The real deal or....??????
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....MakeTrack=true
The description says:
This old brass telescope is the original off Captain Cook's "HMS Endeaver", and was taken when she sunk in Fiordland NZ. It has been handed down for generations and been in storage for many decades. It really deserves to be held in a museum, but has been "lost" for a long time. As a boy, I admired and polished this telescope regularly for an old man very dear to my heart, a fifth generation boat builder, and treasure hunter of ship wrecks, before I knew its history. In fact I didn't know it's origins untill well after he died and left it to me. All I knew was it was his most treasured possesion, and when he was dying of cancer, he was torn between leaving me the boat he built for himself, or his telescope. Although he had a beautiful boat, filled with trinkets he had salvaged by diving shipwrecks, I am gratefull that I got the telescope. It has been my pride to own it for more than twenty years now.
The telescope is in orginal condition, with one cracked lense, and many dents from being well used so many years ago. It still has remarkable clarity, and impressive magnification for it's time, as a testamont to its original quality. More than probably, this is the very telescope used by Captain James Cook to sight both New Zealand and Australia for the very first time. Obviously, its cultural significance is huge to both countries. If anyone is prepared to pay what I am asking, the delivery will be negotiated after a deal is struck. This is the real deal, one of a kind, and was lost from the Endeaver when she sank, although it was (obviously) taken with the survivors before abandoning ship. I will be posting some pictures shortly, and also the details of the inscription inside the eye piece.
The bidding starts at $750,000 and you can use your credit card via PayPal. It's conveniently located right here in Perth too - maybe I should ask if I can inspect it before bidding?!
The historians will have a field day debating the likelihood of this being authentic. It's a good story, anyway!