Captain Cook's gun for sale

A replica of Endeavour is a popular visitor to east coast ports

A gun owned by Captain James Cook is to auctioned next month.

The flintlock pistol was at his side when he became the first European to reach Australia.

After his death in Hawaii in 1779, Cook left the gun, which is made of fruit wood with a steel barrel, to his family in his will and it has been with his heirs ever since.

Now it is being sold by Brenda Holder, 71, of Reading, Berkshire, who is a direct descendant of the explorer's sister.

If it found a good home that would make me happy Brenda Holder

The pistol is expected to fetch more than £15,000 when it is sold by auction house Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh on 12 December.

Mrs Holder decided to sell the gun after she saw that a walking stick made from the spear that killed Captain Cook fetched £135,000.

She said she had owned the gun for about 20 years and had kept it in her loft, wrapped in a pillowcase.

"I just thought it was time to do something with it and I am not selling it for the money," she said.

"If it found a good home that would make me happy."

James Cook was born in Marton near the modern Middlesbrough in 1728 before moving to Great Ayton, Staithes and then Whitby.