A RESPONSE is needed to an article under the headline “Captain’s cottage honoured” (The Press, February 3).

To any avid Captain James Cook followers like myself, the word “parents” should have been inserted after the word “captain”.

The reason for this is simple.

The young Cook never lived in the cottage and by the time his parents built it in 1755 Cook was a decade into his Navy career and there is no evidence he spent a single night there.

The article told how the cottage was sold then transported to Melbourne, Australia, and has now been made an honorary member of Welcome To Yorkshire.

Having not even set foot in this dwelling, how can it be said it is the Captain’s Cottage?

It is not the only misnomer regarding James Cook.

A cottage in Staithes lays claim to where he once lived in his youth. Not so. Young Cook was taken on by William Sanderson, a shop owner, with Cook sleeping under the shop’s counter.

It’s a similar case with his school at Great Ayton. A plaque on a wall states in this building James Cook attended school.

This is contradicted by another saying the original building was torn down in 1785.

Pip Burke, Osbaldwick Lane, York