Captain Chris Blake, OBE, master of replica sailing ship HM bark Endeavour is visiting the port this morning to meet with harbour master Captain Mark Sansom and Mike Rangecroft, one of the main organisers of Falmouth Week, to discuss the arrangements for Endeavour's high profile visit to the port later this summer.

Endeavour is coming to the port in August for a 12-day visit. Part of the time she will be an exhibition ship open to the public. A series of day sails are being planned including a trip during the Falmouth Classics event.

The beautiful sailing ship is currently cruising in the Canary Islands where she met up with the luxury liner Queen Mary 2 recently and fired one of her famous broadsides.

Endeavour is an exact replica of Cook's original Endeavour, a former three-masted Whitby collier named the Earl of Pembroke that sailed into Botany Bay, Australia, in 1770 under the command of Captain James Cook. Built at a cost of £8 million she is just a little more expensive than the £2, 500 the Royal Navy paid for the Earl of Pembroke in 1768.

Lt James Cook set sail from Plymouth on Friday August 26 1768 on a unique voyage of scientific investigation and exploration. After observing the Transit of Venus across the sun at Otaheite, in the Pacific, Cook sailed south west to disprove or otherwise the existence of the "Great White land".

By 1770 Cook had reached New Zealand. He circumnavigated the North and South islands before continuing westwards. Cook's three-year voyage ranks as one of the greatest of all time in terms of seamanship, navigation and geography. On this voyage he was the first captain to calculate his longitudinal position with accuracy using a complex mathematical formula developed in the 1760's.

What a pity the HM bark Endeavour website for the ship's visit to Cornwall links to Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA!