We arrived at Hull about 12 o'clock. There she was, as majestic as usual. On arrival you could not help but see the addition to her rigging, a Christmas Tree atop. I bet the fairies didn't put it there.

It was just getting busy, with the ship well full of people and an hour queue. The shop had very little left for sale. I took some more photographs. in the dry dock the hull had been cleaned and painted grey. Several new ropes, etc. were visible.

So, into town and dinner. On my return to the car park I asked the car park attendant how many cars had visited. On Boxing Day there had been 750 cars, all occupants visiting Endeavour. By 3.30 p.m. today there had been 350. So, quite well supported.

On Christmas Eve on television there was a drama called "The Black Velvet Band". It was a story of convicted London thieves being transported to Australia (Tasmania) in 1848. Whilst in Cape Town three convicts escape ship. The scenes for this were filmed on board Endeavour whilst she was at Durban. I spoke to one of the girl crew members; she confirmed that the actors and film crew were on board, and it was done off the coast of Durban.

Chris North

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 1490, volume 21, number 2 (1998).