HEAD FOR A COOK’S TOUR
Explorer’s legacy brings a new visitor boom
IT IS a more modest voyage of discovery than the one undertaken by Captain Cook 250 years ago, but an expedition around the Yorkshire coast is nevertheless opening up undiscovered pockets to a newly engaged generation of tourists.
Interest in Cook’s 1768 journey, fuelled by the summer’s anniversary celebrations in his home port of Whitby, have encouraged travellers to follow in his earlier footsteps at the top of the old North Riding.
A Captain Cook Trail to the port of Staithes and into the North York Moors National Park, is being promoted to visitors – especially those from Germany and China whose travel agents might otherwise have scheduled only an overnight stop in York.
From next month, a day trip from there will take visitors on a Cook’s Tour of the towns and countryside that was the mariner’s childhood home. Landbased rather than sea borne, a 16seat minibus will substitute for a naval vessel.
The tour, running initially on Sundays and Wednesdays was created in response to the mooring of a full size replica of Cook’s HMS Endeavour in Whitby harbour. Saved from a likely voyage to the scrapyard, the vessel was restored by Andrew Fiddler, a hotel owner and former Navy man, who paid £155,000 for it last year.
It began taking visitors in the summer and this weekend completed a move to its permanent harbourside base alongside the Star Inn, the Whitby outlet of the Michelinstarred chef, Andrew Pern.
The ship’s cannons and gangway were the last accessories to be hauled into place, and last night an onboard restaurant began serving meals more suited to the modern palate than the salted beef and crackers fed to the original ship’s crew.
“Cook is becoming a mini tourism industry in his own right,” Mr Fiddler said. “We have found that people who were unfamiliar with him are now inspired to learn more about his early life in Yorkshire. “So we’re working with the National Park to encourage them to stay longer and discover new places. We would like German and Chinese operators to draw more of their visitors over from York.” Whitby is also home to a museum dedicated to Cook’s life. It stands in the house on the banks of the River Esk in which he was apprenticed to a family of ship owners. It followed an apprenticeship to a Staithes grocer.
Mr Fiddler said: “The idea is that people will be able to follow a signposted route to these sites.”
Some 2,500 people came on board the Endeavour during the festival in July that marked the 250th anniversary of Cook’s first voyage from Plymouth.
It is hoped that around 150,000 will follow annually, but Mr Fiddler said: “We don’t necessarily just want to capture people who are coming to Whitby anyway – we want to draw them from much further afield and encourage them to spend a few more days here.”
Cook is becoming a mini tourism industry in his own right.
Andrew Fiddler, who restored a replica of Endeavour ship as a tourist attraction.
CAPTAIN JAMES Cook stands in the front rank of Yorkshire heroes, his epic voyages of discovery a benchmark of what our county’s characteristic grit and determination can achieve.
There is no prouder seafaring legacy on our coastline than his, and it is wonderful there is a surge of interest in his life and exploration.
The growing success of tours exploring his legacy in North Yorkshire, from Staithes, where he first fell in love with the sea, to Whitby, where he began to learn his seamanship, are much to be welcomed.
The tours are a valuable boost to Yorkshire’s increasingly successful tourist trade, which is excellent news.
But there is something more in their success which is equally heartening.
They show a keenness to explore the history and heritage of this great man.
Cook may be a figure of the 18th century, yet his example still continues to inspire people in the 21st.