🇨🇦 GEORGIA STRAIT––PIRATES SAILING IN

MONTE CRISTO (1968-1971)
"Captain Blood," Cal Mann, of Bellingham, WA, 
spots the British Columbia barque in Georgia Strait,
 June 1969.
Wire photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

The first time in US waters, the barque Monte Cristo, of Vancouver, BC, a replica model of an 18th C. vessel, is spotted by a Bellingham Buccaneer in Georgia Strait . The Bellingham group hopes to get some gold off the ship by charging admission during the weekend visit to help finance activities.

Monte Cristo
Below data from Wikipedia

1968:
3 masted auxiliary barque built in Vancouver, B.C. this year.

She is iisted in H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the PNW Vol. 1966-1975 as being built by Capt. Alexander Brigola for charter service.
She was built along the lines of the brigantine Albatros as published in Uffa Fox's Second Book of Boats.
She was constructed of mahogany planking on heavy fir frames with spars of Sitka spruce. Her three-sectioned mainmast rose 84-ft from deck to truck.
The deck measured 94-ft with bowsprit and jib boom extended to almost 140-ft overall.
Monte Cristo was rigged as a three masted barque with square sails on the mainmast and foremast, a gaff rigged fore and aft spanker on the mizzenmast, four jibs, and a variety of staysails for a maximum of 17 sails, totaling 9,000 sq ft. the sails were controlled by around 5 miles of running and standing rigging, all of natural manila rope and galvanized wire. There were no mechanical winches; all hauling being by block and tackle and human power.
The auxiliary engine was a GMC Jimmy 6-71 Diesel. The only electronic aid to navigation was a marine VHF radio.
Ownership:
Originally owned and built by a consortium of business men keen to recreate the great days of sail, she quickly became the sole property of Ron Craig, a Canadian businessman.
Voyages:
Initially, as Monte Cristo, she worked her way down the western seaboard of the US, giving costumed on-board tours to paying visitors at each port of call.

1969, 22 July:
She had to be towed into Port Townsend, WA in thick fog after suffering engine trouble.
She had a number of movie roles and on 9 November she was briefly involved in the occupation of Alcatraz.

1970:

She was renamed Endeavour II before she sailed across the Pacific to Sydney to take part in the bicentenary re-enactment on 29 April 1970, of Captain James Cook's landing at Botany Bay. Sydney. She subsequently cruised up the east of Australia to Brisbane, giving on-board tours to paying visitors at each port of call, and then sailed for Auckland, NZ, under American skipper, Jeff Berry.

This proved to be her final voyage and she encountered a number of delays. Soon after sailing she was becalmed and carried southwards by a freak, seventy-mile a day current. In the Tasman Sea, the crew sighted distress flares and searched for over 12 hours without success. The consequent depletion of fuel reserves was to prove critical. On rounding North Cape, she encountered a full gale and failed to make the intended Houboara Harbor.

Loss:
34° 31' 23.69" S 173° 0' 35.81 E

1971:

After rounding North Cape, NZ, Endeavour II found it impossible to keep position in 40-ft easterly winds when fuel ran out, and she tried to anchor. When her anchors dragged she  was driven onto the bar of Parengarenga Harbour, a few miles south of North Cape, in the early hours of 22 February. By 1 PM she had settled on her side and began to break up. The crew of thirteen men and one woman reached the shore safely, tied together with 9-ft of line between each person.

She was the first square-rigged sailing vessel wrecked on the NZ coast for more than 50 years.