A group of archaeologists who have been working together to determine the presence of HMS Endeavour among the wreckage site of five sunken ships in the United States, are now set to reveal the findings of their project.
HMS Endeavour was a legendary ship that sailed to discover New Zealand and Australia under the leadership of Captain James Cook. The researchers at the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology are saying that they believe they have hit a milestone in their research at the site that potentially had Endeavour among its ruins, and are set to make major announcements in this regard. The organisation had previously maintained that its archaeologists are 80 to 100 percent certain about the existence of Endeavour off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island; in Narragansett Bay to be more precise.
The site has been mapped by RIMAP’s experts to scan the structural remains of over a dozen ships that were reportedly scuttled at the Newport harbour during the American Revolution in 1778. The team is now in the process of making a detailed analysis of all the remains, with an expectation to produce empirical evidence of Endeavour’s existence at the bottom.
The founder and executive director of RIMAP has said that they are holding ogg from releasing any news based on mere speculations and that public must wait for the final verdict on the matter by the experts. Credit for the original discovery of the site goes to RIMAP’s researchers who in 1998 made the claim that HMS Endeavour had been renamed and scuttled off the coast of Rhode Island’s Newport.
The next breakthrough came when in 2014 Australian authorities approved funding for the project and RIMAP received the grant to research the matter further. The researchers have since identified the site and have gathered more information about the last known locations of the HMS Endeavour; all of which points towards the fact that Newport is actually the last resting place of the legendary ship.
The legend of the Endeavour began in the spring of 1768 when Lieutenant James Cook was commissioned by the British authorities to embark on a journey leading an expedition into Pacific Ocean.
Later that year in August 1768 James Cook set sail from Plymouth, England and reached the African coast; further crossing Atlantic it arrived at Rio De Jeneiro and then got lost into the vastness of the Pacific. After two long years, Endeavour reached Botany Bay in Australia; on 13 Sep 1770 James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the British Empire while standing on Possession Island. Lt. James Cook’s first expedition onboard Endeavour came to an end in July 1771; however the ship was yet to see some more action and adventures in her coming years.
Between the years of 1771 and 1774, the Endeavour was frequently used for transportation to and from the famous Falklands Islands in Argentina. In 1775 it was sold to a member of the public, who then offered to let the government buy back the ship in the wake of the rebellion in 1778 for the fraction of the initial price. The ship was sent to Rhode Island and was used as a prison ship during the retaking attempt on the Port City of Newport. During the scuffle, the ship was reportedly blown into pieces and was buried underwater. The next record of the Endeavour was almost two centuries later when in 1998, local archaeologists located the remains of the ship near the port and embarked on the project to identify and recover the remains.