When Cook set sail with his H.M Bark Endeavour from Plymouth on august 26, 1768, his goal was not
the discovery of new continents. It was a scientific voyage to study Venus which was to transit
across the disk of the sun in the view from Earth on June 3, 1769. In 1716, Edmund Halley had
suggested that the distance from the sun to the Earth could be calculated by timing the transit
of Venus across the face of the Sun. When Cook was put in command over his ship he was quite young,
only 40 years of age. Cook was given his command because of his experience as a scientist of geography,
rather than his experience in the navy. Because Captain James Cook was a scientist above all, his
descriptions of the land he encountered were very valuable for the British Admiralty, unlike the
reports of the explorers before him, who were not scientists but travelers. On his first voyage
(with the ship Endeavour), Cook went to Tahiti, New Zealand, New Holland, Australia, New Guinea
and Batavia. He also took possession for the Crown of the "Society Islands" (a lot of small islands
close to Tahiti Cook named this way because his voyage was ordered by the Royal Society of Britain
who wanted a worldwide observation of Venus). Although Cook was not really the first to discover most
of this land, he is however the man who really brought them onto the map as we know them today. Captain
James Cook was killed on February 14, 1779 on his 3rd voyage when his ship, the H.M.S Resolution was
attacked by Hawaiians.
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