James Cook (Captain James Cook!) Is a famous navigator, to whom we all owe a huge number of geographic discoveries that he made. True, most people only know that Cook has discovered some new land, after which he was killed by the natives on one of the tropical islands. Yes, it’s all true, but you can tell about Cook much more interesting.
The islands of Fiji owe their name to Cook. Actually they were called “Fisi”, but Cook made a mistake in the ship’s log, having written them as “Fiji”. Nevertheless, Cook’s authority was so great that it was decided to leave the name.
Captain Cook three times circumnavigated the world.
The Cook Islands were named in his honor, however, contrary to popular belief, he was not killed there at all.
Contrary to the prevalent myth, Cooks did not eat any natives. Yes, they killed him during the conflict that broke out between them and Cook’s team, but they paid a high price for this – they were infuriated by the death of their captain, the sailors practically wiped out the entire tribe from the face of the earth.
The place of death of Captain Cook is the Hawaiian Island.
It was Cook who first learned to fight with scurvy – a disease that had previously been a real scourge of all seafarers.
Among his contemporaries, Cook was distinguished for his extremely tolerant and benevolent relations with the aborigines of various places that he visited his expeditions.
The maps drawn by Cook were so precise and so skilfully executed that seafarers used them until the middle of the 19th century.
His career as a seafarer Cook began with the position of a juni on a brig carrying coal.
Thanks to Cook, it was possible to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun, more precisely, thanks to astronomical observations of Venus, which Cook spent during his first round-the-world expedition.
