Part 1: Captain James Cook, commonly abbreviated as Captain Cook, was a navigator, explorer, cartographer and captain in the Royal Navy from approximately 1747 to 1779, when he was stabbed to death by villagers in Hawaii while trying to take the king hostage (Collingridge, 2002). Born in 1728 (Myplace.edu.au, 2014), James was one of eight children of James Cook and his mother, Grace Pace (Rigby and Merwe, 2002). When he was about 17, he moved to Witby where he was accepted as an apprentice in the merchant navy (Horwitz, 2003). He later worked his way into the Navy, eventually earning the name Captain James Cook. Part 2: Cook's first voyage had two objectives. What objectives and have they been achieved? The first of the two objectives was to observe the transit of Venus, the second was to find evidence of the existence of Terra Australis Incognita, the name given to the land on which Australia now occupies, before it was colonised. The view of the transit of Venus was to be recorded in four phases. The first of which occurred when the figure of Venus came into contact with the figure of the Sun. The second was when the figure of Venus was completely inside the figure of the Sun, but still touching its edge. The third was when the figure of Venus was still inside the figure of the Sun, but touching the other side. Finally the last phase occurred when the figure of Venus was completely outside the figure of the Sun, but still touching its edge. The observation of the transit of Venus was completed successfully, with clear skies and observations recorded by 3 different observatories (James Cook, Charles Green and Daniel Solander). The event was seen by explorers on the island of Tahiti (Rienits and Rienits, 1976). The second goal, as stated, was to find evidence of… middle of paper… different cities. James was born in Marton, now called Middlesborough, Yorkshire. But Matthew was born in Donington, Lincolnshire. Overall, Captain James Cook and Captain Matthew Flinders were similar in terms of their backgrounds and business experience, but ultimately made different contributions to the Royal Navy. Part 3: When James Cook discovered the existence of the mysterious Southern Land, it gave rise to many other voyages to Australia. Including that of Captain Matthew Flinders, mentioned earlier in this report, which led to the mapping of the whole of Australia. This allowed Australian land to be used for the housing of convicts, easing the burden of masses of criminals on the justice system in England. Overall, the discovery of the improved criminal justice system in that time period then led to the creation of a new nation.