Tuesday, May 3, 2016

CAPTAIN COOK LUNCHED HERE


With news just in that part of  Captain Cook's ship  HMS Endeavour, later  named Lord Sandwich,  has been found scuttled  in America , a roving correspondent  today sent this  panoramic view  of  Cooktown, North Queensland , where  the  vessel pulled  in  for  panel beating  after striking the Great Barrier Reef  in  1770 , coming ashore  at  the mouth of what  is now known as  Endeavour River .
 
Situated 2000 kilometres north of Brisbane, Cooktown started as a  supply port  for the Palmer  River goldfields in 1873, now has a population  about 2500.
 
With funding from the late Alan Bond, work began on the replica of the bark , HMS Endeavour , ran into financial problems, as did Bond , but was  completed and went on display, below , at the Australian National  Maritime Museum, Sydney.
 
The James Cook University  Eddie  Koiki  Mabo Library  in  Townsville sports a model of  HMS Endeavour  in a  large upstairs  glass showcase.  
Relics including the six cannon jettisoned by the  vessel when it became stuck on the  reef  were recovered in 1969 by a research team  from the American Academy of Natural Sciences . A cannon and an  anchor went on display at the James Cook Museum , Cooktown . Endeavour was  commemorated in numerous ways - on a  50 cent New Zealand coin and  the name of  Space Shuttle.