Captain James Cook - Research Paper Example

According to the "Captain James Cook" findings, born in 1728 and killed at the age of 50 during his third voyage to the island of Hawaii, Cook is a symbol of bravery and is a part of the heritage in those countries to which he discovered the ways of contact. He was not the one who intended to rule everywhere he went, either by hook or crook; rather, he left a legacy of wisdom and knowledge. He traveled in the vast Pacific ocean, developing routes for trade and to explore a new world and new people.

His mapping was full of skill and exact up to the extent no one of those times could reach. The greatest contribution from him that was never done is that he noticed and recorded the geographical features of the places he visited (Beales 2006). Cook contributed to the world in many ways. He used astrology and its effects on oceans and making of tides for his own purposes of sailing. In the year 1776, he was assigned his first voyage to record the transit of Venus across the Pacific Ocean. He arrived at Tahiti in the year of 1769, where he observed the transitional period of Venus and completed his first task.

Then he sailed towards the south to the coast of Australia and used his powerful mapping techniques to draw the coastline of New Zealand prior to his voyage. He was as good in describing the entire voyage and the places as in mapping. Thus, he recorded the culture and skin of the people living in certain areas along with the geographical features of the land. It is from his experience that chronograph is now used worldwide.. Cook definitely exerted extreme influence upon perceiving and understanding the modern world.

His contributions towards geography, astronomy, mapping and navigation are a mild stone for explorers of all times. He played his part in discovering all those parts of the world which constitute a total of about one-third of it. His navigation skills were so perfect that even in the 20th century his maps were used as a guidance tool. Also his charts of coastlines were used to understand the geography of the places which can be of extreme help in order to study anthropology of a certain area.

Several design and tactics used by the people of other places were introduced to the rest of the world, like tattoos from New Zealand that came into favor after Cook had set foot on the island. Also, it is from his experience that chronograph is now used worldwide as a device for measuring the speed with respect to distance. During his second voyage, he was about to reach the Antarctica from the south, but he has to provide his crew with new supply, therefore, he moved towards Tahiti again. But this journey opened queries regarding the end of the world or more land masses in the Pacific Ocean (James Cook 2011).

Indeed, all of his voyages were a great contribution in knowledge of localities. He discovered many small islands; his contribution in calculating the longitude of an area helped a lot to the navigators of all times. It is because he was a good navigator and he measured the distance between two point areas and the lunar distance too, he became able to gather such techniques for finding the longitude. His most promising accomplishment was of circumnavigating the world, which was never done before. On the