Maritime explorer and cartographer. Born near Middlesbrough. The first to map Newfoundland, explored around Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and made the first circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Killed in Kealakekua Bay by Hawaiian villagers during a fracas concerning the theft of one of Cook's small boats. Cook was held in high esteem by the chiefs so his body was given the same funeral rites that one of their elders would have received. It was disembowelled, baked and the bones cleaned. Following appeals from his comrades the remains were eventually returned for burial at sea.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Captain James Cook
Commemorated ati
Barking Abbey
Barking Abbey Was founded by St Erkenwald in the year 666. Destroyed by the D...
Captain Cook - E1
{Left-most panel:} He surveyed the St Lawrence River in 1759. In three voyag...
Captain Cook - E1 - lost plaque
This terracotta-coloured plaque is now in Australia (see eHive) with one of t...
Captain Cook - The Highway
The plaque gives Cook's address as 126 Upper Shadwell. Horward's 1799 map gi...
Captain James Cook statue
The original inscription stopped after "New Zealand." In 1928 the British Em...
Other Subjects
Daniel Bryant
Role on the lost expedition: Royal marine on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
William (Mole man) Lyttle
Known as the ‘Mole Man’ because he spent forty years digging a series of tunnels under his, and his neighbours' houses in Hackney. It was estimated that he had shovelled out over 100 cubic metres o...
1 memorial
Frederick Hornby
Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson
Born Cheltenham. One of Scott's four companions who died with him, returning from the South Pole. Cheltenham honours Wilson with a statue on the Promenade and an exhibition in the town museum.
2 memorials
John Ratcliffe
Mariner and colonist. His family name appears to have originally been Sicklemore, and why he chose to call himself Ratcliffe remains a riddle. He was captain of the 'Discovery', one of three ships ...
1 memorial