Picton family’s Endeavour connection
The return of the Endeavour replica to New Zealand waters has special significance to Picton resident Tom Fishburn and his family. His great-great-great-great grandfather, also Thomas Fishburn, owned the boatyard in England that built Captain James Cook’s ship the HMS Endeavour, more than 250 years ago, and built many of the ships Cook sailed. On Saturday, the Fishburns were given a tour of the replica Endeavour, which was in Picton for the Tuia 250 commemorations. For Fishburn, it was the first time he had seen the vessel. ‘‘It was unbelievable and a lot different to what I thought it would be like. It’s reasonably sized but there’s not a lot of comfort.’’ Tom Fishburn is matter-of-fact about his family’s place in history – he has wooden tools from the original Whitby shipyard ‘‘somewhere in the back shed’’. But the seafaring legacy has continued through the generations. ‘‘Most of us have worked out at sea one way or another,’’ he said. ‘‘You could say it’s in our blood.’’ His youngest son, Stephen Fishburn, completed his boat building apprenticeship on The Legacy, launched by Tom Fishburn in December 2000. Fishburn used it for commercial fishing, before Stephen used it as a charter boat. Fishburn’s cousin Barbara-anne Gledhill (nee Fishburn) said all three of her boys worked out at sea, too. Tom’s oldest son, Andrew Fishburn, has visited Whitby, the Yorkshire town where Thomas Fishburn established his shipbuilding operations. The Fishburns moved to New Zealand two generations ago, and Tom was born in Picton. Writer and historian Peter Moore described Thomas Fishburn as ‘‘a really interesting character’’. ‘‘He built all of Cook’s ships and therefore must be counted as perhaps one of the most significant figures in the history of British shipbuilding,’’ Moore said. ‘‘The short version is that he was pragmatic, astute and successful as a shipbuilder.’’