Dan tells the extraordinary tale of Captain James Cook. Born a labourer's son, he would rise to become one of history's greatest explorers. He went about as far as it was possible to go, sailing the Pacific Ocean and arriving on the shores of Australia and New Zealand.

For these voyages, he assembled an A-Team of maritime explorers - marines, scientists, and a Polynesian explorer who had memorised the constellations of the stars. So what trials did he face on these epic voyages? Which peoples did he come across? And how did it all end? Tune in to today's Explainer to find out more.

Written by Dan Snow and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.

You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.