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Captain Charles Clerke (22 August 1741 – 22 August 1779) was an officer in the Royal Navy who sailed on four voyages of exploration (including three circumnavigations), three with Captain James Cook.
Charles Clerke, the son of a justice of the peace, entered the Royal Navy in 1755. After serving throughout the Seven Years’ War, he became a midshipman on John Byron ’s expedition around the world in 1764–66.
Apr 1, 2024 · Cook’s second-in-command, Charles Clerke, was to captain a ship called the Discovery, while Cook, once again, sailed on the Resolution. When both vessels were scheduled to depart, in July, 1776...
Commentary. The will was made on 29 July 1776, on the day that Clerke managed to extricate himself from the debtors prison in London into which he had been taken as guarantor for his brother's debt (Sir John Clerke). By this date Cook was at sea and approaching the Bay of Biscay whilst the Discovery lay at Plymouth awaiting its Captain.
Commanded HMS Discovery on Cook's third voyage (1776-1780) and commanded the expedition from the HMS Resolution after Cook's death in February 1779 in Hawaii; Clerke himself died from tuberculosis on August 3rd 1779 and was buried at Petropavlosk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Charles Clerke, The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery" In Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing edited by Patrick Moser, 67-68. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.
His second-in-command was Charles Clerke aboard the DISCOVERY. The purpose of the expedition was to search for the North-West passage thought to have an outlet somewhere on the west coast of North America.
