Among all those Englishmen who, from a humble origin, have risen to an
honourable position, Captain James Cook is especially worthy of record.
His parents were of the peasant class--his father having commenced life
as a farm-labourer, and his mother being a cottager's daughter.
Probably, however, they were both superior to others of the same
station, as the husband, in process of time, became farm-bailiff to his
employer--a Mr Thomas Skottowe. This was about the year 1730, and the
farm of which he had the management was called Airy-Holme, near Ayton,
in Yorkshire. Not far from this place, at the village of Marton, near
Stockton-upon-Tees; his son James was born, on October 27, 1728. James
was one of nine children, all of whom he survived, with the exception of
a sister who married a fisherman at Redcar.
The father of this family spent the latter years of his life with his
daughter at Redcar, and was supposed to have been about eighty-five
years old at the time of his death; so that he must have had the
satisfaction of seeing his son rising in his profession, though probably
he little thought of that son as establishing a fame which would be
handed down in history.
James Cook does not appear to have enjoyed any peculiar educational
advantages, but owed his subsequent advancement chiefly to his own
intelligence, perseverance, and diligence. He first went to a village
school, and was afterwards sent, at the expense of Mr Skottowe, to an
ordinary commercial school, kept by a Mr Pullen. He continued there
four years, and was then apprenticed to Mr William Sanderson, a grocer
and haberdasher at the fishing town of Straiths, ten miles from Whitby.
It may be supposed that the occupation in which he was engaged was not
suited to his taste. The sea was constantly before his eyes, and the
desire to seek his fortune on it sprang up within him, and grew stronger
and stronger, till in about a year after he went to Straiths he obtained
a release from his engagement with Mr Sanderson, and apprenticed
himself to Messrs. Walker and Company, shipowners of Whitby. He went to
sea for the first time when he was about eighteen, on board one of their
vessels--the Truelove collier, [Note 1] of four hundred and fifty tons
burden, trading between Newcastle and London. The lad soon showed that
he was well fitted for his new profession, and in 1748, not two years
after he had commenced it, we find him especially directed to assist in
fitting for sea the Three Brothers, a new ship of six hundred tons.
While he served on board this ship she was hired by Government as a
transport; and on her being paid off she was employed in the Norway
trade.
After making several voyages in the Three Brothers up the Baltic, young
Cook was promoted to the rank of mate on board the Friendship. He had
by this time gained the goodwill of his employers; and had made several
other friends on shore, who, before long, were enabled to render him
essential service. He was now known as a thorough seamen; indeed, from
the moment he went on board ship, he had steadily applied his mind to
acquiring a knowledge of his profession. Still he served on as mate of
the Friendship till the breaking out of the war between England and
France in 1756, when he made up his mind to push his fortunes in the
Royal Navy. He knew that at all events there was a great probability of
his being pressed into the service, and he had good reason to hope that
he might be placed ere long on the quarter-deck, since many young men at
that time had been who went to sea, as he had done, before the mast. He
accordingly volunteered, and entered as an able seaman on board the
Eagle, of sixty guns, then commanded by Captain Hamer, but shortly
afterwards by Captain Palliser, who became the well-known Sir Hugh
Palliser--Cook's warm and constant friend.
As soon as the young sailor's Yorkshire friends heard that he had
entered on board a man-of-war, they exerted themselves on his behalf,
and a letter of introduction was procured from Mr Osbaldeston, Member
for the county, to his captain, who, having already remarked the
intelligence and assiduity Cook exhibited in all his professional
duties, was the more ready to give him a helping hand.
Considering how best he could assist the young man, who had served too
short a time in the Navy to obtain a commission, Captain Palliser
advised that a master's warrant should be procured for him--this being a
position for which, both from age and experience, he was well fitted.
[Note 2.] This was done; and on May 10, 1759, James Cook was appointed
to the Grampus, sloop of war, and was now in a fair way of gaining the
object of his ambition. He had, however, to undergo a trial of patience
at the first outset of his career; for the former master returning, his
appointment was cancelled. His friends were not idle, and four days
after this he was made master of the Garland; but on going to join her
he found that she had already sailed for her destination. On the
following day, May 15, he was appointed to the Mercury, on the point of
sailing for the North American station to join the fleet under Sir
Charles Saunders, which, in conjunction with the army under General
Wolfe, was engaged in the siege of Quebec. The termination of that
contest gained for Great Britain one of her finest provinces. To this
success Cook contributed in his particular department; and it is
remarkable that he should have been in various ways instrumental in
giving to his country the three finest provinces she possesses--Canada,
the Australian settlements, and New Zealand.
James Cook was now about thirty-two years of age, and although the
position in life he had filled for the previous twelve years was not one
(especially in those days) conducive to refinement of manners, he
appears from the first to have conducted himself with propriety and
credit. He had already shown his superiority as a seaman. He was now
to exhibit his talents in the more scientific part of his profession, in
which officers in the Navy were in those days greatly deficient.
It was necessary to take the soundings in the channel of the Saint
Lawrence, between the Isle of Orleans and the north shore, directly in
front of the French fortified camp of Montmorency and Beauport, in order
to enable the admiral to place his ships so as to oppose the enemy's
batteries, and to cover the projected landing of the British army under
Wolfe, and a general attack on their camp. Captain Palliser, who now
commanded the Shrewsbury, a seventy-four gun ship, recommended Cook for
this difficult and dangerous service. He was engaged on it for many
consecutive nights, it being a work which could not be performed in the
daytime. At length his proceedings were discovered by the French, who
laid a plan to catch him. They concealed in a wood near the water a
number of Indians with their canoes. As the Mercury's barge, in which
Cook was making the survey, passed, the canoes darted out on him and
gave chase. His only chance of escape was to run for it. He pushed for
the Isle of Orleans with a whole host of yelling savages paddling at
full speed after him. On they came, every moment gaining on his boat.
The English hospital, where there was a guard, was before him; towards
this he steered, the bows of the Indian canoes almost touching the
barge's stern; a few strokes more, and the Indians would have grappled
him. He sprang from his seat over the bow of his boat, followed by his
crew, just as the enemy leaped in overwhelming numbers over the
quarters. They carried off the barge in triumph, but Cook and his
comrades escaped; and he succeeded, in spite of all difficulties, in
furnishing the admiral with a correct and complete draft of the channel
and soundings. This was the more extraordinary, as Sir Hugh Palliser
afterwards expressed his belief that before this time Cook had scarcely
ever used a pencil, and knew nothing of drawing; and it is one of many
proofs that the ardent seaman not only threw his soul into the duties of
his profession, but that this determination enabled him quickly to
master every subject to which he applied his mind.
While his ship remained in the Saint Lawrence, Cook, at the desire of
the admiral, made an accurate survey of the more difficult parts of that
river below Quebec. So complete and perfect was the chart which he
executed, and which, with his sailing directions, was afterwards
published, that until a late period no other was thought necessary. So
little were the English acquainted with the navigation of the river
before this, that when, early in the season, the fleet under
Rear-Admiral Darell arrived at its mouth, some difficulty was expected
in getting up it. Fortunately, when off the island of Caudec, the
inhabitants, mistaking the English ships for their own fleet, sent off
their best pilots. These were of course detained, and proved of great
use in taking the English fleet up the river.
After the conquest of Canada had been accomplished, Admiral Saunders
despatched the larger ships to England, following himself in the
Somerset, and leaving the command of the fleet in North America to
Captain Lord Colvill, who had his commodore's flag flying on board the
Northumberland. To this ship Cook was appointed as master, by warrant
from his lordship, on September 22, 1739. The squadron wintered at
Halifax. Cook employed the leisure which the winter afforded him in
acquiring that knowledge which especially fitted him for the service in
which he was thereafter to be engaged. At Halifax he first read Euclid,
and began to study astronomy and other branches of science, in which,
considering the few books to which he had access, and the want of
assistance from others, he made wonderful progress. In the following
year, 1760, a lieutenant's commission was presented to him as a reward
for his services.
In 1762 the Northumberland was engaged in the recapture of Newfoundland.
The activity which Cook displayed in surveying its harbour and heights
attracted the attention of Captain Graves, the acting governor, and
commander of the Antelope. Captain Graves, on becoming farther
acquainted with Cook, formed a high opinion of his abilities, while he
admired the energy and perseverance he exhibited in surveying the
neighbouring coasts and harbours.
At the end of the year Cook went to England, and on December 21 he
married, at Barking, in Essex, Miss Elizabeth Batts, a young lady of
respectable family, to whom he had some time before been engaged. As
she died in 1835, at the age of ninety-three, she must at the time of
her marriage have been twenty years old. Her husband was tenderly
attached to her, but his married life, like that of most sailors, had
long and frequent interruptions. She bore him six children, three of
whom died in their infancy.
Soon after Cook's marriage, peace with France and Spain was concluded.
On this Captain Graves was again appointed Governor of Newfoundland. As
the island was of great importance to England, he obtained from the
Government, with some difficulty, an establishment for the survey of its
coasts, and offered the direction of it to Cook, who, notwithstanding
his recent marriage, accepted the offer. In the following year, 1764,
Sir Hugh Palliser being appointed Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador,
Cook was made Marine Surveyor of the Province, the Grenville schooner
being placed under his command. The charts made by Cook enlightened the
Government as to the value of Newfoundland, and induced them, when
drawing up articles of peace with France, to insist on arrangements
which secured to Great Britain the advantages which its coasts afford.
Not content, however, with merely surveying the shore, Cook penetrated
into the interior of the country, and discovered several lakes hitherto
unknown.
On August 5 an eclipse of the sun occurred, an observation of which was
taken by Cook from one of the Burgeo Islands, near the south-west end of
Newfoundland. The paper that he wrote on it was published in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. This fact alone proves
that he must already have become a good mathematician and astronomer.
The last time he went to Newfoundland as marine surveyor was in 1767.
We have now briefly traced the career of James Cook from his childhood
to the period when he had established his character as an able seaman, a
scientific navigator, and a good officer. He was soon to have an
opportunity of proving to his country and to the world in general the
very high degree in which he possessed these qualities, and which
enabled him to accomplish an undertaking which has proved of inestimable
benefit to millions of the human race. By his means, discovery was made
of fertile lands of vast extent, previously trodden only by the feet of
wandering savages; and numberless tribes, sunk in the grossest idolatry
and human degradation, were made known to the Christian world. And
Christians, roused at length to a sense of their responsibility, began
to devise means, under the blessing of God, for teaching these, their
ignorant brethren of the human family, the knowledge of the only true
God, and the way of eternal life.
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Note 1. In the biographies of Cook the name of the vessel in which he
first went to sea is given as the Freelove--evidently a misprint. I
have never known a vessel of that name, whereas the Truelove is a
favourite name.
Note 2. Masters in the Navy were in those days appointed by warrant,
and were very generally taken direct from the merchant service without
going through any preparatory grade, as at present. They are now also
commissioned officers, and on retiring receive commanders' rank.