Clerke has continued the Cook expedition's exploration…

Clerke has continued the Cook expedition's exploration of the Northern Pacific coast, searching for a navigable Northwest Passage.

The expedition had then proceeded to the Pacific coast of Siberia.

James King, one of his subordinates, writes that Clerke's illness has reduced him to skeletal thinness.

Clerke dies on his thirty-eighth birthday (August 22,1779) en route to Kamchatka from tuberculosis.

He is buried in Kamchatka on August 29, 1779.

Clerke's second in command, John Gore, takes command and leads the expedition home to Britain.