A SERIES of historic drawings made during the last voyage of Captain James Cook have finally been returned to the great explorer's home port.

John Webber was the official artist on Cook's third voyage and was the first European artist to see the natives of Kamchatka - one of the most remote regions in the world.

Now the drawings he made there 228 years ago have found a new and permanent home in Whitby's Captain Cook Memorial Museum, in North Yorkshire.

The £241,971 cost was met with the help of a £50,000 award from the Art Fund and £188,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Naturalist and Captain Cook expert Sir David Attenborough said: "Webber's drawings are extraordinary, and not simply because they were created during what was to be Cook's last great voyage of exploration.

"They show a humanity and sympathy with the Kamchatkans as individuals, rather than simply depicting them as specimens of a previously unknown people.

"They have a unique importance as records of an indigenous culture at a time when they had had little contact with others."

The drawings were sold overseas 75 years ago, and have been seen in the UK only rarely since.

Bought from a US collector, the series of pictures was the largest holding of original Cook voyage material to remain in private ownership.

Cook's third journey lasted more than four years, from 1776 to 1780, during which attempts were made to find a north-west passage through the Bering Straits between North East Russia and Alaska.

During the voyage, Webber produced about 200 drawings and 20 portraits in oils, including four of Cook.

His work was done on the spot and mostly outside.

The newly-acquired set of drawings were produced in 1779 during two visits to Avancha Bay, Kamchatka.

Captain Cook died later that year, killed during a fracas in Hawaii, and the ships arrived back in England in 1780.

Museum chairman Sophie Forgan said: "We are delighted to be able to show these wonderful drawings once again in this country.

"They have an immediacy and a poignancy, because they bring the story of Cook's third and last voyage full circle - from the town where he trained and in whose ships he sailed, to the place where the news of his death was sent back to Britain."