Legendary Ship Found After 200 Years? Everything Points to Historic Discovery

Has the resting place of one of the most famous ships in history just been discovered? Scientists from Australia and the US say yes. And they have some pretty solid evidence to back it up.

Lost for over two centuries, for years surrounded by an aura of mystery and speculation – the legendary HMB Endeavour , the ship on board of which Captain James Cook discovered the Pacific Islands for Europe and reached the eastern coast of Australia, has probably finally been found at the bottom of Newport Harbour. Or at least that is what researchers from the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) claim, who have been passionately and precisely examining a single wreck off the coast of Rhode Island in the United States for a quarter of a century.

HMS Endeavour/photo: Wikipedia public domain

This is not the first "potential discovery" of this type, but this time, marine archaeologists approached the case with a cool head and laboratory precision. Together with American partners from the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP), they established a set of ten criteria that had to be met to declare success. These included, among others , material and technique of construction, dimensions, evidence of alteration and intentional sinking, and unique architectural features consistent with the historical documentation of Endeavour.

It all started with wood. The wreck, located at site RI 2394, was built primarily of white oak , a favorite material of 18th-century British shipbuilders. This small but significant detail was just the beginning of a series of discoveries. Underwater examination revealed holes in the hull indicating a deliberate scuttling of the vessel, which fits the story of the Endeavour, later renamed Lord Sandwich 2 and sunk by the British in 1778 to block the French fleet during the American Revolutionary War.

When scientists superimposed the wreck plan onto the original plans for Endeavour’s lower deck, features such as the positions of the pumps and the bow section of the keel matched “almost perfectly,” the official report said. Another key piece of evidence was a unique “scarph” structural joint, rarely seen on ships of the period but precisely matching the dimensions in 18th-century documentation.

The story of this ship is material for a movie. It set off from Plymouth in 1768 , and in two years sailed via Cape Horn, Tahiti and New Zealand to Australia, where it was the first European ship to reach its eastern coast. Near the continent, the Endeavour almost sank, hitting the Great Barrier Reef. After returning to Europe, its fate was more prosaic - sold, renamed and... disappeared from the pages of history.

Endeavour Replica/Photo: Wikipedia Public Domain

Meanwhile, its legend endures. NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour was named in its honor, and even the Apollo 15 capsule that carried a piece of wood from the original ship into space. Meanwhile, the wreck itself sat forgotten on the bottom of Newport Bay , being eaten away by seaworms, until a team of divers identified the ship’s bow at the southern end of the research site in 2021.

“This is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and painstaking archaeological research of this incredibly important ship,” said Daryl Karp, director of ANMM.

It is hard to disagree with her. The team of scientists presented their results at the world's most important specialist conferences and – importantly – they were met with almost unanimous recognition.

Although formal confirmation is still needed for absolute certainty, scientists are convinced: Endeavour has been found . Will it ever be possible to see it? It's hard to say. The wreck is fragile, exposed to microorganisms and the passage of time. But one thing is already known - the spirit of this ship has surfaced again. And maybe Captain Cook would be happy about that.