HMS Endeavour off the coast of New Holland, by Samuel Atkins

We are within days of the 250th anniversary of when Captain James Cook set off on an epic circumnavigation, stopping at numerous islands in the Pacific, as well as Australia and New Zealand on the bark HMS Endeavour. Now, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP), working with the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), has come closer than ever to locating the wreck of Cook’s bark Endeavour in the waters off Newport, Rhode Island.

After Captain Cook’s voyage from 1768 to 1771, the Endeavour was decommissioned. In 1775, it was sold and subsequently chartered to the Royal Navy as a transport ship. Renamed the Lord Sandwich 2, the ship served to carry troops and supplies across the Atlantic during the American Revolution. In 1778, the Lord Sandwich 2, and 12 other ships chartered to the Royal Navy, were sunk off Newport to attempt to obstruct an approaching French fleet.

In 1999, researchers from RIMAP located documents in the UK’s National Archives which identified Lord Sandwich 2 as Captain Cook’s Endeavour and roughly identified where the ship had been scuttled along with the 12 other ships of the transport fleet. In the close to two decades since, RIMAP archeologists have been mapping the wrecks in the area where the ships were scuttled attempting to identify Cook’s ship. They are expected to announce on Friday that they have narrowed it down to one or two of the wrecks, although they have not yet found the Endeavour.

“We’re not in a position to identify it conclusively,” RIMAP’s Kathy Aththas told News.com.au.

“Once excavated it will require sampling, testing of the type of wood and nails, and analysis which won’t give us a definitive answer for another 18 months.”

2017 Update of RIMAP’s Search for Capt. Cook’s Endeavour Bark

Thanks to David Rye and Jean-Pierre Declemey for contributing to this post.