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James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. 1775, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Captain James Cook, FRS (27 October 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer. He sailed through the Pacific Ocean three times, mapped many areas and recorded several islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He was the first British sailor to visit both the east coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. He made the first European maps of Newfoundland and New Zealand.