Australian researchers said on Thursday they had found the wreckage of Captain James Cook’s famous ship, the Endeavour, which sank off the coast of the US state of Rhode Island more than two hundred years ago.
Their research partners in the United States, however, called the announcement premature.
The Endeavour, on which the British explorer made a historic voyage to Australia and New Zealand between 1768 and 1771, was scuttled in Newport harbor during the American Revolutionary War.
I’m convinced it’s the Endeavor
“Since 1999 we have been investigating several 18th century wrecks in a two square mile (3.7 square kilometer) area where we believe the Endeavor sank,” Kevin Sumption, director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, said during a press conference on Thursday.
“Based on archival and archaeological evidence, I am convinced it is the Endeavour,” he said. But the Rhode Island Marine Archeology Project said it was too early to draw that conclusion.
A “breach of contract”
In a statement, the project’s executive director, DK Abbass, said the announcement constituted a “breach of contract” and added that “findings will be based on proper scientific process and not on Australian emotions or politics”.
A spokesperson for the Australian National Maritime Museum replied that Ms Abbass was “entitled to have her own opinion on the vast amount of evidence accumulated”. The museum believes that this does not breach any contract.
The Endeavor is the ship on which Captain Cook sailed from England to Tahiti and then New Zealand before reaching Australia in 1770 and mapping the east coast of the continent.
When it sank in Newport Harbor in August 1778, the ship had been renamed Lord Sandwich and was being used by the British to hold prisoners of war during the American Revolution.
The British scuttled the ship, along with four others, to prevent a French fleet from entering Newport harbor to support the Americans.
This was a few months before Cook’s death in Hawaii in February 1779.
After two centuries at the bottom of the harbor, only around 15% of the Endeavor remains intact, according to the Australian National Maritime Museum.
“The focus now is on what can be done to protect and preserve it,” Mr Sumption said.