Captain James Cook was born on the 27th October 1728 in the small Yorkshire
town of Marton. Unlike the majority of Naval officers of the time he was not
the son of rich or noble parents. In fact he was the son of a Scottish
farm labourer and a Yorkshire girl. He was intelligent enough to
impress his father's employer who paid for the young James Cook's
schooling. In 1755, the year before the Seven Years War broke out
between England and France, Cook left his ship and signed up with the
Royal Navy.
In the Navy James Cook worked his way up through the ranks, eventually
rising to command his own vessel, unusual for an enlisted man.His
first mission was to map the estuary of the St. Lawrence River prior
to a naval assault on Quebec. It was those surveys that made Cook's
name, along with the information he obtained from observing and
recording an eclipse of the sun in 1766. James Cook died near the end
of the third voyage. He was killed by Hawaiian islanders possibly
because of an incident in which one of his lieutenants shot and killed
one of the island's chiefs. He died in February 1779.
Steve Cram Athlete was born in Gateshead in 1960, now living in Morpeth,
Northumberland. He is married with two children. One of the world's most
successful middle distance athletes of all time, Steve's career has spanned
three decades since appearing as a 17 year old at the Commonwealth Games in
1978. The European junior champion at 3000`m in 1979, he won senior
titles at 1500`m in 1982 and 1986. He won the World Championship gold
medal at 1500`m in 1983, and the Commonwealth Games gold medals at
1500`m in 1982 and 1986 and the 800`m in 1986. In 1985he set three
world records in 20 days. In 1986 he was awarded the M.B.E.
Grace Horsley Darling heroine born in
1815 in Bamburgh, Northumberland. She lived with her father, William
(1795-1860), the lighthouse keeper on one of the Farne Islands. At
dawn on September 7th September 1838, Grace and her father, William
Darling, the keeper of Longstone Lighthouse awoke to the howl of wind
and crash of sea about their home.
Spume filled the air as they looked out on the North Sea morning, yet
Grace's keen eyes spotted a ship aground on Big Harcar Rock, almost a
mile away. A look through the telescope revealed survivors clinging to
the wreck. Grace, 22-years-old and anxious for excitement, beseeched
her father to attempt a rescue. They reached the wreck and took off
five of the nine survivors, which were taken back to the lighthouse.
Grace stayed with those rescued while her father and two of the
rescued seamen made a second trip to the wreck to fetch the remaining
survivors. A report later confirmed that forty people had drowned
before the Darlings arrived. She went ashore to Bamburgh in April 1842
to visit her sister and attend to financial affairs, but was soon
stricken with the influenza that had struck northern England. Grace
never recovered. She died In October 1842.
