Posts

Showing posts from January 30, 2022
Image
  The remains of the 'Endeavour' have been identified and found but arguments continue ..... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60239753 I thought this account of my sailing on the replica of his vessel the  Endeavour  many years ago might be of interest. It is taken from the opening chapter of my book on the island provinces of Papua New Guinea entitled  Beyond the Coral Sea : Travels in the Old Empires of the South-West Pacific  (HarperCollins, London 2003). The book was short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.           The original idea of sailing a copra schooner called  Barracuda  around the islands of  Eastern Papua New Guinea  in the spirit of Robert Louis Stevenson had faded, as do so many boyhood dreams. I had always wanted to experience what it was like to sail    the old vessels of the past on those remarkable voyages of discovery.    My friends at the Royal Papua Yacht Club laughed at the idea and told me that all the old ketches and schooners had