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Staithes to Whitby
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Staithes to Whitby
 From
the bronze statue of Cook looking out to sea on Whitby's West Cliff there
is a panoramic view of all that makes the town what it is: the ancient
Abbey and the squat St Mary's Church visible across the harbour, pantiled
roofs of cottages little changed since Cook's time here. He lived on the
east side, over the bridge in Grape Lane. It was here in John Walker's
house that he began his apprenticeship, working late into the night reading
about navigation and seamanship. Today the house forms the Captain Cook
Memorial Museum and houses even more artefacts connected with Cook. Room
settings and changing exhibitions give a flavour of the maritime trade
of Whitby and the age of sail.
Cook would have climbed the 199 steps to worship at St Mary's Church close
by the Abbey ruins where, in the year 664, the date of Easter was fixed
by the Great Synod. Today the ruins are as majestic as ever and soon to
be enhanced by a new visitor centre. The graveyard around the church was
said to be the dark inspiration for Bram Stoker's tale of Gothic horror,
"Dracula", begun during a visit to the town in 1897.
Whitby was a major whaling port for many years and an arch of whalebones
frames the Abbey and church close to Cook's statue. The "Crow's Nest"
at the mast head of vessels even today was the invention of Captain Scoresby,
a whaling operator in the town, and a remarkable sculpture exists next
to the harbourside.
Cook sailed from here regularly in Whitby 'cats' small sturdy vessels
suited to coastal work - not then knowing how he would eventually become
one of the world's greatest navigators and explorers in vessels built
here in the tradition of these colliers. In spring 1755, James Cook left
just such a ship in the Thames to join the frigate HMS Eagle as a volunteer,
working his way up from able seaman to master of his own vessel, the most
famous being HM Bark Endeavour - built here in Whitby in 1765. |
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