Mast Transit

It’s not until you get past all vestiges of the 20th century--the high-rise downtown San Diego skyline, the naval yards and the sound of blaring car alarms set off by the traditional blast from the ship’s gun as the ship leaves port--that it really hits you:

You’re aboard a replica of the H.M. Bark Endeavour, the square-rigged converted coal carrier on which Lt. James Cook--with 94 crew including scientists--circumnavigated the globe in the late 18th century.

The tall ship arrived in San Diego in early February and will sail into Newport Harbor, its only other stop in Southern California, shortly after 9 a.m. Friday.

Cook’s 1768-71 Pacific voyage, one of three, propelled the 40-year-old Royal Navy 1st lieutenant--most often referred to as “captain” because he commanded the ship--into the ranks of Vasco de Gama and Columbus as one of the world’s greatest explorers.

Cook was the first to accurately map Australia’s eastern coastline; he is considered a major figure in Australian history.

The Endeavour project, affiliated with the Australian National Maritime Museum, was paid for through individual donations and government funding and is operated by the H.M. Bark Endeavour Foundation.

It took six years--and $17 million--to build the replica, which includes planking fastened with wooden nails and blacksmith-forged door handles and candle lanterns.

Commissioned in April 1994, the new Endeavour left Australia on an around-the-world voyage in October 1996.

Sailing first to England via the Cape of Good Hope, it crossed the Atlantic in early 1998. After a 16-port tour of the east coast of North America, it headed to San Diego via Bermuda, Barbados, the Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands.

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The ship will dock at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum about 11 a.m. Friday; guided tours of the Endeavour begin Saturday.

“It’s a chance to touch history,” said museum director Sheli Smith.

There will be no oceangoing tours of the Endeavour during its 10-day stay in Newport Beach, one of 15 ports on a West Coast itinerary that winds up in Vancouver, B.C., in October.

But on one recent morning, about 70 volunteers who helped with the ship’s annual refit--sanding, painting and rig and sail repair--went out with the Endeavour’s 16-member crew for a short shake-down sail.

Before departing, the volunteers were given instructions in sailing, 18th century style: how to climb the rigging and unfurl and set the sails. Two got to work the helm. Jim Davis of the San Diego Maritime Museum, which hosted the Endeavour’s visit to San Diego, was one of them.

“For me, it would be something I wouldn’t want to turn down,” said Davis, 40, who is first mate on the Star of India, the 135-year-old windjammer moored at the San Diego Maritime Museum and which makes annual day-sails.

“The romance of sailing a tall ship,” Davis said, “is always there.”

The Endeavour’s mast soars 128 feet overhead; its body is about 30 feet wide and 110 feet long (from bowsprit to stern, it measures 143 feet).

Known as a slow but sturdy vessel, the Endeavour is billed by its publicists as “sea kindly and safe even in rough weather.”

There was no chance of rough weather on this trip, even though chief officer Geoff Kerr, standing in as captain while Chris Blake was on leave, said the forecast had called for 25-knot winds.

With only a 3- to 4-knot breeze, Kerr lamented, “it’s almost a dead calm.” (A 4-knot wind, 4.6 mph, is technically considered a moderate breeze.)

Which was a disappointment to experienced sailors wanting to see what the three-masted Endeavour could do on the open sea but a relief for someone whose idea of sailing is on a 700-foot luxury liner complete with happy hour on the promenade deck.

Once out to sea--about two miles beyond Point Loma--the Endeavour seemed even smaller than it is.

Built as a bulk carrier, the ship’s hull design is similar to an overturned barrel. Once the engine was cut--the replica has an engine for motoring out of the harbor that was not part of the original design--and the volunteers went about setting the sails, the flat-bowed ship bobbed like a cork: pitching and rolling, pitching and rolling.

Which was about the time a landlubber began praying for the Dramamine to kick in.

“A lot of people get seasick,’ acknowledged Anthony Longhurst, 26, of Sydney, the Endeavour’s boatswain. Then he grinned: “I’ve never had the privilege.”

As the crew and volunteers went about the business of sailing--and former America’s Cup champion Dennis Conner sailed his Stars & Stripes sloop alongside to get a close-up look--a tour below decks seemed in order.

This Endeavour has four decks: the weather deck on top; the after-fall deck, running half the length of the ship from the stern; the lower, or mess, deck; and the hold at the bottom.

Part of a wooden ship’s charm is the sound of its creaking and groaning below decks. As the ship’s historian and curator, Antonia Macarthur, said of the Endeavour: “She talks a lot while she’s under sail.”

During Cook’s day, 80 seamen ate and socialized on the lower deck. Like their 18th century counterparts, crew members today sleep in hammocks slung on the lower deck while the officers sleep in cabins 6 feet long, 5 feet wide and 4 1/2 feet high.

Toilet facilities were unheard of in Cook’s day. Two holes cut into wood hanging over the ship’s bow served that purpose. “Seats of ease,” they were called.

The holes are there, but Endeavour’s contemporary crew needn’t worry about wind chafing. Longhurst explained that 20th century-style conveniences on-board the replica include toilets, showers and a modern galley (kitchen). Modern conveniences, however, do not include a TV and VCR.

“That’s the whole idea of going sailing--to escape,” Longhurst said. “You’re working, eating and sleeping, basically.”

Having crewed on square-rigged sailing ships since he was 13, Longhurst said he has come to appreciate working on the Endeavour.

“I don’t think we give people from that time that much credit for what they did. In 1768, this was modern technology. . . . This ship is the 18th century equivalent of today’s space shuttle.”

A ‘Museum-Quality,’ ‘Pacific-Oriented’ Ship

Smith of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum said the Endeavour will be the first “museum-quality” replica ship to visit Newport.

Other replica ships have visited Los Angeles Harbor, she said, “but this is probably one of the bigger ships to come to the Pacific. This is a very Pacific-oriented replica ship in the sense that Cook is to the Pacific what Columbus was to the Atlantic.”

Smith spearheaded the Endeavour’s visit to Newport Beach.

The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, which began as a grass-roots effort in 1986 in a one-room storefront on Balboa Peninsula, became a professional museum in 1996. It’s housed in the Pride of Newport, formerly the Reuben E. Lee.

“This museum has been one of the better-kept secrets of Newport,” Smith said. Schools have booked tours for every morning the Endeavour is docked in Newport, Smith said. And groups of 16 have signed up for the Shipkeeper’s Program, a free sleepover in which participants 16 or older will be assigned night watches and other duties.

Smith is familiar with the Endeavour. She not only witnessed the ship’s launching in western Australia but also went aboard when it was docked in Sydney Harbor.

“When you think that this is the highest form of technology that they had, [Cook’s] people were incredibly courageous,” Smith said.

When the Endeavour leaves Newport Beach for Port Hueneme, near Oxnard, on the morning of April 26, the public will have a chance to sail on the 18th century replica. Fourteen berths, at $750 each, are available for a five-day cruise.

“You’re expected to work just like any other crew member,” Smith said. “It should be a pretty exciting adventure, a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

BE THERE

The Endeavour will be docked next to the Pride of Newport, the stern wheeler that houses the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, at 151 E. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. Tours of the Endeavour begin Saturday and will continue through April 25. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; noon to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission: $10 for adults and $5 for children. Free parking and shuttle service will be available on tour days from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Newport Beach Country Club, 1600 E. Coast Highway. Call (949) 673-7863.

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A Bold Endeavor

Capt. James Cook’s voyage on Endeavour, the first of his three journeys, was basically for exploration and scientific reasons. It was during this voyage he became the first captain to prevent scurvy, which had long plagued sailors, by serving his crew fruit and sauerkraut. Cook did not, however, find the “great south continent” that some geographers believed kept the globe in balance.

1768

August: Cook joins Endeavour, voyage begins

October: Endeavour crosses Equator

1769

February: Rounds Cape Horn and reaches southernmost point of voyage

April: Reaches Tahiti

June

* Observes planet Venus pass between Earth and the sun

* Observes lunar eclipse

August

* Leaves Society Islands (Tahiti group)

* Sights and observes Messier’s Comet (seen earlier in Europe)

October: Rediscovers New Zealand (originally found by Abel Tasman in 1642) and becomes first European to visit

* Spends several months exploring, completely charting and circling North and South Islands, proving they are islands, not a continent.

1770

April: Sails west across Tasman Sea, sights Australia

May: Explores Australian coast, names Botany Bay

August: Claims whole northern coast of Australia for King George III, names it New South Wales.

September: Confirms existence of passage between Australia and New Guinea

1771

March: Rounds Good Hope, South Africa

April: Crosses Greenwich Meridian, completing circumnavigation of earth in a westerly direction

May: Observes solar eclipse

July: Returns to England

August: Personally receives promotion to commander from King George

Ship Shapes: Silhouettes of some types of sailing vessels, showing mast and sail configurations (not to scale).

Sources: H. M. Bark Endeavour Foundation, Captain Cook Study Unit, World Book Encyclopedia, Academia American Encyclopedia

Graphics reporting by PAUL DUGINKSI, TOM REINKEN and BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times