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James Cook
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Portrait of James Cook seated in a naval uniform, holding a map in his left hand and gazing to his right. World map tracing the routes of James Cook's three Pacific voyages, with red, green, and purple lines showing the paths of the Endeavour (1768-71), Resolution (1772-75), and Resolution (1776-79) respectively. The routes cross the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, visiting regions including Australia, New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, and the Antarctic Circle, with labeled stops and landfalls along the way.
Experience a tour of the replica of HMS Endeavour with James Cook aboard the voyage
James Cook: brass sextant HMS Endeavour Painting of Captain James Cook and British sailors raising a flag and claiming New South Wales in 1770, with ships anchored offshore and soldiers standing in formation. John Webber: View of Huahine James Cook Portrait of James Cook seated and dressed in 18th-century naval uniform, holding a map and gazing to his left.
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Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11. Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin, photographed July 20, 1969, during the first manned mission to the Moon's surface. Reflected in Aldrin's faceplate is the Lunar Module and astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took the picture.
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Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias on his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope; engraving, 1878. (exploration, Bartholomew Dias, Bartholomew Diaz)
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Mayflower. Plymouth. Photograph of the Mayflower II a full-scale reproduction of the Mayflower. The Mayflower II built in Devon, England, crossed the Atlantic in 1957 maintained by Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA.
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Portrait of James Cook seated in a naval uniform, holding a map in his left hand and gazing to his right.
James Cook James Cook.

James Cook

British naval officer
Written by
Alan John Villiers
President, Society for Nautical Research, London. Author of Captain James Cook; The Way of a Ship; and many others.
Alan John Villiers
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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•History

James Cook (born October 27, 1728, Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England—died February 14, 1779, Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii) was a British naval captain, navigator, and explorer who sailed the seaways and coasts of Canada (1759 and 1763–67) and conducted three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean (1768–71, 1772–75, and1776–79), ranging from the Antarctic ice fields to the Bering Strait and from the coasts of North America to Australia and New Zealand. James Cook was the son of a farmhand...

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