New Zealand (May 1773). The ships became the first known to have crossed the Antarctic Circle (17 January 1773). The ships in New Zealand (February-May 1773) set off to explore the central Pacific, calling at Tahiti (August), where, from the island of Raiatea, they took aboard Omai . After visiting Amsterdam and Middelburg, two islands that Cook called the Friendly Islands (October) the ships became separated and never met again. Both ships returned separately to New Zealand. (November) A boat’s crew from the Adventure were killed by Maori (17 December) and the ship sailed for Britain, arriving July 1774.
 Cook on Resolution attempted another search for the Great Southern Continent (November 1773), crossing the Antarctic Circle on 20th December 1773. However, the ice and cold soon forced him to turn north again and he made another search in the central Pacific for the Great Southern Continent. In January 1774 he turned south again, crossing the Antarctic Circle for the second time. Cook sailed north, arriving at Easter Island in March 1774. Cook was too ill to go ashore but a small party explored the southern part of the island. The artist William Hodges painted a group of the large statues of heads (moia) for which the island has become famous. Cook then sailed to the Marquesas (March); Tahiti (April) and Raiatea (June); past the Cook Islands and Niue, or Savage Islands as Cook called them; Tonga (June); Vatoa, the only Fijian Island visited by Cook (July); New Hebrides (July-August); New Caledonia (September) and Norfolk Island (October); before returning to New Zealand (October 1774).

The third Expedition.

1776 - 1780

In 1776 Cook sailed in a repaired Resolution (July) to search for the North West Passage and to return Omai to his home on Huahine in the Society Islands. He sailed via the Canary Islands and was joined at Cape Town, South Africa, by the Discovery, commanded by Charles Clerke. The Discovery was the smallest of Cook’s ships and was manned by a crew of sixty-nine. The two ships were repaired and restocked with a large number of livestock and set off together for New Zealand ( December).

Cook sailed across the South Indian Ocean and confirmed the location of Desolation Island, later known as Kerguelen Island. Cook wrote of Christmas Harbour where he first anchored on 25th December 1776:

“I found the shore in a manner covered with Penguins and other birds and Seals…so fearless that we killed as ma(n)y as we chose for the sake of their fat or blubber to make Oil for our lamps and other uses… Here I display’d the British flag and named the harbour Christmas harbour as we entered it on that Festival” 

(Cook, Journals III, i, 29-32) 

Cook sailed east, arriving at Van Diemen’s Land/Tasmania (January 1777) and Queen Charlotte’s Sound, New Zealand (February). The Maori were wary at first, expecting Cook to take revenge for the killing of members of the Adventure’s crew in 1773, but instead Cook befriended the leader of the attack.The ships stayed for nearly two weeks in New Zealand, restocking with wild celery and scurvy grass and trading with the local Maori who set up a small village in Ship Cove. Cook set off around the islands of the south Pacific (February), visiting the Cook Islands (April); Tongan Islands (July); and Tahiti (August-December 1777) In 1778 Cook visited the Hawaiian islands, or Sandwich Islands as he named them, for the first time. Cook wrote: 

“We no sooner landed, that a trade was set on foot for hogs and potatoes, which the people gave us in exchange for nails and pieces of iron formed into some thing like chisels….At sun set I brought every body on board, having got during the day Nine tons of water….about sixty or eighty Pigs, a few Fowls, a quantity of potatoes and a few plantains and Tara roots.” 

(Cook, Journals III, i. 269 & 272) In February 1778 Cook sailed from the Hawaiian Islands across the north Pacific to the Oregan coast of North America. He travelled up the coast in bad weather until he found a safe harbour, Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, Canada. There he refitted the ships, explored the area and developed relations with the local people.

Cook left Nootka Sound in April 1778 and sailed north along the Alaskan coast looking for inlets that might lead to the Northwest passage but was then forced to turn south. By July he had rounded the Alaskan Peninsula and was able to sail north again, visiting the Chukotskiy Peninsula, Russia, before heading out into the Bering Sea.

After entering the Bering Sea on 11th August 1778, Cook crossed the Arctic Circle and went as far north as latitude 70 degrees 41’ North before being forced back by the pack ice off Icy Cape.