British explorer and navigator and popular ingredient in the history wars, albeit with a fairly soft emphasis on the history part of the equation. Can be inserted into all sorts of scenarios, including ones well outside his travels and/ or lifespan. He is a regular feature in discussions about 26 January 1788, even though he was killed in Hawaii nearly a decade earlier. Cook also figures in a children’s rhyme that has him chase a chook right around Australia, which is possibly the origin of false rumours that he circumnavigated the continent.