Captain Cook and his early life in Staithes and Whitby

Whitby has the honour of being the place where the celebrated navigator Captain Cook commenced his maritime career.

Captain James Cook was born at Marton, an obscure village in the North-riding of Yorkshire, 27th October, 1728. His father lived in the capacity of a farmer's labourer, and his mother was a woman of the same condition. At Marton he received the first rudiments of his education from the school-mistress of the village; but his father having removed to a place called Airy Holme, being promoted to be a principal servant on a farm belonging to the late Thomas Skottow Esq., young Cook, who was then eight years of age, was sent to a day-school at Ayton at Mr. Skottow's expense, where he was instructed in writing, and a few of the first principles of arithmetic. Before he was thirteen years of age, he was bound apprentice to a haberdasher at Staiths, a small fishing-town near Whitby; but the following incident, the cause of a disagreement between him and his master, induced him to relinquish an obscure situation, and to engage in a more active scene of life where his talents were elicited, and shone forth with distinguished lustre. It one day happened that a young woman, in payment for some article purchased at the shop, gave Cook a new shilling, which caught the eye of his master. Cook attracted by its splendour, and to indulge a youthful curiosity, exchanged it for another out of his own pocket, but the master not afterward finding the new one in the till, hastily accused him of purloining his property. Cook, indignant at the charge, replied, that the new shilling was certainly in his pocket, but had been duly replaced by another; and unable to brook the accusation, never rested until he obtained his discharge. He then bound himself for seven years to Mr. Walker of Whitby, a Quaker, and owner of ships in the coal-trade. After the expiration of his servitude, he continued in the coal and other branches of trade as a common sailor, till at length he was preferred to be mate of one of Mr. Walker's ships. In the spring 1755, when hostilities commenced between England and France, he voluntarily entered into his Majesty's service, with Captain Hamer, who commanded the Eagle of sixty guns. To this ship was appointed Captain (the late Sir Hugh) Palliser, who soon distinguished Cook as an able and diligent seaman, and, in May 1759, made interest to have him promoted to be master of the Mercury. In this station he applied to the mathematics, astronomy, and other branches of science, and acquired a knowledge of marine surveying arid the construction of charts.

In 1762, he married (at Barking in Essex) Miss Elizabeth Batts, an amiable and deserving woman, who enjoyed his tenderest regard and affection.

In 1764, Sir Hugh Palliser being appointed governor of Newfoundland and Labradore, took Mr. Cook with him as Marine Surveyor, who in his capacity completed the object of his appointment, by a skilful and accurate survey of the coasts. The abilities of Mr. Cook were so universally acknowledged, that he was at length appointed a Commander in his Majesty's service and selected as a person eminently qualified to be sent on voyages of discovery. The many and useful discoveries which he made, and the difficulties which be surmounted, afford the most convincing proofs of his abilities, prudence, and moderation, and evince a steadiness of mind and an ardour of enterprise rarely to be found united in one man. But his honourable career was unhappily terminated by a sudden and ferocious assault of the savage natives of Owyhee, one of the islands which he had discovered in the Pacific Ocean. His memory will ever be dear to his country; and the name of Captain Cook, as a navigator, will be handed down to posterity, with those of the most celebrated seamen whom the world has ever produced.

From The History and Antiquities of Scarborough, and the Vicinity 1811.

OTHER ARTICLES
• Whitby history - The journal of Captain Cook - extracts from Tahiti
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• Tommy Rowley - stories about loss of life at sea
• Famous fishing families - the Whitby Storr family and the Leadleys
• Havens on the North Yorkshire coast. An article on scarboroughs maritime history by John Rushton
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• Carrying Coal to the Yorkshire Coast - John Rushton
• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
• Filey and its early fishing industry
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• Life in the Old Town of Scarborough and harbour - the fishing families
• Shipbuilding at Scarborough - the wooden barques and schooners
• History of the Whitby whaling industry
• Sea shanties and the filey Fishermen's choir
• The Captain and his wife
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• The history of the herring fishing in the North Sea
• Robin Hood's Bay - The Storm family website
• Scarboroughs Old Town and its connection to the sea

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