Charles Clerke

Charles Clerke (* August 22, 1741 in Wethersfield, Essex, England; † August 22, 1779 at sea off Kamchatka Russia) was a British navigator and companion of John Byron and Captain James Cook on their expeditions to the South Seas.

Charles Clerke was born on a farm, the fourth son of a judge in Wethersfield, a village in the county of Essex. At age 13, he entered the Royal Navy Academy in Portsmouth and was a cadet. During the Seven Years War, he served on HMS Dorsetshire and on HMS Bellona. 1764 to 1766 he ran the HMS Dolphin under the command of Captain John Byron to a circumnavigation of the globe, with many islands were discovered for Europe.

On the first voyage of James Cook (1768-1771) he was a midshipman on the ship HMB Endeavour. On the second trip (1772-1775), he was assigned as a lieutenant of the Resolution. On the third voyage (1776-1779) he was a captain on the HMS Discovery.

After James Cook was stabbed to death in 1779 in Hawaii by the locals, Clerke took command of the resolution and the entire expedition and sailed north to seek a passage from the Arctic Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean (see Northwest Passage ). But he had failed to return to Kamchatka and died off the coast of Kamchatka from tuberculosis. The body of Charles Clerke was buried on August 29, 1779 near the port of Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky, Kamchatka, Russia.

John Gore, second officer on the Discovery, took command of the expedition and sailed back to England, where the ships arrived in 1780.