THOUSANDS of people thronged Whitby's harbourside at the weekend (pictured above) to see history repeated.

A replica of Captain James Cook's ship, The Endeavour, was launched 250 years after the original and directly opposite the shipyard where the explorer's four ships were built.

The new Endeavour is two-fifths the size of the original and has been built for Scarborough fisherman Colin Jenkinson and his wife Rachel as a new dimension to their business, taking our parties of holidaymakers in the pleasure boat.

Forty passengers a time will be taken on trips as far north as Staithes, where Cook worked in a shop before going to Whitby to learn to be a navigator and later going on his expeditions to the South Seas.

The boat was built at Parkol Marine's yard on the Eskside Wharf by men whose forefathers had built boats at Whitby.

Mrs Jenkinson said: "We decided to branch out into having a pleasure boat because Colin was retiring from fishing and when we thought of The Endeavour it was obvious that she had to sail from Whitby. The lads have taken tremendous pride in building the boat - every piece of wood has been steamed and placed on the frame."

A friend of the couple, Mrs Susan Crooks took five attempts to smash the bottle of champagne on the boat's bows after the Rev Malcolm Lockey, of the Missions to Seamen, perfromed a blessing. The boat was then hoisted into the air by a giant crane and lowered into the harbour as a brass band played Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia!

Updated: 10:12 Thursday, March 07, 2002