The search for Captain Cook’s legendary ship, the Endeavour, has led to the coast of … Rhode Island!
The Australian National Maritime Museum has recently published a final report documenting their detailed analysis of the 250-year-old mystery, including comparisons with other shipwreck sites.
A report by the U.K.’s Guardian said the ship is believed to have been deliberately sunk in 1778 by the British to blockade the French during the American Revolution.
ANMM’s final report by Kieran Hosty and James Hunter describes a document signed with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, which includes a list of 10 criteria these organizations agreed should be present for the accurate identification of the Endeavour.
There has been some pushback from RIMAP, saying more work is yet needed, according to the Guardian.
RIMAP has suggested that the 2022 preliminary findings report by ANMM was “premature” and that while the U.S. organization said it accepts that the ship “may be the Endeavour,” they were “not ruling out other candidate shipwreck sites” per the New York Post.
Captain James Cook’s lost ship Endeavour discovered after 250 years https://t.co/ZrVSab1tsx pic.twitter.com/Pi4EYv5i5Q
— New York Post (@nypost) June 16, 2025
Have you traveled long distances by boat before?
ANMM museum director Daryl Karp, however, stands by the identification of site RI 2394 as confirmation of the accurate identification of the Endeavour. He issued what he called a “definitive statement” on the controversy, saying, “This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel,” according to the Post.
James Cook was a self-taught 41-year-old when he was selected by the British Royal Navy to captain the initial voyage on their newly purchased and renamed ship, the Endeavour.
Having worked his way up the ranks, the Linda Hall Library explained that Cook had impressed the Admiralty and was chosen for his skill in navigation and chart-making. These skills were necessary in his first assignment of observing the transit of Venus in 1769 in Tahiti and then moving on from there to search for a southern continent.
Cook was a fan of the Endeavour’s vessel style, known as a “cat,” meaning that it was a “bluff-bowed” boat (flatter bottomed) that was not as easily grounded in shallow waters.
As history would later report, this design style saved the expedition when the Endeavour foundered on a reef near Australia, as described by the Captain Cook Society.
The Endeavour is famous as the ship in which Cook first circumnavigated the world (1768 – 1771) and produced exceptionally detailed and accurate maps of the North and South islands of New Zealand.
He then sailed through the dangerous Straits of Torres, proving that Australia and New Guinea were not connected, and explored the entire east coast of Australia.
Cook would go on to sail multiple other ships, circumnavigating the globe three times, but it was the Endeavour which launched his career as one of the world’s greatest explorers.
A few years after the Endeavour’s world voyage with Cook, she was sold to a shipping company Mather & Co.
When the American Revolutionary War started, the British needed ships, and she was used in 1775 to carry troops as part of the invading fleet, according to HistoryHit.
In 1776, the Endeavour (now renamed Lord Sandwich) was part of the Battle of Long Island, in which the British captured New York.
ANMM’s final report said that after extensive research, Dr. Nigel Erskine “proved beyond reasonable doubt that Lord Sandwich was one of five transports scuttled during the Battle of Rhode Island in an area immediately north of Goat Island.”
Captain Cook’s lost ship is FOUND after 250 years: Scientists discover the sunken remains of HMS Endeavour in Newport Harbor https://t.co/bUXjH1UkGu
— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) June 16, 2025
ANMM archaeologist James Hunter told the Post that the Endeavour was “intentionally scuttled” and that while “You’ll never find a sign saying ‘Cook was here … we found lots of things that tick the box for it to be Endeavour and nothing on the site which stays it’s not.”
After 250 years, Endeavour is once again responsible for a second great adventure — that of finding her and accurately identifying her final resting spot.
May she sail gracefully once more into the waves and pages of our not-forgotten history.
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