2018 Canada Dollar 240th Anniversary Of Captain Cook At Nootka Sound Proof Silver

History remembers Cook as the explorer whose voyages and exceptional surveying skills changed European perceptions of the Pacific region, by mapping many unknown shores throughout this vast expanse of ocean.

During his first two voyages—one from 1768 to 1771 and another from 1772 to 1775—Cook became the first European explorer to reach New Zealand and Australia's east coast, and the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. In 1776, a third voyage sent him on a quest to find the elusive Northwest Passage, which brought his two-ship expedition to Canada's Pacific coastline.

On April 1, 1778, HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery dropped anchor near Yuquot, on the western coast of Vancouver Island. Cook was cordially welcomed by Maquinna, chief of the Mowachat group of the Nuu-chah-nulth, leading the crew to refer to the area as Friendly Cove.

He was not the first European navigator to explore Canada's West Coast, but his was the first prolonged stay. During the month spent in Nootka Sound, the crew repaired the ships while Cook explored the area and engaged in local trade, exchanging metal goods for sea otter pelts that soon made the area a trade centre.

The expedition set sail once more on April 26, 1778, on a northerly course toward the Bering Sea. But Cook would not find the Northwest Passage; stopped by the Arctic's unyielding cold and ice, the expedition made a return trip to the Hawaiian islands discovered the year before, where Cook was killed in 1779. His legacy of exploration left an indelible imprint on the history of the Pacific region, and Canada too, where places like Cook's Harbour (N.L.) and Resolution Cove (B.C.) are lasting reminders of his passage through our coastal waters