Captain Cook changed sailing the south seas from a virtual death sentence into a regular voyage.
He made the sailing in the Pacific safe by charting, defeting scurvy, and proving a reliable way of plotting longitude. Where ships had formerly been at a loss for where to look for a landfall, they now found island chains Cook had discovered and charted. Where they had once died from scurvy they now enjoyed good health aboard ship thanks to Cook's proven anti-scurvy dietary practices. Where they had once not know where they were relative to east and west, they now had an accurate measure based on the Prime meridean at Greenwich.
Cook cooperated well and enthusiastically with the scientific men of his time to accomplish all of these things, and made parts of the earth men had feared to sail into accessible and safe.
He was an extrordinary man, and fairly successful at making friends with the natives in many cases. Even surviving numerous contacts with the fierce Maori headhunters, and making lifelong friendships with the natives of Tahiti. But in the end his partial understanding of the culture of the Sandwich Islanders led him into a situation from which he did not escape alive. He may have willingly allowed himself to be seen as a diety, or he may have been unaware of being seen as Lono returned, but he understood when his welcome was wearing thin.
Unfortunately, a dismasted ship forced him to return to Hawaii, where he met his end.
Check out my full length bio of Captain Cook.
