Personal details
Full Name:
- James Cook
Lifetime:
- 27 Oct 1728–14 Feb 1779
Captain James Cook, the first European to define the outline of New Zealand, has left a permanent imprint on the consciousness of New Zealanders.
Read more...Events In History
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17 December 1773Ten crew from the Adventure killedAt Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, 10 men serving on the ship accompanying James Cook's Resolution died at the hands of Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne. Read more...
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20 May 1773New Zealand's first sheep releasedDuring his second voisit to New Zealand in 1773, James Cook released a ewe and a ram in Queen Charlotte Sound. They survived only a few days – an inauspicious start to this country’s long association with sheep. Read more...
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1 April 1773First beer brewed in New ZealandIn an attempt to concoct a preventative against scurvy, Captain James Cook brewed a batch of beer on Resolution Island in Dusky Sound, using rimu branches and leaves. Read more...
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16 February 1770Cook sights Banks 'Island'Lieutenant James Cook sighted Banks Peninsula from the Endeavour. The following day he decided it was an island, which he named for the expedition's botanist, Joseph Banks. Read more...
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9 February 1770Cook completes circumnavigation of North IslandThe Endeavour's arrival at Cape Turnagain confirmed that the North Island was indeed an island, not part of a fabled great southern continent. Read more...
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9 November 1769Cook observes transit of MercuryJames Cook helped his astronomer Charles Green observe the transit of Mercury at Te Whanganui-o-Hei (Mercury Bay), Coromandel Peninsula. Read more...
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6 October 1769Young Nick sights landShip’s boy Nicholas Young received a gallon of rum and had a headland named after him for being the first aboard HMS Endeavour to spot land in the south-west Pacific. Read more...
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Main image: James Cook
Photolithographic portrait of James Cook, 1784.
