James Cook

James Cook, who discovered New Zealand and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, wasn’t only a sailor. He was also a mapmaker and interested in science. He came from a poor English farming family. He became a sailor when he was young. He studied mathematics and astronomy and became an expert mapmaker. He sailed to Tahiti on a ship named Endeavour in 1768. They collected plants and animals in Tahiti and drew the pictures of them.

 

James Cook got a letter from the King of England. The king wanted him to sail and look for another continent. Cook sailed to New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. He took these new lands for the king. He also drew accurate maps of all these places.

 

Cook went on two more voyages. First he went to an island named Easter Island. They saw huge stone heads on the island. After Easter Island he sailed again and this time he explored Hawaiian Islands. At first, the local people in Hawaii were nice to them, but then things changed and Cook had to leave the island with his men. Six days later the ship a problem and Cook returned to Hawaii. While he was staying there, there was a fight and someone killed him. 

Two hundred years later a small piece of James Cook’s ship the Endeavour went into space on the U.S space shuttle also with the name Endeavour.