Replica ship return call for Middlesbrough shopping centre

The ship is a scale model of the vessel Captain Cook sailed to Australia and New Zealand

A Middlesbrough councillor has called for the return of a huge replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour ship to its recently-purchased shopping centre.

The 25ft (7.62m) scale model used to hang in the Cleveland Centre but was removed in 2005 during an overhaul.

It has been in storage since a temporary appearance in 2020.

Councillor Tom Mawston said that it would attract visitors to the centre, which the council acquired from private owners earlier this month for £12m.

Mr Mawston told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it was "quite a visitor attraction when it was in the Cleveland Centre originally".

He said: "People miss it, it still gets mentioned. Now the council owns the Cleveland centre, it's quite right that it should go back in."

The centre which opened in the 1970s is the largest retail complex in Middlesbrough

The replica ship was temporarily returned to the centre in February 2020 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the explorer's 1770 landings in New Zealand and Australia, but has been in storage since.

However, Marton-born Cook has not escaped the criticism that many historical figures have received for their roles in spreading colonialism around the world. 

In Australia and New Zealand, in particular, some view Captain Cook as the person who opened the door to the colonial violence that indigenous communities went on to face.  

Mr Mawston, who is also vice-chair of the Captain Cook Birthplace Trust, said: "The Endeavour is a symbol of an achievement by a person who lived in a different time with different attitudes to what we have now.

"I cannot agree with everything that happened with colonialism, in some respects, but to eliminate everything, the history of it, people won't know what's happened.

"I don't see the ship being back as a representation of what's alleged to have happened on his voyage - it's a model of a tiny ship that sailed for thousands of miles and came back.

"We wouldn't be doing a lot of what we do now if Captain Cook hadn't found his way around those places.

"I'd like to see the ship back in the centre, it's where it was. People did come to see it. And people will still come back and see it."