FAMOUS SHIPS FOUND

In February 2022 headlines worldwide announced the incredible news that Captain James Cook’s HM Bark Endeavour (replica shown above left) had been found, lying just 500 metres o™ the coast of Rhode Island in the USA, buried under nearly 250 years of silt and 14 metres below the surface.

That was extrarodinary enough, but just a month later came the equally headline-grabbing news that the Endurance (right), the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, had been found at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

The exact location of both ships has been a mystery to researchers and historians for decades.

Some controversy remains over the Endeavour, however. The Australian National Maritime Museum’s announcement provoked a dispute between those involved, with one side casting doubt on the find.

Cook undertook his first voyage of discovery between 1768 -1771, as a scientific mission, while secretly under orders to search for ‘the Great South Land’ – Australia.