Captain James Cook R.N., F.R.S. (1728-1779)
James Cook is best known for his three voyages of exploration in the late 1700s which completed the map of the world by filling in the hitherto blank space that was the Pacific Ocean. By the time of his unfortunate death in Hawaii in 14 February 1779 he had sailed further than any man, venturing south into Antarctica and north into the Arctic, and in between he had charted and mapped hundreds of islands both large and small.