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.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other