James Cook has continued to explore the Antarctic, heading south into the summer sea ice, icebergs and fog until he reached 67°31′ South before hauling north again for fourteen hundred miles (twenty-two hundred kilometers).

The third crossing of the Antarctic Circle, on January 26, 1774, is the precursor to the most southerly penetration, reaching latitude 71°10′ South at longitude 106°54′ West on January 30 when they can go no further because of the solid sea ice.

On this occasion, Cook writes:

    I who had ambition not only to go farther than anyone had been before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry in meeting with this interruption...

The vessel is then launched north to complete a huge parabola in the Pacific Ocean, reaching latitudes just below the Equator, then New Guinea.

He will land at the Friendly Islands, Easter Island, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu before returning to Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand.