THE OTHER SIDE

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20989, 18 October 1933, Page 5

THE OTHER SIDE

DEMOLISHING CAPTAIN COOK'S COTTAGE

"While Victorians are discussing where Captain Cook's cottage shall be re-erected, and how the work shall be done, Yorkshiremen on the other side of the world are talking about the opposite phase of the undertaking—the demolition of the cottage, the precautions required to ensure that it shall be re-erected exactly as it stood in Great Ayton, and the memorial which shall replace it. It will come as a surprise to many to know that even the ivy from the walls has been removed carefully and preserved so that it may be replaced when the cottage rises again from the 153 one-ton cases into which it has been packed. That fact is mentioned in the "North-Eastern Daily Gazette," a Yorkshire newspaper, which printed on August 30 on account of the last tourist inspection of the cottage. "When a 'Gazette' representative visited the historic cottage the sound of pick and hammer was heard within its walls. . . The old flooring of flint 'sets' was being taken up, and all the work preliminary to dismantling was being carefully "considered. Though the cottage was made modern by Messrs Dixon Brothers for the convenience of tenants, all the original materials, including the openhcarlh peat fires, the stone flooring, and old-fashioned -snecks' for the doors have been preserved, an J, as far as possible, the reconstruction of the cottage in Australia will be as it stood in Cook's time." Mr J. H. Rutherford, architect, of York, who is in charge of the dismantling, told the writer that every part, down to the smallest Hint, would be numbered and packed to make possible an accurate reconstruction. A special firm had been entrusted with the task of preserving the ivy for the six weeks' voyage to Australia. More than 1000 visitors, including Australians, Americans, and even Japanese, saw the cottage on the final viewing day. The article refers to the "very fitting memorial" which will replace the cottage —a boulder from Cape Everard, the first point of Australia which Captain Cook sighted in 1770.