LIFE on the high seas in the 18th Century may have been exciting but there was a darker side to a sailor's life above and below decks.

An exhibition that opened at the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Marton, Middlesbrough, on Saturday, reveals some gruesome details about life on board one of the explorer's ships.

The exhibition uses a variety of objects, pictures, games and hands-on displays to explore the colourful, dirty and often smelly story of life on board.

Cartoon character Sidney Scurvy describes what it was like to spend three years at sea facing storms, strange creatures, hostile native people, famine and sickness.

Visitors can also see what it was like to eat, sleep, drink, work, go to the toilet and, perhaps, get locked in the shackles on one of Cook's ships.

The exhibition runs at the museum until September 14.