 Captain Cook's ships, "Discovery" and "Resolution", called at the town in 1780 on their return voyage from the Hawaiian Islands, where Captain Cook had been killed.Stromness Museum reflects these aspects of the town's history (displaying for example important collections of whaling relics, and Inuit artefacts brought back as souvenirs by local men from Greenland and Arctic Canada).An unusual aspect of the town's character is the large number of buildings decorated with displays of whale bones outside them.