Cooking the books, in his own words, by his own hand

James Cook's original, handwritten journals from his voyages through the Pacific Ocean will go on display in Canberra in an international exhibition announced to coincide with the day the legendary explorer set sail from England 250 years ago.

The National Library of Australia will, for five months from September 22, be home to three journals that chronicle Cook's voyages, from 1768 until one month before his death in 1779.

"We've got a chronometer Cook used on his first voyage, some of the things for making maps and navigating, we've got a telescope, some of the materials used originally by Cook," exhibition co-curator Martin Woods said. "We tried to cover the whole field."

The National Library is the permanent home of one of Cook's journals — it was purchased by the Australian government on March 21, 1923, for £5000 from a private collector at a Sotheby's auction. The other two will be on loan from the British Library in London, while other artefacts from around the world — including a swordfish dagger that may have been used to kill Cook — have been painstakingly collected from museums and collections in Britain and the Pacific.

"When Cook and the Pacific opens next month, we will have on display here in Canberra the most complete set of Cook's major Pacific voyage journals in his own handwriting," National Library director-general Marie-Louise Ayres said.

"Reuniting these journals is significant because they are Cook's own record, in his own words, of how he experienced the three Pacific voyages."

Dr Woods and Susannah Helman curated the exhibition, which includes rarely seen paintings, manuscripts, scientific ­instruments, botanical specimens, archeological material, maps and even a playbill inspired by Cook's voyage.

Dr Wood said he was "the right person in the right place" in the late 1700s. "He started life working the coal ships, the coal trade, and then joined the navy as a late entrant, a mature-age student, you might say," he said. "It's always been amazing he forged such an amazing career, and became the foremost British navigator."