List of commemorations of Captain James Cook

This is a list of monuments, commemorations, and memorials to James Cook .

United Kingdom

Memorial to James Cook and family in the church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge.

• When news of Cook's death reached England, he was praised by newspapers, colleagues, and friends. ^[a]

• One of the earliest monuments to Cook in the United Kingdom is located at The Vache, erected in 1780 by Hugh Palliser, a friend of Cook. ^{[1] [2] [b]}

• A large obelisk was built in 1827 as a monument to Cook on Easby Moor overlooking his boyhood village of Great Ayton, ^[5] along with a smaller monument at the former location of Cook's cottage. ^[6]

• There is also a monument to Cook in the church of St Andrew the Great, St Andrew's Street, Cambridge, where his sons Hugh, a student at Christ's College, and James were buried. Cook's widow Elizabeth was also buried in the church. ^[7]

• The Navigators' Memorial in Westminster Abbey, dedicated to Cook, Francis Drake and Francis Chichester, was unveiled in 1979. ^[8]

• The 250th anniversary of Cook's birth was marked at the site of his birthplace in Marton by the opening of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, located within Stewart Park (1978). A granite vase just to the south of the museum marks the approximate spot where he was born. ^{[9] [c]}

• The Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby is located in a building where Cook sometimes stayed during his naval apprenticeship. ^[13]

• Also named after Cook is James Cook University Hospital, a major teaching hospital which opened in 2003, near to the James Cook railway station. ^[14]

• The Royal Research Ship RRS James Cook was built in 2006 to replace the RRS Charles Darwin in the UK's Royal Research Fleet, ^[15] and Stepney Historical Trust placed a plaque on Free Trade Wharf in the Highway, Shadwell to commemorate his life in the East End of London.

• A statue erected in his honour can be viewed near Admiralty Arch on the south side of The Mall in London.

• In 2002, Cook was placed at number 12 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. ^[16]

Australia

Annual re-enactment of James Cook's visit in Cooktown, Queensland.

• Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, Australia, having been moved from England at the behest of the Australian philanthropist Russell Grimwade in 1934. ^{[17] [18] [19]}

• The first institution of higher education in North Queensland, Australia, was named after him, with James Cook University opening in Townsville in 1970. ^[20]

• There are statues of Cook in Hyde Park in Sydney, and at St Kilda in Melbourne. ^[21]

• An annual re-enactment of Cook's 1770 landing at the site near modern Cooktown, Australia, has taken place since 1959, with the support and participation of many of the local Guugu Yimithirr people. ^[22] The reenactments celebrate the first act of reconciliation between Indigenous Australians and non-indigenous people, when a Guugu Yimithirr elder stepped in after some of Cook's men had violated custom by taking green turtles from the river and not sharing with the local people. He presented Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering, thus preventing possible bloodshed. ^{[23] [22] [24]} The reenactment is based on material from the histories of both the Guugu Yimithirr people and Cook's crew. Although the focus is always on reconciliation, the content evolves over time as the participants incorporate new ideas. ^[23]

United States

• The site where Cook was killed in Hawaii was marked in 1874 by a white obelisk. The small plot of land surrounding the marker was purportedly deeded to Britain in 1877 by Princess Likelike and her husband, Archibald Scott Cleghorn. ^{[25] [26] [27] [d] [e]}

• NASA named several craft after Cook's ships, including the Apollo 15 Command/Service Module Endeavour, the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and the Space Shuttle Discovery. ^{[29] [30] [31]}

• There is a statue of Cook at Resolution Park in Anchorage, Alaska. ^[32]

• A U.S. coin, the 1928 Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar, carries Cook's image. ^[33]

New Zealand

• The Cook Landing Site Historic Reserve is a national historic reserve in Gisborne located where Cook first set foot in New Zealand. ^[34]
• A statute of Cook is located in Victoria Square, Christchurch and is registered as a category 2 monument. ^[35]

See also

• List of places named after James Cook

References

Notes

1. Biographer Hough quotes an obituary that appeared in January 1780, which read, in part: "This untimely and ever to be lamented fate of so intrepid, so able, and intelligent a sea-officer, may justly be considered as an irreparable loss to the public... for in him were united every successful and amiable quality that could adorn his profession; nor was his singular modesty less conspicuous than his other virtues. His successful experiments to preserve the healths of his crews are well known, and his discoveries will be an everlasting honour to his country." Hough 1994, p. 364. Hough mistakenly attributes this obituary to The London Gazette . The quoted obituary is from "Obituary of Captain James Cook". The Norfolk Chronicle. No. 554. 15 January 1780. Retrieved 30 May 2025. The obituary was published eleven months after Cook's death, when news of his death finally reached England.
2. The inscription on The Vache monument reads, in part: "The ablest and most renowned navigator this or any country hath produced... Cool and deliberate in judging, sagacious in determining, active in executing, steady and persevering in enterprising from vigilance and unremitting caution, unsubdued by labour, difficulties, and disappointments, fertile in expedience never wanting presence of mind... Mild, just, but exact in discipline... Traveller! Contemplate, admire, revere and emulate this great master in his profession, whose skill and labours have enlarged natural philosophy [and] have extended nautical science." ^{[3] [4]}
3. Cook's hometown of Middlesbrough includes several commemorations: a primary school, ^[10] shopping square ^[11] and the Bottle 'O Notes, a public artwork by Claes Oldenburg, that was erected in the town's Central Gardens in 1993. ^[12]
4. The legality of the deed –and subsequent related deeds –is in dispute. ^{[25] [26]}
5. The obelisk is now fronted by a low stone jetty bearing a plaque which reads: "This jetty was erected by the Commonwealth of Australia in memory of Captain James Cook, RN the discoverer of both Australia and these islands". ^[28]

Citations

1. "The Governor and the Navigator: Connecting Sir Hugh Palliser and Captain James Cook". Old Royal Naval College Greenwich. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
2. "Monument to Captain Cook Approximately 70 metres to North of the Vache". Historic England. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
3. "Monument to Cook at The Vache, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, UK". Captain Cook Society. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
4. Beaglehole 1974, pp. 696–697.
5. "Great Ayton – Captain Cook's Monument". Archived from the original on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
6. "Captain Cook". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 26 January 1935. p. 16. ISSN   0312-6315. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
7. "St Andrew the Great Church, Cambridge". Captain Cook Society. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
8. Williams 2008, p. 109.
9. "The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, Marton, Middlesbrough". captcook-ne.co.uk. 2011. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
10. "Captain Cook Primary School". BBC. 2 December 2004. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
11. "Captain Cook Shopping Square". Captaincookshopping.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
12. "Bottle of Notes". Tees Valley Museums. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
13. "Captain Cook Memorial Museum". Art UK. Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
14. "Captain Cook and the Captain Cook Trail". Archived from the original on 6 September 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
15. "RRS James Cook". Nautical Environment Research Council. 2011. Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
16. "BBC – Great Britons – Top 100". Internet Archive . Archived from the original on 4 December 2002. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
17. "Cooks' Cottage". City of Melbourne. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
18. "Captain Cook's Cottage: Another Centenary Gift: Mr. Russell Grimwade's Generosity". The Argus . No. 27,105. 1 July 1933. p. 21. ISSN   2377-7052. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 6 September 2017– via National Library of Australia.
19. Horwitz 2003, p. 292.
20. "About James Cook University". James Cook University. 2011. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
21. Sum, Eliza; Carey, Adam (25 January 2024). "Second Statue Targeted After Vandals Hack Off Captain Cook Sculpture on Eve of Australia Day". Sydney Morning Herald. ISSN   0312-6315. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
22. Kim, Sharnie; Stephen, Adam (19 June 2020). "Cooktown's Indigenous People Help Commemorate 250 Years Since Captain Cook's Landing with Re-enactment". ABC News. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
23. Ward 2020, p. 3-9,13-14,17-18.
24. Thomas 2003, pp. 119–122.
25. Gray, Chris (11 November 2000). "Captain Cook's little corner of Hawaii under threat from new golf". The Independent. ISSN   0951-9467. Archived from the original on 6 May 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
26. "Obelisk to Cook at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, Hawaiian Islands, USA". Captain Cook Society. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
27. Coulter, John Wesley (June 1964). "Great Britain in Hawaii: The Captain Cook Monument" . The Geographical Journal. 130 (2). The Royal Geographical Society: 256–261. Bibcode:1964GeogJ.130..256C. doi:10.2307/1794586. JSTOR   1794586 . Retrieved 25 May 2025.
28. Parkinson, Jonathan (2006). "A Visit To Kealakekua Bay, 19 July 2005". Captain Cook Society. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
29. "Call Signs". NASA. Archived from the original on 28 February 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
30. "Space Shuttle Endeavour". John F. Kennedy Space Center. NASA. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
31. "Space Shuttle Discovery". John F. Kennedy Space Center. NASA. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
32. "Resolution Park and Captain Cook Monument". Alaska Channel. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
33. "Hawaii Sesquicentennial Half Dollar". coinsite.com. 2011. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
34. McLean, Gavin (2013). "Cook Landing Site Historic Reserve". New Zealand History.
35. Lovell-Smith, Melanie (4 December 2001). Cook Statue (Report). Heritage New Zealand.

Sources

• Beaglehole, John (1974). The Life of Captain James Cook. Stanford University Pres. ISBN   978-0-7136-1382-7 . Retrieved 23 May 2025. Sometimes titled The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery Vol. IV: The Life of Captain James Cook.

• Horwitz, Tony (October 2003). Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. Bloomsbury. ISBN   978-0-7475-6455-3 . Retrieved 28 May 2025.

• Hough, Richard (1994). Captain James Cook. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN   978-0-340-82556-3 . Retrieved 30 May 2025.
• Thomas, Nicholas (2003). Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook. Walker & Co. ISBN   0802777112 . Retrieved 3 June 2025.
• Ward, Charlotte (2020). "Reconciling His History: How Revisiting the Memory of Cook's Visit Facilitated a Process of Reconciliation within the Cooktown Community from 1998 to 2019". Aboriginal History. 44: 3–20. doi: 10.22459/AH.44.2020.01 . ISSN   0314-8769. JSTOR   27018597 . Retrieved 20 July 2025.
• Williams, Glyndwr (2008). The Death of Captain Cook: A Hero Made and Unmade. Harvard University Press. ISBN   9780674031944 . Retrieved 3 June 2025.