Part 1: Captain James Cook, commonly shortened to Captain Cook, was a navigator, explorer, cartographer and captain in the Royal Navy from around 1747 to 1779, when he was stabbed to death by villagers in Hawaii attempting 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). At around the age of 17, he moved to Witby where he completed an apprenticeship in the merchant navy (Horwitz, 2003). He then rose through the ranks of the Navy, until he earned the name Captain James Cook. Part 2: Cook's first voyage had two purposes. What objectives and have they been achieved? The first of the two objectives was to observe the transit of Venus, and the second was to find evidence of the existence of Terra Australis Incognita, the name given to the lands that Australia occupies today, before its colonization. The observation of the transit of Venus was to be recorded in four stages. The first took place when the figure of Venus came into contact with the figure of the Sun. The second was when the Venus figure was completely inside the Sun figure, but still touching the edge. The third was when the Venus figure was still inside the Sun figure, but touching the other side. Eventually, the final stage occurred when the Venus figure was completely outside the Sun figure, but still touching the edge. The observation of the transit of Venus was successful, with clear skies and observations recorded by 3 different observers (James Cook, Charles Green and Daniel Solander). The event was witnessed by explorers on the island of Tahiti (Rienits and Rienits, 1976). The second objective, as stated, was to find evidence of ...... middle of paper ...... different cities. James was born in Marton, now 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 expertise within the workforce, but they ultimately made different contributions to the Royal Navy.Part 3 : When James Cook discovered the existence of the mysterious South Land, it spawned many more voyages to Australia. Including that of Captain Matthew Flinders, mentioned earlier in this report, who mapped the entirety of Australia. This made it possible to use Australian land for the storage of convicts, thereby easing the burden of the masses of criminals on the English justice system. Overall, the discovery of an improvement in the criminal justice system during this period, subsequently leading to the creation of a new nation..