Meet the 80-year-old sailing around the world for the second time
Gordon Cook is not your average landlord, nor a run-of-the-mill pensioner. At the ripe old age of 80 he is putting his rare 17th-century Grade II listed home into the hands of tenants and preparing to sail around the world… for the second time.
He embarked on his first global voyage 43 years ago, when he, his wife Mary, and their two young children weighed anchor from Plymouth and followed the route taken by the British explorer Captain James Cook (they are not related) exactly two centuries previously.
The trip would take them 17 years, through five cyclones, and leave them shipwrecked on a volcanic island, 3,000 miles from their desired destination.
“Maybe being engulfed by storms with 60ft waves crashing overhead wasn’t the most traditional upbringing for a four and five-year-old, but I don’t think it did them any harm,” Cook says. “In many ways I think we saved them from the English education system.”
Inspired by the whales and dolphins she would spot from the deck of their family home, his daughter Suzanne eventually returned to land to read biology at Oxford before going on to complete a PhD at Cambridge. Cook’s son, Jonathon, studied for four masters degrees and a PhD in engineering and computing.
“He was always interested in helping out and fixing things on the boat,” Cook says. “We’d stop off in Australia and pick up huge chests with enough physics and chemistry experiments for them for the whole year.”
Growing up by the sea in Whitby, North Yorkshire, he says that Captain Cook, a fellow Yorkshireman, cartographer and sea captain, had always been something of an idol. “When it came to the bicentenary of Captain Cook’s first voyage in 1968 I was part of a movement to build a replica of his boat, The Endeavour, to send over to Australia following his route. We needed £5million, but couldn’t raise the funds.”
When it came to the 200-year anniversary of his namesake’s second voyage, Cook once again tried and failed to raise the money. “It was then that I decided that, by the time of the bicentenary of the third voyage in 1976, I would buy a boat and do the trip myself,” he explains.
Moving into the confined space of a ship could have proved challenging for a man used to spending time in towering castles and sprawling estates as operations director for English Heritage and managing director of Warwick Castle. “Most of my days were spent roaming forts and monuments along the south coast, from Stonehenge to Tintagel,” he says. “So we chose a schooner that was big enough not to feel cramped − at 70ft there was plenty of room to escape the children.”
Cook’s home on dry land is a far cry from your standard two-up two-down rental. After years spent managing castles, Cook found himself buying his own near Stroud in Gloucestershire. His house, one of few remaining examples of a post-Restoration manor, was built from hulking blocks of Cotswold stone taken from 12th-century Moreton Valence Castle, which used to stand just down the road. Moreton’s moat can still be seen today.
“I drove past on the way to visit a site, spotted the house and stopped in amazement,” he recalls. “Because of my background in heritage buildings I knew immediately how special it is to find a house from the period when Charles II was restored to the English throne in the late 1600s.”
Built by exiles returning from France, where they had been hiding since Charles I was beheaded, Swallows Court channels the elegance of a classic European chateau. The six-bedroom house is packed with interesting features, from an original bread oven to a cavernous wine cellar and even a Georgian wig cupboard. “My favourite part is the huge inglenook fireplace. It’s from the Tudor period and was brought over from the old castle before it was pulled down,” Cook says.
Outside there are stables and an old cider barn which he and his wife converted into two holiday cottages. The house’s seven gardens include a waterfall, fountains and an orchard.
Since his wife passed away two years ago and his children are now raising their own families, Cook has decided to entrust his home to renters while he casts off once again, this time solo. “Renting the house will pretty much cover the costs of the trip,” he says. He also says he would consider selling the property if he didn’t find the right tenants to look after it.
Cook has now decided to sell the business he started to keep himself entertained during retirement. Unsure about what to do with the 3,000 rare sailing books he’d kept on board the schooner, when Cook returned from his 17-year adventure, he set up shop selling antiquarian and out-of-issue tomes.
“We were one of the first companies to sell books via Amazon. The business grew and grew, and before I knew it we had 10,000 books in the house and my wife was telling me I had to move them.” Cook now has his own warehouse, where he stores more than half a million antique volumes.
“It seems stupid to stay here with six bedrooms and two cottages to myself,” he says. Luckily Cook’s new boat is big enough for guests, and his children, grandchildren and friends will join him at various points along the route in the Canary Islands, the Caribbean and Polynesia. “The last thing I want to do is to spend my last years in an old folks’ home,” he insists. “Sailing is the world’s greatest adventure, and navigating the seas alone will give me time to write some books of my own.”
Cook’s house is available through RentMyHome for £2,500 per month (020 3441 2345; rentmyhome.co.uk)
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