Born October 27, 1728 in the village of Marton (Yorkshire). The ninth child in a family of day laborers on the farm.At age 13, he entered the service of the merchant haberdasher.At age 18, left the house and got a cabin boy on a ship to transport coal. During this period, Cook seriously engaged in self-education, buying books, spending on them most of his salary.In 1755, during the war with France, he was taken as a sailor on a warship. Cook proved himself as a talented cartographer: compiled them map the St. Lawrence River in Canada allowed the British to successfully attack the city of Quebec. A composed Cook subsequently cards Labrador coast of the peninsula enjoyed even in the beginning of XX century.In 1768 forty Cook made an officer, and in the same year he was entrusted to lead an expedition to the Southern Hemisphere. The voyage lasted almost three years - from August 1768 to June 1771 After rounding Cape Horn, June 3, 1769 Cook reached Tahiti, where researchers were going to spend astronomical observations. However, the necessary equipment was stolen natives. The ship moved further south and in the autumn of 1769 reached the New Zealand. It turned out that this is not the cape of the southern continent, as previously thought, and the two islands. Since the passage between them is called the Cook Strait. Then the sailors explored the east coast of Australia and England have claimed the territory. In addition, opened the Great Barrier Reef.In the second expedition (July 13, 1772 - July 29, 1775) ships were unable to break through the ice to the southern continent. Cook explored the boundaries of ice and made detailed maps. Explorers discovered an archipelago of Tonga and New Caledonia.The third and last voyage Cook (July 12, 1776 - October 4, 1780) was intended to find the so-called Great passage connecting two oceans in the north. However, after passing through the Bering Strait, the ships because of ice were able to reach only 71 parallel. Cook decided to wait until next summer and ordered to return to Hawaii, he discovered a little earlier.Hostile natives killed Cook February 14, 1779, and his ships returned to England under the command of George. Gore.