The confirmation of the finding of the remains of HMS Endeavour, ship piloted by the famous Captain James Cook, ends one of the greatest maritime enigmas in history. After two and a half centuries of search, maritime archaeologists definitely identified the shipwreck off the coast of Rhode Islandin USAthus solving a fundamental mystery for the history of exploration trips, the British imperial expansion and the study of underwater heritage.
The news was announced by the National Maritime Museum of Australiaentity that led the investigation over 25 years. Its director, Daryl Karphe described the recent final report on shipwreck RI 2349 as the “final statement” on the search.
“This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel”Said Karp.
Unlike other recent findings, such as Shackleton’s endurance in Antarctic, this process required years of meticulous studies and comparison with evidence, since much of the ship was deteriorated and had been modified and renowned after abandoning its original role.
The HMS Endeavor was the key ship with which James Cook made his first trip to Australasia and the South Pacific between 1768 and 1771. Cook, a complex figure in British history, combined prestige as a navigator, leader and scientific with an inheritance directly linked to the colonizing processes that transformed Oceania. On that first trip, Cook drew the coast of the east Australian, Circunnavagó New Zealand and mapped various islands of Polynesia and the group of society, claiming territories for their country and permanently altering the political, environmental and social destiny of the region.
Cook’s historical importance is undeniable, but his legacy has become the object of controversy. His expeditions contributed to the British colonial expansion, and in places like Hawaii his intervention was especially controversial. Cook lost his life on his third trip, after an altercation with Hawaian natives, thus closing a stage that still generates debates between academics, descendants of the original peoples and disseminators of history.
The process to locate Endeavour was not simple. The ship disappeared from the sources after use in Cook expeditions, adding decades of mystery about its final destination. The modern search began at the end of the 20th century, led by the National Maritime Museum of Australia in collaboration with several international teams. It was a meticulous work: catalog of historical shipwrecks, documentary analysis of shipyards of the time and underwater expeditions with advanced technology. After many false beginnings and reviews of discarded shipwrecks, the focus fuze on RI 2349, never before examining in detail.
The published report crowned 25 years of archaeological study, during which the investigators gathered technical evidence, wood, dimensions and time documentation to compare the information available with the marine remains found on the US coast.
Endeavour’s life did not conclude with the adventures of Captain Cook. After his famous journey through the Pacific, the ship was reallocated as a military transport ship at the time of the War of Independence of USA. The ship passed to the Naviera Mather & Co., who renamed him as Lord Sandwich. In that period he was destined to transport troops and supplies, until he was sunk on purpose, along with other vessels, during a strategic Naval block operation against Rhode Island.
This premeditated sinking and the change of name complicated the task of archaeologists, who had to trace fragmented historical records and analyze multiple shipwrecks, many with structural changes after its original construction, in an era where the reuse and recycling of ships was current currency.
Archaeological work culminated in the identification of a series of rolling evidence that unequivocally linked the Ri 2349 shipwreck with Cook’s ineavor. The archaeologist Kieran Hosty It was one of the key figures in this process, highlighting, for example, the perfect correspondence of the ‘stem scarf’, identical in shape and proportions to that of Endeavour, and the coincidence in dimensions of the beams and cuartones, calculated to the millimeter with respect to the original planes of the British shipyard.
“The stem scarf is identical, absolutely identical”, said Hosty, who, together with the rest of his team, was based on studios by the shipyard and other documentation of the Endeavor To confirm the true identity of the shipwreck.
Unlike other findings, in this case there were no plaques or inscriptions that gave explicit faith of the ship’s name, due to its reuse and change of identity after its sale. As it emphasizes Hosty“You will never find a sign that says’ Cook was here‘”, But the set of accumulated evidence and the absence of evidence against have led the team to confirm that it is the legendary Endeavor. Thus, after centuries of mystery, archaeological science has returned to history the remains of one of the most emblematic ships of world exploration.
