Marine researchers have doubled down on their claims that the shipwreck off the US coast is Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour, one of the most famous ships in naval history.
A pump well and part of the wreck’s bow provide further evidence of the ship’s identity, the Australian National Maritime Museum said on Thursday.
After decades of archaeological investigation, the museum first declared in February 2022 that the wreck in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, was the Endeavour.
However, these claims were rejected by American experts who also examined the ship. They said that despite the results being “consistent with what one might expect from the Endeavor,” there is still no incontrovertible data to support this claim.
Rhode Island Marine Archeology Project executive director Kathy Abbass said a “legitimate report” on the identity of the wreck will be released once the group’s study is complete.
Australian marine researchers have reiterated their claims that the shipwreck off the US coast was Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour, one of the most famous ships in naval history
One of the most famous ships in naval history, HMS Endeavor was used in Captain Cook’s discovery of the east coast of Australia in 1770
However, the museum said there had been no further backlash to its claim that the ship was the Endeavor in the past two years.
Several details of the wreck convinced archaeologists that they had found the Endeavour, after matching structural details and the shape of the remains with those on the Endeavour’s 18th-century plans.
Only 15 percent of the ship remains, and researchers are now focusing on what can be done to protect and preserve it.
HMS Endeavor was first launched in 1764 as the Earl of Pembroke and then renamed His Majesty’s Bark the Endeavor after being purchased by the British Royal Navy four years later.
The ship was sent out in August 1768 to explore the Pacific Ocean, both to observe the transit of Venus in front of the Sun in 1769 and to search for the continent then called Terra Australis Incognita, i.e. unknown southern land.
The previous transit of Venus in 1639 had provided astronomers and scientists with extensive information about the size of the solar system and the universe.
The ship left Plymouth with 94 people on board, including Captain James Cook.
After traveling along the coast of Africa before crossing the Atlantic, it arrived in Rio de Janeiro in November of that year.
Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavor is one of the most famous ships in naval history
HMS Endeavor was first launched in 1764 as the Earl of Pembroke and then renamed His Majesty’s Bark the Endeavor after being purchased by the British Royal Navy four years later
The museum first declared the wreck in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, the Endeavour, in February 2022, after decades of archaeological investigation
However, these claims were rejected by American experts who also examined the ship. They said that despite the results being “consistent with what one might expect from the Endeavor,” there is still no indisputable data to support the claim
The boat then set out to round Cape Horn, which it accomplished on its third attempt in January, after Cook’s first two attempts were foiled by wind, stormy weather and difficult conditions.
In April the ship reached Tahiti, where it remained for the next four months and where astronomer Charles Green was able to study the transit of Venus in June.
After months of exploring the Pacific for islands, the Endeavor reached the shores of New Zealand in October, becoming the first European ship to land on the island in over 100 years.
The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had already reached the islands of New Zealand and Tasmania in 1642 on his journey with the Dutch East India Company.
Cook spent six months exploring and charting the coast of New Zealand, claiming the land for Britain before sailing west.
In April 1770, people on the ship first discovered Australia, and on April 29, HMS Endeavor became the first European ship to land on the east coast of the island.
Cook spent four months charting the coast and at one point ran into trouble when the ship hit part of the Great Barrier Reef.
The ship was 24 miles offshore at the time and did not have enough lifeboats. However, he managed to clear the water from the ship’s hull and return safely to shore.
Since the ship’s discovery, researchers have spent a lot of time exploring underwater what they believe to be the HMS Endeavour
Australian researchers claim that a pumping well and part of the wreck’s bow prove it is the ship
The last sighting of HMS Endeavor was around 1778 and she was sunk – or intentionally sunk – in harbor off the coast of Rhode Island
The ship continued to explore the east coast of Australia and was taken out of the water in November to undergo major repairs before sailing back to the UK.
The ship set sail the day after Christmas and circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope in March before docking in Cape Town.
She arrived at the port of Dover on July 12, almost three years after she first left Plymouth.
Cook was later promoted to commander and explored the Pacific twice more on HMS Resolution.
He was killed during a battle with Hawaiians on the island in 1779.
The Endeavor soon became a naval transport ship and was sold to a shipowner shortly before the start of the Revolutionary War.
This person then attempted to sell the ship back to the British as demand for ships increased during the war, but they were unwilling to accept the ship given its age and what it had been through over the years.
The seller then decided to rename the boat “Lord Sandwich” and try to sell it again, which worked after extensive repairs to the boat.
When the British attempted to recapture the port city of Newport in 1778, it was sent to Rhode Island as a prison ship and blown up there in the hopes of causing a blockade in the harbor during the Battle of Rhode Island.
Most recently, the discovery of the ship’s pumping well allowed museum archaeologists Kieran Hosty and James Hunter to compare it with plans of the Endeavour, drawn up during a British Admiralty survey of the ship in 1768.
According to the museum, the positions of the preserved pump shaft stumps and pump well partitions on the wreck perfectly matched those in the archival document.
By comparing the wreck site with the historical plans, the archaeologists were also able to accurately predict the location of the ship’s bow and found another compelling piece of evidence there.
A distinctive “skarph” joint in the preserved keelwood allowed the team to take further measurements of the wreck, establishing further consistency with historical British documents.
The design of the scarf itself, unusual for ships of the period, also closely matched the shape and size of the joint on the Endeavour’s plans, the museum said.
A study of 40 18th-century ship plans found that only one other wreck matched the Rhode Island wreck – that of the Marquis of Rockingham, built in 1770 by the same shipbuilder who produced the Endeavor.
Maritime Museum director and chief executive Daryl Karp said the findings further supported Australian researchers’ claims about the Endeavor’s identity.
“The museum also, of course, recognizes the work of the Rhode Island Marine Archeology Project team and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for their many years of support and oversight,” she said.
Time may be running out to fully confirm the ship’s identity after a report in August 2022 suggested the ship was being devoured by shipworms.