Endeavour runs aground in Australia, again

SYDNEY - A replica of British explorer Captain James Cook's sailing ship Endeavour has followed in the footsteps of the original 18th-century vessel by running aground in Australian waters.

The replica was set to return to Sydney Harbour in a floating parade on Sunday after a five-month journey from Britain.

However, it became stranded on a sandbank after a stop in nearby Botany Bay, within sight of where Cook first landed on Australian shores more than two hundred years ago.

Cook's Endeavour departed Botany Bay without incident in 1770, but little more than a month later ran aground on a coral reef further north along the eastern Australian coast.

Cook during his 1770 voyage claimed possession of the whole eastern coast of Australia for Britain, paving the way for the arrival of convict settlers in 1788.

The replica, away from Australia for more than three years, is to go on exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. A spokesman said the Botany Bay incident had delayed the ship's welcome.

"Ironically of course it is where Cook first called in the original Endeavour in 1770," museum spokesman Bill Richards said.

"We have had to cancel the parade of sail and our celebrations and we are sitting here waiting," he said.

- REUTERS