To Retrace Cook’s Route

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30636, 30 December 1964, Page 1

To Retrace Cook’s Route

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 29. The replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour in which Captain Alan Villiers elans to retrace the istoric voyage of the great navigator will visit New Zealand before sailing to Australia. The voyage will be part of the bicentenary celebrations

of Cook’s arrival in both countries in 1769 and 1770. Mr G. C. Beckett, chairman of the New Zealand Endeavour Committee, said today that Captain Villiers had agreed to call at Gisborne, where Cook had first anchored in New Zealand, and then follow the original route up the east coast to the Firth of Thames, Whangarei, the Bay of Islands and down the west coast through Cook Strait to Queen Charlotte Sound.

“The aim of the voyage is

to follow Cook’s route from England as closely as possible,” said Mr Beckett “We hope the Endeavour will arrive in October, 1969, and circumnavigate at least the North Island before reaching Endeavour Cove in January, 1970. The Australian Government recently gave £lO,OOO to a trust fund formed to build the second Endeavour. Building the 387-ton ship and outfitting her for the trip is expected to cost more than £150,000.

When Captain Villiers was in New Zealand last March he estimated that it would take at least a year to collect oak and larch for the ship. It will be built and rigged to the exact specifications of the first Endeavour and will be 105 ft long with a 29ft beam.

It is hoped to sail the ship from Plymouth in August, 1968, and plan to reach Botany Bay on the 200th anniversary of Cook's landing [there, on April 29, 1970.