Feature Biography
James Cook (1728–1779)
James Cook (27 October 1728–14 February 1779), British navigator and explorer, was born in Yorkshire and began his seafaring career as an industrious 18-year-old apprentice to a shipowner and coal merchant at the port of Whitby. After six years of sailing the North Sea, he was offered the command of a merchant ship but instead volunteered for the Royal Navy at 26. Two years later, during service in the Seven Years War, he earned promotion to ship’s master and went in the Pembroke to Canada...