Captain James Cook’s ship Endeavour has finally been located, bringing a 250-year search to an end.
A recent report from the Australian National Maritime Museum, which has been searching for the ship since 1999, identified its final location off the coast of Rhode Island.
“This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel,” said museum director Daryl Karp of the document, according to the New York Post. “It has involved underwater investigation in the U.S. and extensive research in institutions across the globe,” he added.
During Captain Cook’s first voyage from 1768 to 1771, the HMS Endeavour became the first European ship to reach Eastern Australia and sail around New Zealand. Afterward, it was converted for use as a transport ship and later sold to a shipping company.
Renamed the Lord Sandwich in 1775, the vessel served in the British fleet during the Revolutionary War before being deliberately sunk off the U.S. coast in 1778.
The shipwreck remained underwater for over 250 years until researchers identified it as the HMS Endeavour by examining a wreck known as RI 2395 in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. Confirmation came through matching the arrangement of timbers in the wreck with the historic plans of the ship, particularly the positions of the main and fore masts.
Additionally, the dimensions of the wreck corresponded with measurements recorded during a 1768 survey of the Endeavour.
“The size of all the timber scantlings are almost identical to Endeavour, and I’m talking within millimeters — not inches, but millimeters,” said ANMM archaeologist, Kieran Hosty. “The stem scarf is identical, absolutely identical.”
He added that the stem scarf was also “a very unique feature.”
“We’ve gone through a whole bunch of 18th-century ship’s plans, and we can’t find anything else like it,” he said.
Further evidence came from the analysis of the timber, which confirmed the wood was of British origin, matching historical records indicating the Endeavour underwent repairs in 1776.
ANMM faced criticism from its research partner, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, after announcing the discovery of the Endeavour in 2022. RIMAP called the findings premature and a breach of contract, though they still consider the wreck a possible candidate. ANMM archaeologist James Hunter maintained there is enough evidence to confirm the ship’s identity, noting that the Endeavour was intentionally sunk, making immediate artifact identification unlikely.
“Anything that was of value would have been stripped out of that ship before it was sunk,” he said. “But what has been recovered up to this point is indicative of an 18th-century time frame.”
Hosty seconded Hunter’s sentiment.
“You’ll never find a sign saying ‘Cook was here,'” he said. “We’ve got a whole series of things pointing to RI 2394 as being HMS Endeavour.”
He added, “And so far we found lots of things that tick the box for it to be Endeavour and nothing on the site which says it’s not.”
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