New war erupts over Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour
LONDON • The wreckage of Captain James Cook’s ship Endeavour has reportedly been discovered off the coast of the United States and triggered a battle about who owns the vessel and where it should be displayed.
American marine archeologists say they believe they are close to solving the 240-yearold mystery surrounding the final resting place of the vessel the British explorer sailed to Australia in 1768.
For 25 years, experts from the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project have been analyzing numerous wrecks around Newport Harbour, where HMS Endeavour was scuttled as part of a naval blockade during the American War of Independence in 1778.
Project leaders are due to announce tomorrow “one or two” sites thought to pinpoint Endeavour. Kathy Abbass, the director, said: “We can say we think we know which one it is.”
But the historical significance of the ship to Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. is expected to ignite a tussle over how remains and artifacts are divided.
Australian media has already suggested the vessel could be excavated in time for 2020, the 250th anniversary of Cook becoming the first European to land at Botany Bay.
In 1999, the Rhode Island state government took legal action to pursue ownership of the Endeavour.
However, Jenny Phillips, of the Middlesbrough Museums Service where the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is based in England, insisted that the U.K. has a legitimate claim on the wreck because it was built there and Britishregistered.
“It would be nice to think we have some claim on it,” she said.
“If it came from here, it should come back here.
“It would be lovely for it to return because it is part of our heritage. But I think there will be complications surrounding where it belongs and is best kept.”
Alwyn Peel, secretary of the Captain Cook Society, predicted that several countries will lobby to see any remains exhibited in their national museums.
“I think all the countries affected would want a little piece of it. I would be quite happy if something of the ship went to different places associated with Endeavour’s voyage. If it is retrieved I can see a piece in Australia, New Zealand and Britain,” he said.
Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Whitby, the seaside town where the ship was built and Cook trained as a seaman, said the town’s Captain Cook Memorial Museum would be an ideal location to house elements of the Endeavour. “It would be great if some part of the vessel could be brought back to Whitby and put in the museum.”
He added, however, that he would be surprised if enough remains were found to create an exhibition, adding that because the American marine archeologists had done so much to identify it, they deserved to keep it.
The ship, known as HM Bark Endeavour, was built by Thomas Fishburn and launched in Whitby in 1764. After a spell delivering coal, the Admiralty bought it as a research vessel and in 1768 Cook took command. After its famous landings in New Zealand and Australia, she was bought and renamed Lord Sandwich 2 before being hired by the Navy and joining the British fleet sailing to North America to try to prevent the War of Independence from succeeding.
In a desperate attempt to recapture Newport, the fleet’s commander decided to blockade the bay by sinking a number of vessels, including Lord Sandwich 2, to prevent the French sailing into harbour.
The wreck archeologists believe is Endeavour can only be fully confirmed as such once it has been excavated.
Charles Forgan, of the Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby, said he believed any wreckage is technically a “spoil of war” and so belonged to the United States.