Ten fun facts about Captain James Cook
Fact 1
He joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755.
Fact 2
In three voyages, Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe.
Fact 3
As he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time.
Fact 4
Cook displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
Fact 5
Cook was killed in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.
Fact 6
Cook left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century.
Fact 7
Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Fact 8
Tahiti was so nice and the natives so friendly that some of Cook's crew wanted to stay.
Fact 9
The Maori warriors in New Zealand wore tattoos on their faces. Some of the Endeavour's sailors got tattoos on their arms and started a tradition that continues today.
Fact 10
James Cook might have been the original inventor of "portable soup", vegetable soup that was boiled down and reduced to a powder that could be reconstituted aboard ship.
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