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Endeavor replica combines old, new By BILL VARBLE Endeavour looms out of the mists off the south Oregon Coast like a ghost come through a time warp. Her masts are shrouded in the fog that came with the first real summer heat of the year. In five-foot swells she sails closer to the motley flotilla that's come out from Coos Bay to welcome her and gawk. Crew members on her weather deck stare back. There's a flurry of activity amidships. CRAACK! goes an iron cannon. Smoke billows. Endeavour, a replica of the bark Capt. James Cook used to discover new worlds, crosses the bar and begins her stately passage up around North Bend and into the harbor at Coos Bay. She's using her diesels, but she still looks like a great bird attended by little chicks as she's accompanied by U.S. Coast Guard vessels and small pleasure boats. Endeavour will remain dockside for more than a week, a combination living museum and working ship open to the public. The Coos Bay docks are the latest stage in a journey that began in October 1994 in Freemantle, Australia, and has brought the 550-ton, 109-foot vessel to the West Coast of North America. From here she goes to Astoria and on up to Vancouver, B.C., before sailing for Hawaii. Owned by a nonprofit foundation, she's built to the highest standards of authenticity yet passes 20th century sailing muster. Despite the wooden hull and all that rigging (more than 10,000 square feet of sail), she boasts modern engines, galley, mess, heads and showers. The modern goodies are confined to what was the cargo hold in the original ship. Other than a hydraulic windlass, everything else would be familiar to one of Cook's seamen. Capt. James Cook set out from Plymouth, England, on Endeavour in 1768 on one of the most famous voyages of exploration of all time. He observed a transit of Venus across the sun in Tahiti, then sailed southwest to discover Australia and map Aotearoa (New Zealand), sailing around both the north and south islands. Scientists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander discovered some 2,600 new species of plants on the journey. Cook was the first captain to accurately calculate his longitude, and the first to radically cut the incidence of scurvy among his crew. All this on a ship that began life as a humble merchant ship. The Earl of Pembroke was built as a collier -- a coal-hauling ship -- in Yorkshire, England, in 1765. She was bought by the British Admiralty three years later and re-named. They figured her sturdy build and ample holds made her ideal for use as a scientific vessel, and she in fact turned out to be seaworthy and safe. The original Endeavour was elm, oak and spruce. This one's hull is jarrah, an Australian hardwood. The masts and spars and decks are made of wood described by the Australians as "old growth Oregon (Douglas fir) especially imported from North America." Galvanized iron fastenings are used, and modern preservatives. The sails are Duradon, a synthetic canvas that looks and handles like the original flax. The ship's engines are used only for safety, or if head winds or calms bid to interfere with her schedule. She can sail easily at eight knots and has made more than 10 knots. Endeavour is commanded by Capt. Chris Blake, a South African with a square-rig endorsement on his master's certificate. You can see the captain's sleeping quarters and other working stuff if you tour the ship. They're just off the captain's captain, which looks like something out of a sailing movie. You expect Gregory Peck in a cocked hat at the captain's table, studying a chart. In a nearby bulkhead is a souvenir -- a wooden nail that went into space with the space shuttle Endeavor, a relic of the past sailing into the future and back again. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA