Captain James Cook - Marton

Captain James Cook was born in 1728 in Marton. James Cook went to school in Great Ayton and there is a monument to him on Easby Moor, southeast of the village that dominates the skyline. One of the world's great navigators and seafarers, who sailed the globe from the tropics to the frigid southern oceans of Antarctica, Cook is credited with both circumnavigating New Zealand and mapping the east coast of Australia. He landed in Botany Bay and took possession of Australia for England in 1770. Cook's true secret of success was his meticulous planning, including his insistence of on-board health, hygiene and the importance of fresh fruit in averting scurvy among his crew. He died in Hawaii in 1779.