Captain James Cook's first two voyages of exploration, in 1768-71 and 1772-75, had drawn the modern map of the South Pacific Ocean and had opened the door on the discovery of Antarctica. These expeditions were the subject of Volumes I and II of this edition of Cook's Journals. The third voyage, on which Cook sailed in 1776, was directed to the Northern Hemisphere. Sailing north from Tahiti in 1778, Cook made the first recorded discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. On March 7 he sighted the Oregon coast in 44° N. The remarkable voyage which he made northward along the Canadian and Alaskan coasts and through Bering Strait to his farthest north in 70° nearly disproved the existence of a navigable passage towards the Atlantic and produced charts of impressive accuracy. Returning to Hawaii to refit, Cook met his death in a clash with the natives as tragic as it seems unnecessary.

The volume and vitality of the records, both textual and graphic, for this voyage surpass those even for Cook's second voyage. Dr Beaglehole prints the full text of Cook's own holograph journals, followed by those of Captains Clerke and King for the course of the voyage after Cook's death. This is a facsimile reprint of the edition published in 1967. For the print-on-demand edition, the illustrations originally in colour are reproduced in black-and-white, the fold-outs divided to fit on separate pages, and the volume itself split into two parts.