Route data is compiled in chronological order from Wikipedia's voyage articles (CC BY-SA), cross-checked against primary source narratives and historical records. Waypoints mark approximate port, bay, and landfall locations — not survey-grade ship positions — and should be verified against detailed historical charts and logs before being treated as authoritative. Coordinates for remote stops and open-ocean legs are estimated and approximate.
Voyage 1
1768–1771· HMS EndeavourObserve the transit of Venus from Tahiti and search for the hypothesised Great Southern Continent.
Cook's first voyage carried astronomers to Tahiti to observe the 1769 transit of Venus, then opened sealed orders to hunt for the fabled Southern Continent. He charted the whole coast of New Zealand and became the first European to map the eastern coast of Australia, landing at Botany Bay. The Endeavour survived grounding on the Great Barrier Reef before limping home via Batavia.
⚠Accuracy: The Endeavour carried no marine chronometer. Cook fixed longitude by lunar-distance observations and dead reckoning, so Voyage 1's positions are less precise — sometimes by a degree or more — than the chronometer-aided second and third voyages.
Voyage 2
1772–1775· HMS Resolution & AdventureSettle the Great Southern Continent question by circumnavigating at high southern latitude.
On his second voyage Cook circled the globe at extreme southern latitudes, becoming the first to cross the Antarctic Circle and reaching farther south than anyone before him. His sweep of the empty Southern Ocean effectively disproved the existence of a habitable Great Southern Continent. Along the way he charted Pacific islands from Easter Island to New Caledonia and, aided by the K1 chronometer, made charts of remarkable accuracy.
Voyage 3
1776–1780· HMS Resolution & DiscoverySearch for a Northwest Passage from the Pacific side and return Omai to the Society Islands.
Cook's final voyage sought a Northwest Passage linking the Pacific and Atlantic from the west. He made the first recorded European contact with the Hawaiian Islands and charted the northwest coast of America up to the Bering Strait before pack ice forced him back. Returning to Hawaii, Cook was killed in a confrontation at Kealakekua Bay in February 1779; his crews continued the search before turning home under Clerke and Gore.