| Australia. Spectacular Parade of Sail to welcome Endeavour home |
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| Saturday, 16 April 2005 | |
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By National Maritime Museum A Navy helicopter flying a giant Australian flag, two Navy ships, two tall ships under sail and a flotilla of more than a hundred small craft will parade up Sydney Harbour this Sunday afternoon to welcome Endeavour home to Australia. Endeavour – also under sail – will have pride of place near the front of the formation, firing broadsides from her cannon as she proceeds from the headlands to her home port at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour. A program of bands, choir music and period military re-enactments with cannon and muskets will greet the ship when she arrives at the National Maritime Museum at 3pm. Sunday’s celebrations will mark the completion of an epic five-month sea voyage home from the UK for the magnificent Australian-built replica of Captain Cook’s 18th century ship. She has been away from Australia since February 2002, most of the time visiting UK and European ports, opening for public inspection and taking paying crew on sea voyages. Endeavour will pass between South Head and Middle Head at 1 pm, and enter Watsons Bay at 1.15 pm. Here the parade will form around her. Leading will be SPC Shirley Smith – the Sydney Ports fire tug, throwing out spectacular jets of water. Then will come an escort of two Navy vessels - HMAS Advance (a decommissioned 1968 Attack Class patrol boat now owned by the Australian National Maritime Museum) and HMAS Yarra (1997 Huon Class minehunter currently in RAN service). Next will be Endeavour, followed in line by the three-masted barquentine Svanen (1922) and the bigger three-masted barque James Craig (1874). The following flotilla will include all historical and contemporary craft of all shapes and sizes. After Watsons Bay, the parade will travel down into Rose Bay, pass south of Shark Island and head across to Bradleys Head, Mosman, at 1.45 pm. It will pass Fort Denison (where there will be an exchange of cannon salutes) at around 2.10 pm, pass under the Harbour Bridge at about 2.30 pm and arrive at the National Maritime Museum at 3 pm. As she approaches the museum, Endeavour will fire a further cannon salute and the military re-enactment group Historica, on the museum’s north wharf, will respond with a 16-gun salute…. the traditional welcome for a Royal Navy ship in Cook’s era. An 18th century ‘Marines’ guard-of-honour will fire a musket volley to welcome Endeavour’s master, Captain Chris Blake, and members of his crew ashore. http://www.sail-world.com |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 April 2005 ) |
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