Auckland sculptor Martin Shelsher finishes eco-museum installation of Endeavour scale replica

Auckland sculptor Martin Shelsher has just finished the installation of his latest work at the Fare Natura eco-museum on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia.

A scale replica of Cook’s Endeavour, the 75-kilogram, 1.2-metre-long work is displayed at the entrance to the museum and will be seen by thousands of visitors every year.

“It was the brainchild of my aunt Jean,” Shelsher said. “She has lived on Moorea since the mid-1970s, earning her living as an artist. She always spoke about artists being able to tell the stories of history through their work. Cook had an artist on board the Endeavour and he painted the ship in ‘Ōpūnohu Bay [where the Fare Natura is sited] in 1769. So, the idea came from that, really.”

Shelsher estimates he spent 800 hours working on the ship. Photo / Alex Robertson

Shelsher says he has spent about 800 hours working on the ship since the idea was hatched back in 2019 and, he says, the Covid lockdowns actually helped.

“As a struggling artist, I still work three days a week at a school in Botany. So, when we were put into lockdown [in March 2020], it was a bit of an opportunity to crack on with the job,” he said.

He estimates the total cost of materials to be about $1000, paid for by his biggest patron, his aunt Jean.

“I was lucky to find a copy of a book in the library, Captain James Cook’s Endeavour – Anatomy Of A Ship, which is an incredible piece of work by author Karl Heinz Marquardt,” Shelsher said. “The pages are full of to-scale drawings which I scaled up to create a plan to work from. It did my head in for a while, but the effort was worth it.”

Shelsher worked steel plate and bar at his Beachlands workshop – a converted shed in the back garden – calling on all his skills and training from 10 years spent working with glass and steel artist Danny Lane in London, whose works are sold and displayed all around the world.

The finishing touches were made on-site at the Fare Natura in Moorea in April. Photo / Alex Robertson

“I spent a decade with Danny in London. I worked mostly bending steel and forming, and then going with Danny to install pieces. We went to New York, Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam. It was an incredible experience and really helped me hone my skills.”

The director of Fare Natura, Olivier Poté, was extremely pleased to receive the piece for his museum.

“When Jean told me about the ship, we were so excited,” Poté said, and he thinks the Endeavour fits well within the museum’s theme. “Cook was the first European to sail across the Pacific, where Polynesians had been sailing for two millennia. It suggests a link between the Polynesian explorers and the Europeans who came here with Cook.”

The replica Endeavour has pride of place at the entrance to the Fare Nature eco-museum in 'Ōpūnohu Bay. Photo / Alex Robertson

And despite the three-year lead time, there was still a rush to get the Endeavour finished on time.

“We had to do everything, bar the finishing touches, [and have it] ready for shipping by March 12,” Shelsher said. “Making all the fiddly small pieces and then getting the painting done. I only just got there.”

With his mum sewing the sails and the all-important Union Jack, Shelsher boxed up the details that bring life to his work, flying over to add the sparkle in April.

“I grew up in a house where my dad was always carving stuff out of wood, [along with] a grandmother who was a real crafter and, of course, my aunt Jean, a celebrated artist in her own right over in Tahiti,” Shelsher said.

“I’m thankful they all encouraged me and pushed me to not get bogged down in normal everyday jobs and to follow my dreams. And I think that’s worked out pretty well.”