Captain James Cook is the most famous explorer of the 18th century. He was born in Marton,
Yorkshire in England on the 27th of October in 1728 and spent seven years working for a
shipbuilding firm. He was aged 19 when he first went aboard a ship to sail and at the age 27
enrolled in the navy.
In 1768 Captain Cook began the first of three great Pacific journeys which would make him map out
the whole ocean from New Zealand to the Arctic in fact so accurately that his charts can still be used
up to this day. James spent over eight and a half years mapping unknown islands. This journey was
on the Endeavour while he was in command. His destination to start with was Tahiti so he could take
British astronomers to the island so they could observe the movement of Venus across the sun in
June of 1769
His next stop was New Zealand where he took proper control of areas from the main islands
and accurately charted 3860 km of coastline for the first time. During 1770 he discovered the
east coast of Australia. He mapped it and claimed the East Coast for Great Britain under the
name New South Wales.
Cook was then promoted rank of commander when he returned back to England in 1771.
Captain Cook's second great journey began in 1772 while he was in command of the
Resolution. He was accompanied by another ship named the Adventure and the task for them
was to search for the southern continent named Terra Australis. At the time Africa was thought
to be part of the continent.
After sailing along the Antarctic in the South Pacific James crossed the Antarctic Circle on
January the 16th 1773. It was there that he found the Islands that were soon later named after
him. In 1774 he discovered New Caledonia and Niue along with other Pacific Islands as he
mapped the New Hebrides, the Marquesas and Easter Island. Cook returned to England in 1775
where they made him a member of the Royal Society and was also awarded the Copley medal for
his scientific achievement.
Cook always insisted that hygiene and diet were kept at the best possible which resulted in the
smallest amount of scurvy cases amongst the crew during the journey. The three year exploration
was recognised for this and the fact that he had proven the Southern continent did not exist. All
that was visible and noticeable was the Antarctic region.
Captain Cook's final journey was to North America in 1776 searching for a Northwest Passage
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. During his travel he visited the Mid Pacific and
discovered and mapped the Hawaiian Islands. That was in 1778. James originally named the
Hawaiian Islands the Sandwich Islands after his friend and supporter John Montague.
James’s search for a Northwest Passage was not successful and he was forced to go back to
England due to ice in the Bering Strait. Cook finally anchored in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island
of Hawaii's Kona Coast. Cook was welcomed and one month later he left Hawaii. But the ship
was forced to return one week later because of the damaged foremast. After returning one of
Captain Cook’s guards was killed and one of the ship's longboats was stolen. This resulted in a
battle with the islanders. Cook met his death by the islanders throwing spears at him. His death
was the 14th of February in 1779 aged 50.
Captain cook is A number 8 on the Enneagram chart just like me. I think this
because he was very firm, confident, persuasive, intimidating, bossy and always
in need of controlling his own environment.
I say this because his boat was his environment and he made diet and hygiene
number one priority so no one would get sick and that resulted in a small amount
of people getting sick in the period of 2 years.
His firm because when he wanted to travel somewhere the crew were not
allowed to take any detours or change the route. He was confident because he
made a map of the whole sea and it was so accurate it is still used up to this day!.
He was persuasive by getting what he wanted, I mean seriously he got a group of
men to get on a boat with him and they had no idea where they were going or
what difficulties they could face. And he was intimidating because to the people
who doubted him and that he wouldn’t make it back guess what, he did.