In 1772 he sailed to the south in the Resolution, accompanied by Lieutenant Furneaux in the Adventure.

In December he found himself as far as the fifty-eighth parallel of south latitude, and in longitude 26 degrees 57' E.Here he met with narrow fields of ice, about eight or ten inches thick, and running northwest and southeast.

This ice was in large cakes, and usually it was packed so closely that the vessel had great difficulty in forcing a passage.

At this period Captain Cook supposed, from the vast number of birds to be seen, and from other indications, that he was in the near vicinity of land.

He kept on to the southward, the weather being exceedingly cold, until he reached the sixty-fourth parallel, in longitude 38 degrees 14' E..