The Recovery and Conservation of Relics from HMB Endeavour
When "HMB Endeavour" ran aground on an unseen reef off the coast of northern Australia in 1770, Lieutenant James Cook was forced to abandon six cannon and an anchor. These were lost for 200 years, and finally recovered from the waters of the Great Barrier Reef between the 1969 and 1972.
This is the fascinating story of the loss, recovery and conservation of these relics from Cook's ship. It follows the various expeditions in search of the site of the grounding and the race to retrieve the artefacts. Once these were recovered, an ambitious project was undertaken to combat the effects of corrosion and restore the artefacts to their original glory.
The restoration and preservation of the relics were entrusted to the Defence Standards Laboratories, at that time the pre-eminent Australian experts in corrosion and electrochemistry. The results of their work, described here in detail, can now be found in museums in London, Wellington, Philadelphia, Sydney and Cooktown.
