The Second Voyage 1772-1775

    On the second voyage Cook sailed on H. M. S. Resolution, crossed the Antarctic Circle and circumnavigated Antarctica. He mapped Tonga and Easter Islands and discovered New Caledonia, the South Sandwich Islands, and South Georgia. When he returned to England he was made captain, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and awarded the Copley Medal for his paper on the prevention of scurvy. Each of the stamps shows a track of Cook's course at various times during the voyage.

    Larcum Kendall was commissioned to make a replica of John Harrison's H-4 watch to demonstrate that it could be replicated. It was completed in 1770 and James Cook took K-1, as the watch was called, on his second voyage.
     When Cook returned he reported, "Mr. Kendall's watch exceeded the expectations of its most zealous advocate and by being now and then corrected by lunar observations has been our faithful guide through all vicisiitudes of climates."
     Cook also carried Kendall's watch on his third expectation. Unfortunately, he was killed by Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay. According to the account at the time K-1 stopped ticking at the moment of Cook's death.

The Third Voyage 1776-1779

     Cook sailed in 1776 to seek a Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. He discovered and charted the Hawaiian Islands. He charted the west coast of North America from Nootka Sound north to the Bering Strait, searching in vain for the fabled passage. He returned to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) where he was killed at Kealakekua on February 14, 1779.