Who can tell me something about Captain Cook?

James cook was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. He is famous all over the world because he has made three expeditions. Through these explorations, he added new contents to people's geographical knowledge about the ocean, especially the Pacific Ocean. He is also believed to have contributed to the prevention of scurvy during long-term navigation by improving the diet of the crew, including increasing fruits and vegetables. Captain Cook's great voyages in the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica made great contributions to the development of world science, and he was also the first person to draw a chart of the east coast of Australia.

Cook was born on 1728127 October in a poor peasant family in Yorkshire, England. At the age of 18, he got a job with a ship owner and sailed to the Baltic Sea several times. When the Anglo-French War broke out, he was drafted into the Royal Navy as a strong sailor. In less than a month, he was promoted to first mate. Four years later, he was promoted to captain. 1759, he authorized a ship to participate in the battle on the St. Lawrence River. 1763 After the war, Cook, as the captain of the schooner "grenville", undertook the investigation of New Zealand, Labrador and Nova Scotia. In more than four years, he has made many important achievements. These results were later published by the British government.

captain cook's cottage

1768 On August 26th, Cook set sail with Endeavour to inspect the Venus Passage in the Pacific Ocean and the new islands in the sea area. He was accompanied by an astronomer, two botanists and a painter who was good at natural history. He sailed south first, then west, bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in Tahiti on April 1769+03. After investigating the course of Venus, his research ship sailed for New Zealand on June 3rd. He stayed there for six months and marked two islands on the chart. Later, he sailed along the east coast of Australia. He named Australia New South Wales and claimed that the ownership belonged to England.

After sailing to Java, he crossed the strait between Australia and New Guinea, took the Indian Ocean, bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and returned to England. He arrived in England on June 2nd. In July 1772, Cook set sail from England again. The purpose of his voyage is to confirm the report that there is still a continent in the south. He ventured south along the African coast. Arrived near the Cape of Good Hope and began to cross the Atlantic Ocean. By June 1773, 1, I had traveled around the Atlantic, but I didn't find the "southern continent". Later, he sailed to New Zealand. From there, he visited New hebrides, drew Easter Island and Marquesas Islands, and visited Tahiti and tonga islands. In addition, he discovered New Caledonia, palmerston, Norfolk and Niue. 1775 On July 29th, he returned to England.

Cook and his fleet

Cook's third and last voyage set sail from England on July 1776. The goal this time is to explore the North Pacific and find a way to bypass North America and lead to the Atlantic Ocean. After bypassing the Cape of Good Hope, Cook crossed the Indian Ocean to New Zealand. From there, we sailed to Tahiti. Then they continued to sail. They saw an island on Christmas Eve. He named the island "Christmas Island". Sailing further north, he found the Hawaiian Islands. 1778 In February, they saw the present Oregon coast, returned to sail north, and crossed the Bering Sea and Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean. Later, he returned to Hawaii because he couldn't find the eastward channel. There, on February 1779, he was killed by local aborigines.

Captain Cook

Author: Dream Journey

James cook was an English explorer and navigator. He has made three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean to explore the coastline along the Pacific Ocean. He is also a map maker; Inventor of a longitude instrument for determining the position of a ship at sea; He was also the first captain to discover and treat septicemia. Commonly known as Captain Cook.

According to records, New Zealand and Australia in the southern hemisphere were first discovered by james cook. Today, the strait between the North Island and the South Island of New Zealand is named Cook Strait after him. There is also an archipelago in the South Pacific named Cook Islands after him.

all one's life

1720 and 1730s- 1728 were born in Yorkshire, England and are Scottish immigrants.

1740s- started sailing as a sailor, but only worked in the waters near Britain.

1750s-Joined the Royal Navy and was sent to North America to participate in the Anglo-French War.

1760s-Cook began his 20-year expedition and died in Hawaii on 1779. The cause of death is still unknown. It is understood that he was killed after a conflict with Hawaiian aborigines. During his three Long March, the accompanying painters john weber, john weber and William hodges of William hodges left many precious nautical drawing records.

The first expedition

Cook started his first expedition in 1768. On August 26th of that year, he set sail from Plymouth, England, crossed the whole Atlantic Ocean, passed through Brazil, then bypassed Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, entered the Pacific Ocean, arrived in Tahiti Island in the South Pacific in April of the following year (1769), and then sailed westward to New Zealand. After exploring the South Island and the North Island, I went west to Australia. Then go north through Java and the Indian Ocean, return from the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, and 177 1 arrive in Britain.

The second expedition

1772 Cook left Britain for the South Pacific again. This time, in the opposite direction, he bypassed the Cape of Good Hope in Africa from west to east and south, crossed the Antarctic Circle and arrived in New Zealand. Then he spent a lot of time exploring the islands in the middle of the triangle formed by Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, including Easter Island, Tonga, New hebrides, New Caledonia and norfolk island. Then through South America, the Atlantic Ocean, back to Britain 1775.

In the history of human exploration, Cook was the first person who sailed around the earth from west to east and confirmed the existence of the Antarctic continent.

The third expedition

On July 1776 and 12, Cook went from west to east again, ready to explore the North Pacific. He bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, passed through the Indian Ocean, Australia and New Zealand, then went north, and then went north from Tahiti, and found Oahu, Kuy and Nihao. Which is the Hawaiian Islands today. 1778 In February, he reached the Oregon coast of North America eastward and explored the Arctic Ocean northward. It is known that they passed through the Bering Sea and the Bering Strait, but they could not cross the Arctic Ocean, so they had to go south and return to Hawaii. On February 14, Cook died in Hawaii. The following year (1780), 65438+1October 4th, his ship? Courage? ("Endeavour") returned to England.

Today, in Melbourne and Canberra, Australia, there are still Cook's hut and a huge fountain named after him, which is as high as 137 meters.

Story: The indissoluble bond between Captain Cook and transit of venus.

Almost every 120 years, a black spot passes through the sun once. This dark spot is almost a perfect circle, but it is not an ordinary black spot because not everyone can see it. As one of the greatest navigators and explorers in history, james cook, the world-famous Captain Cook, also has an indissoluble bond with transit of venus.

Captain Cook was ordered out.

1August 782 12, Captain Cook led the Endeavour to anchor from Plymouth, England, and sailed for Tahiti. Tahiti is an island in the South Pacific. It was just "discovered" by Europeans a year ago. It is a barren and undeveloped land. At that time, even cartographers probably didn't know whether there was a continent in that corner of the earth.

For Cook, that voyage was no less difficult than modern people's exploration of the moon or Mars. He wants to lead Endeavour to sail thousands of miles in the vast ocean, looking for a piece of land only 20 miles away from Fiona Fang. At that time, they didn't have navigation equipment like GPS, or even an accurate watch. During the voyage, dangerous storms will suddenly appear without warning (which is indeed the case). Some unknown life forms are also waiting in the depths of the ocean. Cook fully expected that half of the crew on board might not return to England.

But Cook knows that the adventure is worthwhile, because this voyage can not only find the mainland, but also observe the rare transit of venus. Cook wrote in the log book: "At 2 o'clock in the afternoon (1August 782 12), we anchored for a long voyage with 94 people on board." Joseph banks, a young British botanist aboard Endeavour, had a more romantic idea. He wrote: "We left Europe and headed for heaven. I don't know how long it will take, maybe forever. " Their mission is to arrive in Tahiti before 1769, and then settle on the island, and set up an observatory to observe the transit of venus phenomenon, hoping to calculate the scale of the solar system through the observation of transit of venus. It was the Royal Academy that provided funds for Cook's trip to realize this scientific wish.

The scale of the solar system is one of the most important problems in the scientific community in the18th century, which is similar to the properties of dark matter and dark energy at present. In Cook's time, astronomers only knew that six planets revolved around the sun, but did not find Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Besides, they only know the relative distance between these planets. Take Jupiter as an example. It is five times as far away from the sun as it is from the earth. But how far are they? What is their absolute distance? All this was unknown at the time.

But Venus is the key to solving this mystery. Sir edmund halley recognized this in 17 16. Because from the earth, Venus occasionally crosses the sun. It is like a dark disk, slowly passing through the sunspot. Harley concluded that if we observe the start and end times of transit of venus phenomenon from different places on the earth, astronomers can use the parallax principle to calculate the distance between the earth and Venus, and then calculate the scale of the remaining stars in the solar system.

But the problem is that transit of venus is really rare, and it appears about four times every 243 years. The regularity of this astronomical phenomenon is usually 8 years, 12 1.5 years, 8 years, 105.5 years, and so on. Harley himself didn't get a chance to see transit of venus in his lifetime. An international research team once calculated the transit of venus time as 176 1, but due to weather and other factors, most of the data they calculated were inaccurate. If Cook and others failed to observe transit of venus in 1769, then all astronomers on the earth may have died before the next "transit of venus" appears in 1874.

A cruel journey at sea

Cook's long journey is often compared to a space exploration mission. When describing Cook's trip in Blue Latitude, Tony Huo Weici wrote: "Endeavour's mission is not only a journey of discovery, but also a laboratory for testing the latest theories and technologies, which is as important as today's spacecraft."

In particular, the crew of Endeavour are like guinea pigs (often used for experiments) in the process of the navy's struggle against "maritime disaster"-scurvy. The human body can only store vitamin C for about 6 weeks. Once these vitamin C are used up, sailors will generally feel tired, and even their gums will rot and bleed a lot. In the18th century, half the crew of some ships usually died of scurvy. "Endeavour" was loaded with all kinds of experimental food, and Cook forced the crew to eat some pickles, wort and the like. If someone refuses to eat, he will be whipped.

According to Huo Weici, in fact, in those days, any cook would whip his crew for several days on average. 1769 When they arrived in Tahiti, Cook and his crew had sailed westward for eight months, which was equivalent to the time that modern astronauts spent on their way to Mars. By the time Endeavour sailed to Cape Horn, five crew members had died, and another desperate sailor committed suicide by jumping into the sea during Endeavour's subsequent 10 voyage in the Pacific Ocean. Because Endeavour sailed to Tahiti at an angle, it was extremely vulnerable to storms. In addition, Endeavour has no contact with any "control center", and there is no satellite meteorological image to warn the storm in advance, so this voyage can be described as dangerous. However, Cook is unique. He navigated with an hourglass, measured the speed of Endeavour with knotted ropes, and estimated the position of Endeavour by observing the stars with sextant and almanac. This is both witty and dangerous.

It is worth noting that they finally arrived in Tahiti on April 3, 1769, about two months ahead of transit of venus. Cook wrote in the log: "At this time, only a few of us are on the disabled list ... the crew are generally healthy, mainly because they ate kimchi." However, Cook and his crew are very strange to Tahiti, which may be just like we are now to Mars. But you don't need a "spacesuit" to survive in Tahiti. On the contrary, the island is quite comfortable and has the necessities of human life. The residents of the island are also very friendly and eager to trade with Cook and them. Banks thinks this is "the truest portrayal of Xanadu" ... one's ideal home. However, the animals, plants and customs in Tahiti are completely different from those in Britain, and this difference is simply surprising. The crew of Endeavour was intoxicated and full of curiosity about it.

There are not many observation records left.

No wonder Cook and Banks described this phenomenon in only a few words when transit of venus finally appeared on June 3rd, 769. Using a special telescope brought from England, they observed that Venus turned into a small black dot and slowly passed through the dazzling solar disk, but this phenomenon could not be compared with the charm of Tahiti itself. Banks' journal describes the transit of venus phenomenon that day in 622 words, of which only no more than 100 words are about Venus.

This is mainly because Banks is recording his breakfast conversation with King Truer of Tahiti and Nuna, the king's sister, and the visit of "three beautiful ladies" to him later that day. When talking about Venus, Banks said: "I went to the Observatory with King Twattel, Nuna and several of their main entourage to observe with my colleagues. We let them see Venus crossing the sun and let them understand the purpose of our visit. After that, they left, and I followed. " Whether King Butter or Banks left a deep impression on transit of venus, Banks has no record.

Cook's description is a little more detailed: "It can be said that it was a dream, and the sky was clear and Wan Li, which was very suitable for observation. We have all the advantages that we want to observe the whole process of transit of venus: we can see the atmosphere or hazy shadows around Venus very clearly, but it also interferes with the precise time when we see Venus in contact with the sun. " "Dark shadows around Venus" has always been a big problem. The strong sunlight passing through Venus' atmosphere blurs the edge of Venus' disk, which reduces the accuracy of Cook's calculation of transit of venus's appearance time. It is for this reason that Cook's calculation of transit of venus's appearance time is inconsistent with some data of astronomer Charles Green on Endeavour, and their observation of transit of venus's appearance time is about 42 seconds apart.

Both Cook and Green have observed the "black drop effect". When Venus approaches the edge of the sun-the most critical moment to calculate the time of transit of venus's appearance-the black area on the edge of the sun seems to be slowly contacting Venus. You can also put your thumb and forefinger very close to demonstrate the "black drop effect": put two fingers in front of your eyes, and then gradually narrow the distance between them. Before two fingers touch, you will see a dark band in the thin seam between them. "This is just the result of two fuzzy gradients from light to dark," John West Farben wrote to Sky and Telescope magazine last month. The "black drop effect" (such as the fuzzy phenomenon of Venus' atmosphere) makes it difficult for astronomers to point out the start and end times of transit of venus.

The "black drop effect" is not only a problem of Cook in Tahiti, but also a problem of all observers in the world. In fact, even though astronomers from all over the world made great efforts, they (including Cook) observed the transit of venus phenomenon of 1769 at 76 observation points on the earth, but it was not accurate enough to measure the scale of the solar system. It was not until the19th century that astronomers recorded a group of photos of transit of venus with photographic technology before calculating the size of the solar system.

Observation has become a "trivial matter"

Cook didn't care too much about those things at that time, because he still had a lot to do. A secret order of the Royal Navy ordered him to leave Tahiti immediately after observing transit of venus, and to look for a continent or a large piece of land between Tahiti and New Zealand. For most of the second year, Endeavour has been sailing in the South Pacific, looking for the mainland.

/kloc-some scientists in the 0/8th century declared that in order to balance the situation that the rapid population growth in the northern hemisphere leads to the relative decrease of land, human beings must find a continent suitable for human habitation. At that time, the crew of Endeavour didn't even see land for nearly two months. Even Cook speculated that there may be no unexplored land or unknown "southern hemisphere land". During the trip, Cook met brave New Zealand Maori and Australian aborigines and discovered thousands of miles of coastline in New Zealand and Australia. Endeavour also collided with the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and almost sank.

Later, Cook stopped in Jakarta for 10 weeks to overhaul Endeavour, when seven sailors died of scurvy. Jakarta is densely populated and diseases are spreading everywhere. Cook intended to leave there as soon as possible, but it took too long to repair the ship. As a result, 38 people, including astronomer Charles Green, died. They first sailed with Endeavour (eight people later joined), and most of them died of diseases infected in Jakarta. Huo Weici wrote: "The 40% casualty rate of Endeavour was not surprising at that time. In fact, Cook was later praised for his concern about the abnormal health of the crew. "

1771July 1 1 day, Endeavour returned to Dear, England. The surviving crew traveled around the world, recorded thousands of plants, insects and animals, met several new races, and never gave up their efforts to find the mainland. It was an epic voyage, but in Cook's expedition, observing transit of venus became a "trivial matter". Because he was too intoxicated with the local customs of Tahiti and influenced by the "black drop effect", his observation results were not ideal. But it was because of that voyage that people linked Venus with Cook. In fact, perhaps we can say that the best reason to observe transit of venus is because of james cook.

Now, we will see this once-in-a-century astronomical phenomenon, so don't miss it. On the 8th of this month, transit of venus will appear again. At that time, we could learn about transit of venus through the Internet or the radio, or we could set up a telescope to observe for ourselves. A careful observation of how the dark disk of Venus slowly passes through the sun can also take you back to a different time and space:1Tahiti in 769, an era when part of the earth has not been explored. Will you miss such an opportunity? (Compile/Ren Qiuling)