Captain James Cook's lost ship Endeavour discovered after 250 years
Capt. James Cook's famous lost ship, the HMS Endeavour, has been rediscovered off Rhode Island, closing the book on a maritime mystery that has endured for 250 years.
The iconic vessel's alleged final resting spot was detailed in a recent report by the Australian National Maritime Museum, which had been searching for the lost ship since 1999.
'This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel,' said museum director Daryl Karp of the document, which he described as the 'definitive statement' on the project, Pen News reported. 'It has involved underwater investigation in the US and extensive research in institutions across the globe.'
During the British explorer's first expedition, between 1768 and 1771, the Endeavour circled the globe and became the first European ship to land in eastern Australia and to circumnavigate New Zealand.
The legendary ship fell into obscurity shortly thereafter: It was repurposed as a transport ship for British troops.
Endeavour was then sold off to the shipping company Mather & Co., before getting refitted and renamed the Lord Sandwich in 1775, when it formed part of the British fleet during the Revolutionary War.
Endeavour was finally scuttled off the coast of the US in 1778.
The sunken remains then lay at the bottom of the ocean for 2½ centuries until experts formally matched the ship with a wreck dubbed RI 2394, which was located in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.
Researchers were able to confirm that it was indeed Cook's lost ship by comparing the wreckage with the vessel's historic plans, finding that the placement of certain timbers was a dead ringer for the locations of its main and fore masts in the outline.
Meanwhile, the wreck's measurements matched those taken during a 1768 survey of the Endeavour.
'The size of all the timber scantlings are almost identical to Endeavour, and I'm talking within millimeters – not inches, but millimeters,' declared Australian National Maritime Museum archaeologist Kieran Hosty. 'The stem scarf is identical, absolutely identical.'
He added, 'This stem scarf is also a very unique feature — we've gone through a whole bunch of 18th-century ship's plans, and we can't find anything else like it.'
If that wasn't proof enough, analysis of the wood revealed that the timber was British in origin.
This finding was consistent with reports that the Endeavour was repaired in 1776.
Despite the so-called 'preponderance of evidence,' ANMM has received some backlash over the alleged discovery. When the museum published its preliminary findings in 2022, its research partners at the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project refuted the claim, declaring that they were running point on the project and that the research was 'premature' and a 'breach of contract.'
ANMM acknowledged RIMAP's 'fine historical analysis and detailed artifact recording' in a statement, adding that while their fellow research org 'continues to accept that RI 2394 may be Endeavour,' they are 'not ruling out other candidate shipwreck sites.'
Nonetheless, ANMM archaeologist James Hunter claims that there are enough criteria to confirm the ship's identity. He pointed out that the Endeavour was 'intentionally scuttled,' meaning that the chances of 'finding artifacts that would provide an immediate identification, such as a bell, were very unlikely.'
'Anything that was of value would have been stripped out of that ship before it was sunk,' he said. 'But what has been recovered up to this point is indicative of an 18th-century time frame.'
'You'll never find a sign saying 'Cook was here,'' seconded Hosty. 'We've got a whole series of things pointing to RI 2394 as being … Endeavour.'
He added, 'And so far we found lots of things that tick the box for it to be Endeavour and nothing on the site which says it's not.'
Originally published as Captain James Cook's lost ship Endeavour discovered after 250 years
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