| Description | Manuscript, c1760, entitled 'Directions for sailing from the harbour of Halifax to Quebec, by James Cook, Master of His Majesty's Ship Northumberland'. The text is written in Cook's hand throughout. Pasted into the manuscript are a table showing latitude and longitude of capes etc (f 17r) and a list of names, mostly of chiefs from Tahiti encountered on Cook's first voyage in the Endeavour (f 18r).
From c1750 Masters of HM Ships were required by the Admiralty to keep Remark Books of details of coasts and ports they visited. James Cook followed this practice when serving in HMS Pembroke and HMS Northumberland on the North American Station from 1758 to 1762. |
| AdminHistory | James Cook was born in Marton, Cleveland, 1728 and was later apprenticed to shipowners in Whitby. He became master of his own ship, HMS Northumberland, in 1759. Tthe following winter, while laid up in Halifax, he studied mathematics and attained a sound knowledge of astronomical navigation; he went on to become an eminent circumnavigator and made many geographical discoveries, including establishing knowledge of the Southern Pacific. He kept a crew at sea without serious losses from sickness and death, which was unusual at that time, but was killed by natives of Hawaii in 1779. |