Some of the replica furniture for the Endeavour replica was made in Indonesia by Toucan Trading of Fremantle.

Copies of Captain Cook's secretaire and commode and Joseph Banks' knee-hole desk were made under the guidance of John Woodward, a cabinet maker and antique restorer. Specifications for the furniture are as close to the originals as researchers could ascertain.

To make reproduction furniture in Australia using Australian timbers would have cost many times as much. However, the very moist environment in Indonesia and the very dry environment in Fremantle means there can be problems with shrinkage and splitting if the craftsmen do not take this difference into account.

Two men in Fremantle, high on drink and drugs, cut the moorings on the replica Endeavour because they did not want it to go to Sydney!

"It shouldn't go east" Steven Gade, 42, told police when they arrested him and Glen Mitchell on July 2, 1994. Quick action by the crew members on board saved the vessel from being dashed on the rocks.

Mitchell was fined $1000 and Gade, unemployed, was put on 18 month's probation on condition that he take psychological and substance abuse counselling, do 100 hour's unpaid community service and pay $300 for damage to the mooring lines.

Kallis' cafe at Fishing Boat Harbour, Fremantle, was quick to take advantage of the presence of the replica Endeavour by advertising itself with the phrase "Kallis' Seafood is now served with a 224 year old view"!

The replica Endeavour left Fremantle on October 2. More than 100,000 people and over 300 boats saw her leave. The eight day journey to Adelaide across the Great Australian Bight included her first test of a Force 10 storm that had waves foaming across her decks. The voyage to Sydney is taking longer than expected as more and more seaside towns and cities want to see the vessel.

From information supplied by Verna Philpot and Ken Sheahan

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 1114, volume 18, number 1 (1995).