Captain Cook Memorial Museum

Adventure!  Endurance! Extraordinary Seamanship! Survival against the odds! Cook’s voyages were the 18th century equivalent of today’s missions to Mars. For ten years, Cook and his crews explored the unknown, uncharted waters of the Pacific, the South Atlantic, and the Arctic Oceans.  Danger was ever present.

The House on the harbour

The Museum is in the 17th century house where the master mariner and Quaker, Captain John Walker lodged his young apprentice James Cook during the winter when not at sea.  This is where it all began.  What did Cook owe to Whitby and John Walker? The thought-provoking collection of original paintings and drawings, letters in Cook’s own hand, ship models, maps and fascinating objects gathered on the voyages illustrate the Cook story.

New special exhibition every year.

 For 2025: ‘Uncharted Dangers: Health at Sea and in Space’ Keeping men healthy at sea was a major challenge for the Navy, whether conducting blockades or lengthy voyages. Scurvy, for instance, was known as ‘the disease of discovery’. The 18th century saw a mix of empirical observations, traditional remedies, and emerging scientific thought shaping medical understanding. While some diseases were correctly diagnosed, many were misunderstood. Ship surgeons in the Royal Navy encountered maladies like scurvy but did not grasp the connection to deficiencies until the 20th century discovery of vitamins. Treatments often combined herbal remedies, bleeding, and various ‘tonics’. As humanity now explores space, historical maritime medicine finds relevance again. We will work with scientists from the Boulby Underground Physics Laboratory to explore medical support for astronauts on Mars, drawing parallels between historical maritime and space medicine.