The exhibition called Smoking Coasts and Ice-bound Seas, Cook's Voyage to the Arctic, features never before seen drawings and pictures by John Webber, who was the official artist on Cook's third voyage in the 18th Century.

The Acting Deputy Australian High Commissioner, Ravi Kewalram, is expected to attend the official opening of the exhibition on Saturday, which reveals the perhaps forgotten third voyage of Cook as he intrepidly searched for the North West Passage.

The exhibition tells of how he twice probed beyond the Bering Strait before being forced back by the ice, prior to his death in Hawaii in February 1779.

And it also looks at the expedition's two visits to Kamchatka in eastern Siberia, after his death, which were the first visits by British warships to Russia's Asian empire.

Webber's drawings during the two visits to Avancha Bay and Kamchatka were the first representatives by a European artist of Kamchatka and its people, showing detailed studies of the faces of the men and women.

The exhibition also includes the flora and fauna of the expedition with a golden eagle, an arctic hare, a fur seal and a walrus characterising Arctic life.

It also tells how the explorers met natives, travelled by dog sledge and even experienced a volcanic eruption.

Captain Cook expert, professor Glyn Williams, said the exhibition paints a truly fantastic picture of the environment the explorers found themselves in.

"They didn't know what to expect in Russia and were surprised by their warm reception from the Governor.

"The pictures in the exhibition wonderfully evoke Siberian landscapes and peoples, and their way of life at the time."

The six drawings were purchased with the help of a £50,000 grant from the Art Fund and £188,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The rest of the £241,971 it cost to purchase them, was met by trustees of the museum and a generous donation by the Normanby Charitable Trust.

They were purchased from a private collector in America and are believed to be the largest holding of original Cook voyage material to remain in private ownership.

The exhibition at the museum runs until 31 October.

The museum is open daily to the end of October from 9.45am to 5pm.

Admission is £4 for adults, £3.50 for senior citizens, £3 for children and £10.50 for a family pass.