Captain Cook

Researchers have confirmed that the 18th century British explorer Captain James CookThe lost ship found its last resting place in the Newport port of Rhode Island, solving a mystery of decades, according to the National Maritime Museum of Australia.

Two Australian historians, Mike Connell and Des Liddy, originally identified the location of the ship, called HMS Endeavour In 1998, the museum said in a report published earlier this month. The Museum’s report detailed how a research file and archaeological investigation of 26 years determined that the effort was, in fact, at the bottom of the Newport port, as Connell and Liddy had thought.

Captain Cook sailed through the effort through the Pacific Ocean several times in mid -1700. He is remembered for his trip to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, who claimed for Britain, as well as Hawaii, where he finally found his destination in a dispute with indigenous residents. The cook exploration of the islands laid the foundations for British colonization in those areas, so, for different reasons, it is an important part of the history of Australia, according to the Museum’s report.

“For some, the Pacific trip led by James Cook between 1768 and 1771 embodies the spirit of the era of the lighting of Europe,” the executive summary of the report says: “While for others it symbolizes the beginning of the colonization and subjugation of the peoples of the first nations.”

After Cook’s death, the effort returned to England, which used it to transport British troops and stop prisoners during the American revolutionary war. He was sold to private owners, who renamed the Lord Sandwich ship, and deliberately sank into Newport Harbor in the middle of the war in 1778.

When Australian maritime experts Initially announced in 2022 They believed that the effort was among several old shipwrecks that are still scattered throughout the port of Newport, the claim was widely discussed. But an association between the Historical Commission of Preservation and Heritage of Rhode Island and the National Maritime Museum of Australia falsified with the investigation that finally led to the identification of the wreck. They are working to ensure that the shipwreck site is protected from now on.

“Given the historical and cultural meaning of Endeavour for Australia, Aototeoa New Zealand, England, the United States of America and the towns of the first nations throughout the Pacific Ocean, the positive identification of its shipwreck site requires ensuring the highest possible level of legislative and physical protection,” says the report.

• Archaeologist
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Great Britain
• Rhode Island