Researchers are exploring whether a shipwreck off the coast of Rhode Island could be the vessel that 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook used to sail around the world.
The Rhode Island Marine Archeology Project, which is leading the search effort, and the Australian National Maritime Museum identified the vessel.
It is one of 13 shipwrecks that have been known for years to be in the harbor near Newport, Rhode Island.
Archeologists on Friday met in Newport to talk about their fieldwork.
“Early indications are that the team has narrowed the possible site for the wreck of HMB Endeavour to one site, which is very promising,” museum director and CEO Kevin Sumption said.
The project described the site as promising, but said it would still take a lot more work and money to identify it.
Nearly 250 years ago, Cook ran aground on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef during a voyage to the South Pacific. His ship was the Endeavour, an awkward little vessel that improbably helped him become the first European to chart Australia’s east coast.
He used the Endeavour to claim Australia for the British during his 1768-1771 voyage.
Royal Australian Navy chief Vice Admiral Michael Noonan said he dove at the Rhode Island site with researchers and measured one of the cannons so the dimensions can be compared to historical records and took samples of the wood.
He is hopeful the wreck is the Endeavour.
“Certainly it’s a very exciting discovery in absolute terms,” he said. “They’re very, very confident that the Endeavour is in the site.”
The Endeavour was also part of the fleet of 13 ships the British scuttled during the Revolutionary War in 1778 to blockade Newport Harbor from the French. It was listed in the records under a different name, the Lord Sandwich.
The project located documents in London identifying the groups of ships in that fleet and where each was scuttled.
It has been studying the wrecks in Newport Harbor since 1993, and has been ruling out ones that could not be Cook’s ship.
It announced last week that it had narrowed the search for Endeavour to one, or possibly two, archeological sites.
“We’ve been at this 25 years and this is the first time we’ve been really willing to say we think we’re closing in on having the Endeavour,” project director Kathy Abbass told a news conference on Friday.
“This is science. It’s not a documentary. It’s not something that will be over in 50 minutes, and we’ve got a lot more work to do,” she added.
They are hoping to excavate the most likely site in time for the 250th anniversary of Cook’s claiming of Australia, which is in 2020.
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