Hello and welcome to this episode of Epochs where I'm going to be talking all about the life and times and adventures of Captain James Cook and I am joined by Luke Johnson,

Leaker Howard. Hello, hello good morning yes. Good to have you back.

Glad to be back. So glad to be back and talking about Cook.

Yeah, so it's a fantastic life, isn't it? Yeah, it's extraordinary.

Really, really filled with adventure. I mean I say that about lots of people but this one sort of really is

yeah chock a block and I think the the thing that's most extraordinary about

Cook's life and the scope of the adventure that he had is just the humble beginnings from which it started.

Right. Because he's one of those people that if you'd have just looked at the circumstances into which he was born and you'd never have guessed that he could go on to lead just such an extraordinary life.

Yeah, that is one of the first things to say about him. He wasn't sort of destined to be a captain or as you say in the 18th century because his whole life is in the 18th century

you would have to be of a certain station in the world, a gentleman, to dream of being an officer and a captain.

And he wasn't really, was he?

No, not at all.

So his father had actually come down from Scotland sort of in the wake of the Jacobite

rebellions of the early 1700s to sort of work for better work prospects and had settled up in

North Yorkshire where he'd met James's mother, Grace, and they got

married and James Cook named after his father was a second son and he was born named after his father was the second son

and he was born into a little village called Martin,

which even now is, it's just sort of,

nowadays it's sort of just south of Middlesbrough.

And it's got about a few thousand people there even now.

So it's not the most assuming place in the world.

But, and essentially it seems like he has a very good

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