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Re-rigging Endeavour

Moored at the Museum in Darling Harbour, the Endeavour is widely regarded as the most accurate 18th-century square-rigged ship replica in the world.

Endeavour has retraced Cook’s east coast voyage, circumnavigated the globe and represented Australia in ports across New Zealand, Europe, the United Kingdom, South Africa and North America. It now continues to sail on commemorative voyages and serves as a powerful platform for education and reflection. But to remain a sailing ship, the rigging must be renewed.

Every sailing vessel depends on its standing rigging – the network of stays, shrouds, blocks and lines that supports the masts and absorbs immense forces under sail. Made from rope and timber, these components are constantly exposed to salt air, ultraviolet light and extreme tension. Even with meticulous maintenance, they have a finite lifespan.

This year we begin a significant conservation project, the complete replacement of its standing rigging, which must be renewed every 15 years.

More than 30 kilometres of rope are being hand-made in Port Adelaide by specialist riggers using traditional techniques – stretching, tarring, serving, seizing and splicing each line by hand. At the same time, while docked at the museum, the ship is being de-rigged, with masts, yards and more than 700 wooden blocks carefully removed, inspected and conserved.

This co-ordinated effort across two cities is designed to minimise the ship’s time out of service.

Alongside this work, the Museum is developing Navigators, a national digital learning platform for primary school classrooms

Navigators will be an online learning hub for primary school teachers and students across Australia. Drawing on the museum’s collections and expertise, the platform will bring maritime history to life through interactive maps, animated voyages, digital objects and curriculum-aligned classroom activities.

At its core, Navigators explores how people have understood, travelled across and connected through the seas surrounding Australia.

Students will encounter stories spanning centuries, including:

• First Nations trade routes and navigation traditions
• Encounters with Makassan traders in northern Australia
• Early European voyages by explorers such as Willem Janszoon, Abel Tasman, James Cook and Matthew Flinders
• The navigational tools, maps and observations that allowed mariners to cross vast oceans.

Each module invites students to explore fundamental historical questions:

Why did people voyage? How did they navigate? Who did they meet? What did these journeys change?

Navigators transforms maritime history from static information into active exploration.