Free Republic

A debate has ignited in Australia over a statue of British explorer Captain James Cook, which has a plaque saying he "discovered this territory". The 19th Century statue, in Sydney's central Hyde Park, has come under scrutiny following recent discussion over Confederate monuments in the US. Critics say the inscription overlooks indigenous Australians, while others defend it as being part of history....

The wreckage of the Endeavour, the storied British ship that 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook sailed through the uncharted South Pacific, may lie a few hundred feet off Rhode Island’s coast in Newport Harbor, researchers said Wednesday. The 105-foot (32-meter) long, three-masted bark, later renamed the Lord Sandwich, had been hired out by the British Royal Navy as a troop transport when it was one of 13 ships deliberately sunk by the British in 1778 in an effort to blockade the harbor.

An archeologist claims to have found a 16th century European coin in a swamp on Australia’s east coast, raising new questions about whether Captain James Cook was beaten to the continent by the Spanish or Portuguese. The silver coin, which is inscribed with the date 1597, was discovered by a group led by amateur archeologist Greg Jefferys. A colleague was digging in the sand with a machete when he found the badly corroded coin on Sunday.It was buried a few inches below the ground in the middle of snake-infested Eighteen Mile Swamp on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. If proved to...