James Cook grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suitable for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker. The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His
Bicentenary of James Cook in Australia Bicentenary of James Cook in Australia The Bicentenary of James Cook in Australia was commemorated in Australia in 1970. The British explorer Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook sailed and charted the East Coast of Australia in 1770, and claimed the Eastern Seabord of the Continent for the British Crown. This is not considered the official bicentenary of Australia, but rather the mapping of the Eastern coastline. Commemorations were held in Australia in 1970. A commemorative 50 cent piece was issued. The name of the place on which he is believed to have made first landfall was renamed from Cape Everard