A MUSEUM dedicated to the explorations of an 18th Century sea captain are to become a hammock house of horror.

Seventeen children will spend a scary sleepover at Middlesbrough's Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, where staff really have arranged for things to go bump in the night.

Youngsters leaving the town's Brambles Farm Primary School to start secondary school and pupils from Ormesby Comprehensive will meet supernatural and mystical characters from the circumnavigator's voyages on board HMS Endeavour, thanks to the costumed characters from the Busy Ape arts organisation.

The event, designed to break down the challenge of moving on to a secondary school, will include workshops, food tasting, folk law and story telling.

While that is happening, on July 1, the model of Cook's bark, which for many years was suspended from a ceiling in the Cleveland Shopping Centre - now renamed The Mall - is being shipped off to the Birthplace Museum.

The 10m, 1-tonne ship is being moved to make way for a multi-million pound redevelopment of the centre.

Phil Philo, the museum's senior curator, said: "We're delighted with this generous gift and that we're able to preserve this important artefact for future generations."

Published: 21/06/2005