She was built in Australia more than 20 years ago from the dockyard plans drawn nearly 250 years ago when Cook's ship was built.
Cook and his 93 officers, crew and supernumeraries left Deptford, in Britain on 26th. August, 1768.
Cook and his 93 officers, crew and supernumeraries left Deptford, in Britain on 26th. August, 1768.
He got more than 50 of them got back safely on 13th. July, 1771 which was a triumph.
In their three years away, Cook and his crew discovered and surveyed the whole of the East coast of Australia, from Botany Bay to Cape York.
They claimed Australia for the British crown and, less than a generation later, British people started to colonise Australia and to transform it.
They found out where the Great Barrier Reef is and survived to tell the tale (but only just).
They were the first British explorers to circumnavigate New Zealand and they built a temporary observatory in Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the sun and to take part in a ground-breaking international scientific experiment.
Cook brought most of his crew home alive in spite of malaria and dysentery, 'the bloody flux', which they picked up when they called at Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, (now Jakarta in Indonesia).
It was an extraordinary triumph and the Endeavour replica, built and created by Australians, commemorates the achievment.
Endeavour functions as a museum ship when tied up in port but, out at sea, even in very heavy weather, she is one of the most effective vessels you can imagine.
Peter Weir, the film director, spent time on board Endeavour when he was planning his film: "Master and Commander, the Far Side of the World".
He wrote that Endeavour is ".... the only replica vessel afloat that has a period-accurate lower deck .... you live as they did. You sleep in hammocks and work watches and go up the rigging ... it's just work, sleep, eat ... work, sleep eat. And you're working in a team."
He put a two-man film crew and a huge Panavision camera on board Endeavour to capture film footage of storms and the sea as she sailed around Cape Horn.
His crew filmed from the open deck of Endeavour, in nightmarish conditions, and I definitely recognized some of the biggest, wettest waves in 'Master and Commander', especially in the great storm when a boy is left to drown to save the ship.
I spent 166 days at sea on Endeavour in twelve months and sailed more than 18,000 miles.
When I was not too tired (which was often), there was time for reflection, for study and for experimenting with some of the old-fashioned navigational techniques which I still find fascinating.
But I also got very interested in the people who sailed with me.
This book is for my grand-children but it is also dedicated to my shipmates and to the memory of my Mother, who would have enjoyed the stories.
In their three years away, Cook and his crew discovered and surveyed the whole of the East coast of Australia, from Botany Bay to Cape York.
They claimed Australia for the British crown and, less than a generation later, British people started to colonise Australia and to transform it.
They found out where the Great Barrier Reef is and survived to tell the tale (but only just).
They were the first British explorers to circumnavigate New Zealand and they built a temporary observatory in Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the sun and to take part in a ground-breaking international scientific experiment.
Cook brought most of his crew home alive in spite of malaria and dysentery, 'the bloody flux', which they picked up when they called at Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, (now Jakarta in Indonesia).
It was an extraordinary triumph and the Endeavour replica, built and created by Australians, commemorates the achievment.
Endeavour functions as a museum ship when tied up in port but, out at sea, even in very heavy weather, she is one of the most effective vessels you can imagine.
Peter Weir, the film director, spent time on board Endeavour when he was planning his film: "Master and Commander, the Far Side of the World".
He wrote that Endeavour is ".... the only replica vessel afloat that has a period-accurate lower deck .... you live as they did. You sleep in hammocks and work watches and go up the rigging ... it's just work, sleep, eat ... work, sleep eat. And you're working in a team."
He put a two-man film crew and a huge Panavision camera on board Endeavour to capture film footage of storms and the sea as she sailed around Cape Horn.
His crew filmed from the open deck of Endeavour, in nightmarish conditions, and I definitely recognized some of the biggest, wettest waves in 'Master and Commander', especially in the great storm when a boy is left to drown to save the ship.
I spent 166 days at sea on Endeavour in twelve months and sailed more than 18,000 miles.
When I was not too tired (which was often), there was time for reflection, for study and for experimenting with some of the old-fashioned navigational techniques which I still find fascinating.
But I also got very interested in the people who sailed with me.
This book is for my grand-children but it is also dedicated to my shipmates and to the memory of my Mother, who would have enjoyed the stories.
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