HM Bark Endeavour, the replica of captain Cook’s 18th century ship, will be visiting Falmouth at the end of March.

The replica will berth alongside the National Maritime Museum Cornwall from Thursday March 27 until Tuesday April 1 – and gives its Master, Capt Chris Blake, the chance to return a special Bible back to its home town.

Just before Sir Robin Knox-Johnston set sail from Falmouth 34 years ago to complete the first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world, he mentioned to Revd David Roberts, the Chaplain for the Mission to Seamen, that he did not have a Bible.

The pair dashed into Falmouth and bought a copy, which Padre Roberts signed.

After more than 300 days at sea, Sir Robin returned to Falmouth and returned the Bible to Padre Roberts, adding his signature.

The Bible also accompanied Nigel Rowe on his 1994-95 Around Alone race, before being returned to Padre Roberts.

When Endeavour last visited Falmouth in 1997, the Bible was passed to Capt Chris Blake to accompany the ship on her voyages, and although Padre Roberts died three years later, his family set out to locate the Bible and pass it on to the Museum.

That seafaring Bible will shortly be handed over to the Museum, representing another link between the town and the sea. Capt Blake will sign the book and hand it to Nigel Rowe, who will pass it to Sir Robin, and he will in turn hand it to Sian Cumins, the daughter of Padre Roberts.

Sian will present the Bible to Peter Cowling, Director of the museum, who will place it in the museum’s Bartlett Library – its final resting place.

The original Endeavour was a Whitby collier, bought by the Admiralty in 1768 with a view to sending her on voyages of exploration to the Pacific Ocean under the command of Lt James Cook, who spent his early seafaring years plying the North Sea coast and the Baltic in small merchant colliers.

Cook joined the Royal Navy at the age of 28, and by the time he took his first command – the Endeavour – at the age of 40, he had considerable experience in seamanship, navigation and surveying, the ideal combination for such a voyage.

In August 1768 the flat-bottomed, sturdy and relatively spacious Endeavour sailed to Tahiti with a crew of around 90 to observe the transit of Venus across the sun, and then headed south-west to search for the legendary Great South Land.

Cook and his crew did, however, chart numerous Pacific islands, prove that New Zealand was two islands, and chart the east coast of Australia, while botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander and their trained team gathered more than 2,500 species of new plants, and made the first recorded notes on Polynesian and Aboriginal customs and languages.

In 1770 the ship grounded on the Great Barrier Reef, and after frantic efforts to save the ship, it was beached and repaired over the course of several weeks before resuming her voyage.

She returned to Britain in July 1771, the voyage deemed a great success, and Cook commanded two more voyages of discovery to the Pacific during the decade.

By his attention to diet and well-being of his crews, Cook never lost a single man to scurvy, which at the time could kill up to half the crew of a ship on long sea voyages. He also insisted that people they met in ‘new’ lands were treated with the utmost respect – although ironically, it was at the hands of the indigenous people of Hawaii that he met an untimely end, clubbed to death on a Hawaiian beach on St Valentine’s Day in 1779.

The replica Endeavour was launched in Australia in 1993, and although some of the materials used differ because of modern regulations, the ship is close in design and detail to her namesake – builders worked from the original 18th century drawings.

One anachronism is the inclusion of twin diesel engines, for manoeuvring in harbours and avoiding conflicts in busy shipping lanes.

The replica is intended to help convey a sense of history, and enables people to get a feel for sailing an 18th century vessel. It also celebrates the life of one of the truly great explorers.

The bark is 42 metres long from her bowsprit to her stern, has a beam of almost ten metres and a draught of just under four metres.

She displaces just under 400 tonnes, and has 28 sails. Her mainmast is 29 metres high, and she has a permanent crew of 16, assisted by 36 voyage crew and various supernumeraries. All sailing – bar use of engines for safety – is done the 18th century way, using ropes, pulleys and musclepower, although there are no seats-of-ease over the bows nor salt meat and dry biscuits – the crew use modern heads, showers, and have a galley providing hot food.

Endeavour will be open to visitors between 9am and 6pm from Friday March 28 to Monday March 31, and day sails are available on the bark on Tuesday April 1.

Capt Chris Blake will also be giving a lecture at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall on his voyages. The lecture, on Wednesday March 19, is at 6.30pm for 7pm, and tickets (advance only) are available at £7.50 by ringing 01326 214546 or calling in at the museum.

For further details on the Endeavour see website www.barkendeavour.com.au and for details of the museum see www.nmmc.co.uk