Whitby Heritage

The maritime heritage of Whitby, the North Yorkshire harbor town where James Cook served his merchant-marine apprenticeship from 1746 under shipowner John Walker. All four of Cook’s exploration ships, including HMS Endeavour (originally the collier Earl of Pembroke), were Whitby-built cat-collier types. The town also built whalers; William Scoresby was a Whitby whaling captain. The Captain Cook Memorial Museum occupies Walker’s house on Grape Lane. Whitby Abbey, above the harbor, inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).