Posted on 01/03/2024 5:47:53 AM PST by Red Badger
Breakthrough evidence likely reveals the final resting place of the HMS Endeavour. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nearly two years after an Australian research team made the claim that a Rhode Island shipwreck was Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour, the team says they have more evidence to back up their assertion.
A Rhode Island-based research group originally said it was too premature to call the shipwreck Cook’s vessel.
New findings regarding the pump well and bow further point to this ship in fact being HMS Endeavour.
Residents of New England and those with British ties are once again in a scuffle. This time, the debate continues over whether a shipwreck found off the coast of Rhode Island is really the HMS Endeavour—or Lord Sandwhich, as it was eventually renamed—a retrofitted coal ship made famous by Captain James Cook during his 1760s explorations.
The ship in question had been known as RI 2394 since it was discovered, and is one of five shipwrecks found just north of Goat Island in Newport Harbor that were deliberately sunk by the British during the American War of Independence. Archaeologists have studied the ship for decades, and in February of 2022, the Australian National Maritime Museum declared RI 2394 to be the HMS Endeavour. That announcement didn’t go over well with the Rhode Island Maritime Archeology Project, who quickly questioned the announcement.
Now, nearly two years later, the Australian group is back in the public eye and claiming that further evidence from the ship’s pump well and bow offers additional reasons to believe that RI 2394 is indeed Cook’s HMS Endeavour.
“Archaeology is an interesting process,” Kieran Hosty, Australian archeologist, said on the group’s website, “we call on the preponderance of evidence where we’ve got a whole series of things that tie into Endeavour. And so far, we’ve found lots of things that tick the boxes for it to be the Endeavour and nothing on the list which says it’s not.”
Work has been ongoing at the site since the late ‘90s. The team says that samples taken from the ship show that the timbers are British, the size is within millimeters of the Endeavour’s, and the length of the keel (from the end of the bow to the bilge pump) is within inches of survey measurements taken of Cook’s vessel taken by the British Royal Navy.
The two new pieces of evidence tie to that survey, which shows the position of the pump-shaft stump and pump-well partitions and lays out how they aligned perfectly with the shipwreck, according to The Guardian. And the scarph joint in the keel timber was also a match to the historical survey.
“The stem scarph is identical to what we know from the plans of Endeavour,” Australian marine archeologist James Hunter said on the group’s website. “It’s also a very unique feature. We’ve gone through a whole bunch of ships’ plans, lots of 18th century plans, and we can’t find anything else like it.”
Another anecdotal reason that experts continue to believe that this shipwreck is in fact the Endeavour is that the archaeological team found coal in the bottom inside of the hull, likely left over from when it was a cargo ship. “I think it’s just rattled down from when it was a collier and got stuck in the bilge,” Hunter told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hunter and Hosty say that they will continue to put together a paper on the study and have it peer-reviewed before publishing, “but for now, there’s a lot of confidence that Endeavour has been finally found.”
While the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project hasn’t commented on the recent Australian announcement, the group’s executive director put out a scathing statement in 2022 that called the announcement a “breach of contract” between the two parties, which had been working together.
Even though the shipwreck site is consistent with what might be expected of the Endeavour, “there has been no indisputable data found to prove the site is that iconic vessel, and there are many unanswered questions that could overturn such an identification.”
Daryl Karp, the Australian National Maritime Museum chief executive, told the Sydney Morning Herald that along with the new findings, there’s been no evidence against the idea that this is the Endeavour.
Cook is famous for charting lands previously unknown to the British, including New Zealand, Australia, Newfoundland, and Hawaii. His was the first European ship to reach the eastern coast of Australia and sailed around all New Zealand. His coal ship was then used in the War of Independence, one of five British vessels scuttled in 1778 by the cutting of holes in their hulls, which is why it makes sense that the craft would have ended up in Rhode Island.
“We will never find anything on this site that screams Endeavour,” Hosty said on the website. “We will never find a sign saying, ‘Cook was here.’ We will never see a ship’s bell with Endeavour crossed out and Lord Sandwich inscribed on it.”
Very cool if it is true... :)
Finally, we’ll know the truth about Peter Pan
I thought that was Captain Hook.
I thought that was Captain Hook.
It was Captain Cook prior to a tragic kitchen mishap.
:)
Why is the Rhode Island-based research group so resistant to the idea?
Does the article happen to say where in
Rhode Island?
Thanks Red Badger.
That's pretty funny, considering how it crossed over in the timing of a post about cooks.
Cook is famous for charting lands previously unknown...
Now there's an explorer who really knew how to cook.
So... how about doing something that really cooks... ♫
(Johnny, be good.)
Now there’s an explorer who really knew how to cook....
But he discovered the Sandwich Islands....AKA, Hawaii...........
“... during the American War of Independence.”
The what?
Disgusting slander from this elitist, Tory pig.
Did we install a king? We just went independent so we kept the same type of government? What an insulting jackass this author is.
It was the American Revolutionary war.
It was a full on revolt against the whole system of hereditary monarchy, patronage and titles. It was replaced with a new and revolutionary representative republic founded on civil liberties and the rights and welfare of “the People” being the government’s purpose.
In the water, I suppose..................
Washington Resigning His Commission, by Edwin White, 1858.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, many people in America and Europe thought Washington would retain the reins of power to become the leader of the new nation, or even king. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was going to resign, King George III of England said "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
However, Washington had an abiding faith in the young nation and a deep desire to return to his beloved Mt. Vernon and private life as a farmer. Congress had assembled in Annapolis in late November and awaited the general's arrival to resign his commission. He arrived on December 19 and immediately wrote to Congress to inquire as to how they actually wanted him to resign. A committee of Congress devised a ceremony that took place at noon on December 23. In the intervening days, Washington was feted with parties, balls and huzzas, including a gala ball on the night before the ceremony in the hall of the State House, where he danced with all the ladies.
On the day of the ceremony, Washington arrived at the State House where Congress was meeting in the Old Senate Chamber. When he entered the Chamber, the members remained seated, covered (with their hats on). In a short, emotional speech, Washington resigned his commission and then bowed to Congress. Only then did the members rise and remove their hats in a gesture of respect. As he left the Chamber to ride to Mt. Vernon in time to have his Christmas dinner at home, Washington handed his personal copy of his speech to a member of the committee. It is this copy that the state of Maryland has now acquired from a descendent of the member, in whose family it has remained since that day. .....
Ba-dum ch
But, imo, it was the Whiskey Rebellion which likely taught him it was best to resign rather than repeat the very actions which led to the people’s revolution in the first place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion
Just north of Goat island.
Taxation WITH representation ain’t so hot, either!..............
But he discovered the Sandwich Islands....AKA, Hawaii.........
That's exactly what got him into a permanent jam!
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