Q 01/05

The cottage of Cook's parents was shipped from England in 1934 and rebuilt in which Australian city?

A) Sydney

B) Melbourne

C) Brisbane

D) Hobart

Answer · why

B) Melbourne

Melbourne. A local businessman bought the cottage for the city's centenary, and every brick was numbered and packed into cases and barrels, along with...

Q 02/05

In which county was James Cook born in 1728?

A) Kent

B) Yorkshire

C) Devon

D) Northumberland

Answer · why

B) Yorkshire

Yorkshire. His father, a Scottish farm labourer, worked his way up to farm foreman at Great Ayton, where the boy had a few years at the village school...

Q 03/05

Before he went to sea, the teenage Cook was apprenticed in Staithes to which trade?

A) Grocer and haberdasher

B) Fisherman and net-mender

C) Sailmaker and rigger

D) Blacksmith and farrier

Answer · why

A) Grocer and haberdasher

Grocer and haberdasher. He lasted about eighteen months behind the counter before his employer helped him swap the shop for an apprenticeship with a W...

Q 04/05

Cook's diary boast of going 'farther than any other man has been before me' resembles the opening of which TV series?

A) Doctor Who

B) Lost in Space

C) The Twilight Zone

D) Star Trek

Answer · why

D) Star Trek

Star Trek. Cook wrote the line in 1774, after pack ice had stopped him farther south than any ship had sailed, nearly two centuries before the Enterpr...

Q 05/05

What did Cook turn down in 1755 to join the Navy as an able seaman?

A) Command of the collier Friendship

B) A partnership in the Walkers' firm

C) Marriage to a shipowner's daughter

D) A place at Trinity House

Answer · why

A) Command of the collier Friendship

Command of the collier Friendship. Starting again at the bottom paid off fast: within weeks the Navy had made him a master's mate, and two years later...