Captain Cook’s first journey to Australia

Captain Cook’s life facts Born November 7, 1728 died February 14, 1779. Born in England to a poor family. Joined the Navy in 1755 as a teenager. He was a explorer, navigator, cartographer and eventually Captain of the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific exploring Australia, Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand.

Captain Cook’s Voyages Legend: first trip Green. Second Trip Red Captain Cook’s Voyages Legend: first trip Green. Second Trip Red. Third Trip Blue.

The reason for Captain Cooks Voyages In 1768, Cook began the first of the three great Pacific voyages which would see him chart the whole ocean, from New Zealand to the Arctic, so accurately that his charts can still be used today. Cook spent over eight and a half years charting previously unknown islands. Cook's ship for his first Pacific voyage was H.M. Bark Endeavour. The aim of the voyage was to observe the passage of Venus over the disc of the Sun from Tahiti and then to search for a "Great Southern Continent" south of Tahiti. Endeavour left Plymouth on 25 August 1768, called at Madeira and Rio de Janeiro and, after rounding Cape Horn, reached Tahiti on 10 April 1769. The transit of Venus was duly recorded on 3 June 1769 and Cook soon began the second part of the voyage.