Sailing on the Winds of History

It’s never been easy for a sailing vessel to beat its way up the California coast against the prevailing northwesterly winds, but a replica of maritime history, with only some help from its 20th century engines, has been doing just that the last couple of weeks.

The three-masted square-rigger Endeavour, varnished hull glistening and heavy sails filled--some of the time--has been working its way north, 230 years after Captain James Cook circumnavigated the world in the original 109-foot square-rigger.

Under the guidance of Endeavour’s permanent crew of 16, 36 landlubbers have made up its “voyage crew,” manning the ship, usually for five days at a time, for various coastal segments.

Local coast watchers themselves can board the vessel after today’s arrival in Ventura County, as it goes into museum mode Saturday for a nine-day stay in Port Hueneme. Tickets are available and shuttles arranged from the Ventura County Maritime Museum.

Built in Australia and launched in 1994, the Endeavour replica, like the original, is a strong ship. High and relatively dry, it was designed as a flat-bottomed Whitby cat for coaling in the North Sea. It’s on the California coast this spring via the Indian Ocean, the East Coast and the Panama Canal, working its way north to Vancouver. Endeavour spent a couple of months in San Diego, getting a refit, before again heading north to Newport Beach, then on to Port Hueneme. From here it heads to Morro Bay.

But Captain Chris Blake, even with 38 years at sea, has learned California’s coastal wind conditions the hard way. The captain, who has commanded Endeavour for all of its five years, reportedly lost a case of wine on a bet that he could, in four days, make it all the way under sail from San Diego to Newport Beach.

He lost that one. And his merry crew spent two days at sea sailing back and forth--trying, unsuccessfully, to find a breeze that would carry them north. Under sail, with the winds right, the ship can do 10 knots, but with no winds available, the crew had to finally stow the sails, turn on the twin Caterpillar diesel engines, and head north at 5 knots. Generally, the engines are used for safety, or to maintain a schedule.

But then, perhaps Blake merely wanted to give the paying crew members their money’s worth. As he pointed out, “this has been sailing as close to the 18th century as you’re going to get.”

Indeed. The crew has had to scrape paint off the rails for refinishing, fill in the seams of the wooden planked deck with hot pitch, bend their backs over galley sinks and clean the captain’s quarters each morning.

While the voyage is intended to give a feeling for 18th century sailing and to stimulate interest in maritime history, the 40-year-old Cook’s experience was quite a different matter. Not yet even an officer when he got the assignment, Cook had several goals for his nearly three-year expedition. They included reaching Tahiti via Cape Horn to observe the 1769 transit of Venus, thus establishing a basis for measuring longitude; and to positively locate New Holland--the Australian continent--which earlier had only been briefly touched.

He then returned to England through the Indian Ocean. When today’s Endeavour leaves the North American coast, it heads for Hawaii and ceremonies at Kealakakua Bay on the island of Hawaii, where Cook was killed on a later voyage. The ship then sails to New Zealand and on to Sydney for the Olympics.

Her voyage is programmed a year ahead so voyage crew members can join, paying $750 for the coastal segments. Four cramped cabins on the stern, originally “gentlemen’s” quarters, each carry supernumeraries, who pay $1,650 and may do as much or as little actual crewing as they wish.

There have been some concessions to the years. Of three decks, the upper two are as 18th century as you might get, the main deck crowded with gear and sail apparatus and working structures. The middle deck, the living quarters, is cramped and dark.

But the third deck down, which had been the cargo hold, is now called the 20th Century. It is there that a modern kitchen operates, dishing out large, hearty meals as each watch is served, meals that bear little resemblance to the hard biscuit, sauerkraut and bully beef of the 18th century. It was with sauerkraut primarily that Cook’s crew, at his insistence, avoided the scourge of sailors--scurvy.

It is on the 20th Century deck today that there are showers and toilets, although the toilets are the pump variety, always a bit tricky. Aside from the 20th Century, much of the below-decks walking space is only 4 1/2 feet.

It’s been nearly 100 years since sailing crews experienced the California coast as this crew has. In some ways very little has changed. Peering into dense fog on a wet, cold, windy 4 a.m. bow watch is probably nothing new, with moisture from wet sails dripping down. Or coming on deck from below, struggling to get some night vision in the pitch black.

It takes a lot of people to handle the hundreds of heavy lines and large sail areas on the ship. If sails need to be changed during the night, it’s all hands on deck again, whether on watch or not, some going up the shrouds on lattice-like rat lines into the rigging to the yards, where the motto is the traditional, “One hand for yourself, and one for the ship.” Safety harnesses are worn on the yards at all times.

Amidships, where the crew sleeps, one has to wonder how Cook’s men lived so tightly. For this voyage there are only 56 crew members aboard; he had more than 90--plus a goat, which had already circumnavigated the world once. Present hammocks, which are stowed each morning and hung up again in the evenings, are the narrow canvas variety, strung about five feet off the deck. Not so easy to get into. Once in, the head or feet of another sailor are eight inches away.

These California coastal sailing segments of Endeavour as someone said, are “five enjoyable and interesting days . . . with discipline.” All of that, but also days of foggy mornings and crystal sunsets, small land birds flitting through the rigging, dolphins cavorting alongside, hard work and not much sleep. Eighteenth century days.

FYI

The Endeavour is expected to arrive in Ventura County at about noon today, met by a flotilla of local yachters. The ship will head to the Port Hueneme buoys, make its way to the Ventura Pier, then return to the Port Hueneme Pier before entering port at the Port Hueneme naval base. Cisco’s Sport Fishing will run a parade boat in the flotilla. It is scheduled to leave at 11 a.m. today from Channel Islands Harbor, and a portion of the company’s fee goes to the Ventura County Maritime Museum. Tickets are $25 per person, and the number is (805) 985-8511. Guided tours of the Endeavour begin Saturday and continue for nine days. Tickets, $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 5-17, will be available at the Maritime Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard. Buses will leave from the museum between 9:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. daily. 984-6260.