Captain Cook: The gravity of the dangers faced by Captain Cook on his historic voyage on the seas

Fast forward over three centuries and NASA is talking about sending astronauts to Mars – a round trip taking roughly the same time.

Sending someone to the Red Planet is considered technically possible, but extremely challenging due to the vast distance (one way is 140 million miles), radiation exposure, and the need to develop advanced life support systems.

Cook and his crew also faced huge challenges as a new exhibition at the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, in Whitby, reveals.

Scurvy was a huge killer, with 2m sailors estimated to have succumbed between 1492 and 1873 – far more than storms, shipwrecks, battles and other diseases combined.

Chris Needham, who designed the exhibition, said: “(On a voyage) you could be washed overboard, run aground, hit by a block and tackle – it didn’t help that they had a daily grog ration. Being in a very confined space meant illnesses, yellowfever, typhus.”

The exhibition includes three 18th century apothecary cases on display – which had to be bought by the naval surgeons before they set out.

There’s also an 18th century amputation kit – with no anaesthetics speed was crucial and a skilled surgeon could amputate a leg in less than three minutes.

As for scurvy, vitamin C was only discovered in the 1930s, says Chris. “We now know if you don’t have vitamin C, collagen (the protein that supports skin, bones, tendons, and ligaments) stops working.

"Your body starts to disassemble. Everybody knows about teeth falling out. There’s stories of sailors who broke their legs as young men and then they start to break again.”

Cook was insistent on decks being scrubbed, and the spaces between decks were fumigated to try and get rid the “miasma”, thought to be the cause of illness.

Luckily he was insistent on taking vitamin-rich sauerkraut.

“On an average long voyage of exploration you’d lose 50 per cent of the crew. Cook did three and only lost one man and that wasn’t on his ship,” says Chris.

There’s concern after three years in space, an astronaut’s weakened body could be crushed by the extra G-forces when re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.

“One of NASA’s concerns (about travelling to Mars) is the lack of gravity.

“When we walk along there’s incredible pressure which forces our collagen to work. The force of gravity keeps the body together.”

NASA also highlights space radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth and closed or hostile environments as hazards.

Chris says some of the issues which Cook faced will face astronauts travelling to Mars.

“When Cook sailed into the Pacific he didn’t know what he was sailing into, it was uncharted. It will be pretty much the same issues (for the astronauts) with the exception of radiation and gravity.”

The museum is open daily.