COOK’S “ENDEAVOUR"

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1929, Page 7

COOK’S “ENDEAVOUR"

TALE OF A FIGUREHEAD.

(United Service.) (By Cable—Press Assn—Copyright.)

LONDON, October 24., The figurehead of Captain Cooks ship, the Endeavour, in which he explored the Australian coast, the South Seas, and New Zealand, is said to have been discovered in a summer-house in a little Derbyshire village near Chesterfield. The figurehead is the wooden carved form of a woman nine feet in height. It was covered with many coats of whitewash which, when removed, disclosed a white robe, a flowing blue sash, and a string of red beads round the throat. It appears that Sir Hugh Palliser was the First Lord of the Admiralty when Captain Cook first set out, and later, when the Endeavour was broken up, her figurehead came into the pos--1 session of Sir Hugh’s family. Finally it passed to his niece, who, at the end of the eighteenth century, married a Derbyshire gentleman, who was the ancestor of the man .who owned the figurehead which is now in an antique shop at Sheffield. Inquiries showed that Mr Charles S. Clarke, residing at North Auckland, and who left England in 1863, wrote to Sir Janies Parr stating that he was a. descendant of Sir Hugh Palliser, and disclosing that the figurehead was in the summer-house, but he gave the name of the ship as the Industry. Captain Cook never had a ship of this name.

Sir James Parr inquired, and found the figurehead, but it is in a bad state. Dryrot has set in, and the figurehead is not worth acquiring. Australia House, however, doubts the authenticity of the figurehead. LATER. Inquiries of M. Jarvis, antique dealer, Sheffield, at present the possessor of the figurehead states that the head was found in a summerhouse, and the body was discovered in another corner. Jarvis cannot fix a price, but it is valuable despite the dry rot.