Centuries after it was used to explore faraway lands, Captain James Cook’s long-lost ship may have been found — off the coast of Rhode Island.
The Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, or RIMAP, is planning an announcement about the HMS Endeavour on Wednesday.
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The ship — also known as the Lord Sandwich and HMS Bark Endeavour — was scuttled in 1778 in Newport Harbor during the American Revolution.
A fleet of 13 ships were purposefully sunk by British forces in the harbor ahead of the Battle of Rhode Island. The RIMAP, through a grant with the Australian National Maritime Museum, mapped nine archaeological sites related to the ships.
Historic documents showed that one group of five ships included the Lord Sandwich. Four of the sites have been mapped, with a fifth site possibly found with remote sensing data.
“That means the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project now has an 80 to 100% chance that the Lord Sandwich is still in Newport Harbor, and because the Lord Sandwich was Capt. Cook’s Endeavour, that means RIMAP has found her, too,” RIMAP said in a statement.
The organization will be working to determine each vessel’s structure and related artifacts.
“All of the 13 ships lost in Newport during the Revolution are important to American history, but it will be a national celebration in Australia when RIMAP identifies the Lord Sandwich ex Endeavour,” the organization said.
Cook, a British explorer, sailed on the HMS Endeavour around Cape Horn in Africa, and visited Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia. While Cook wasn’t the first European to visit Australia, his crew extensively studied the country’s eastern coastline. A town there is named for the year of the crew’s arrival — Seventeen Seventy.
Cook explored Tonga, Easter Island, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia and Vanuatu on his second voyage.
He was killed in 1779 during a trip to the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii.
The Endeavour was sold and used to transport British troops before it met its watery grave — lost for more than two centuries.
Wednesday’s announcement comes 240 years after Rhode Island’s colonial legislature disavowed its loyalty to the King of England.
“For RIMAP to be closing in one of the most important shipwrecks in world history, for that ship to be found in Newport, and for it to have an international reputation, should be an intriguing birthday gift for all of Rhode Island,” the organization wrote.
