Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook FRS RN (27 October 1728 (O.S.) - 14 February 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. Ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy, Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages on his ship HMS Endeavour to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

In 1778 he became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands. In passing and after initial landfall in January 1778 at Waimea harbour, Kauai, Cook named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich, the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.

Cook died in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.

Numerous institutions, landmarks and place names worldwide reflect the importance of Cook's contribution to our knowledge of geography.