A corner of yorkshire

CAPTAIN COOK’S COTTAGE, STAITHES

In 1727 James Cook was born at Marton, near Middlesbrough, formerly in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The son of a farmworker, his father’s employer paid for his schooling and at the age of 16 he was sent to the fishing village of Staithes as an apprentice to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson.

The shop where Cook lived for 18 months was later washed into the sea but some of the stone was recovered and used to build a small terrace property near the bottom of Church Street now known as Captain Cook’s Cottage. A plaque on the wall states: “The young James Cook received his first taste of the sea and ships in this harbour village”. Cook moved to Whitby in 1746 to become a seaman, sailing coal vessels.

After joining the Royal Navy in 1755, he rose to Captain and found lasting fame as an explorer, navigator and cartographer on voyages to Australia and the Pacific.