It is almost Two Hundred and Thirty Years since Captain James Cook, the talented British explorer and navigator died in unsavoury circumstances in Hawaii. He set sail from Whitby aboard the Resolution to seek the enigmatic North West Passage - the link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Today in Whitby, it seemed like once again he had set sail on one more mysterious voyage. A local 'tribute artist', who attires himself in the garb of the great man and stands on a plinth for the amusement of tourists, briefly went absent without leave. He would normally be found atop his dias standing literaly rock-still (His attire is sprayed with some kind of stone coating), and he would occasionaly frighten the life out of folk by a sudden jerky movement or exclamation. But today he was missing - his lonely plinth (above) was all that remained. Fortunately, this particular incarnation of the redoubtable seafarer had not fallen foul of tribal retribution or even the dreaded 'scurvy' - he was merely a little thirsty!
