Whitby

Whitby lies at the mouth of the River Esk on the Yorkshire coast, beneath the ruins of its abbey on the eastern cliff. The monastery, founded in the Anglo-Saxon age and later refounded, was dissolved under Henry VIII. Below it the harbour grew into a centre of shipbuilding, fishing and maritime trade. In the eighteenth century Whitby's ships sailed to northern waters in pursuit of whales. James Cook learned his seamanship as an apprentice to a local shipping firm before entering the Royal Navy. His later voyages carried him far from the Yorkshire port where he had first learned to work at sea.