Sydney: Maritime experts say Thursday they believe that they have found a wreck of one of the most important vessels in the history of Australia and the South Pacific after it was fired in the US more than 200 years ago.
Experts said they identified what was left of the British Explorer James Cook HMS Endeavour in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.
Cook sailed to the ship around the South Pacific on a pioneer trip before landing on the east coast of Australia in 1770.
For 22 years, the maritime archaeologists have investigated several ancient ship carcasses in the 2-square Newport Harbor area.
Endeavour deliberately drowned there by England during the American Revolution and lay for forgotten for more than two centuries.
Kevin Sonsume, the Chief Executive of the Australian National Maritime Museum, said the archaeologists were sure they had found a carcass after matching structural details and the remnants of those who programmed the original.
“I am satisfied that this is the final resting place of one of the most important and controversial ships in the history of the Australian Maritime,” Sausy said in announcing the discovery in the museum.
“The last piece of puzzle must be confirmed before I feel you can make this call,” he said.
“Based on archive and archeological evidence, I am sure it is an effort.” He said the important role of ships in exploration, astronomy and science made it important not only to Australia, but also to New Zealand, Britain and the US.
Only about 15% of the remnants of the ship and researchers are now focused on what can be done to protect and preserve it, say.
He said the museum worked closely with maritime experts at Rhode Island and also with state and federal officials in the US and Australia to secure the site.
The ship was launched in 1764 as the Earl of Pembroke.
Four years later, it changed its name to an English naval effort and prepared for the main scientific trip to the Pacific.
From 1768 to 1771, the business sailed the southern Pacific, as if noted the transit of Venus in Tahiti in 1769.
Cook then sail to the area looking for “big southern land.” He maps the New Zealand coastline.
His first meeting with the indigenous Maori people ended badly, with his crew killing some Maori, even though the relationship then improved.
In 2019, the British government expressed regret for the murder but stopped shortly from full apology.
He also mapped the east coastline of Australia, before claiming land for the United Kingdom in 1770.
Endeavour was then sold to private owners and renamed Lord Sandwich.
It intentionally sank in 1778 by British forces during the American Revolution.
A year later Cook was killed in Hawaii during other Pacific trips.
In 1788, called the first fleet of 11 vessels, with hundreds of convicts on board, arrived in Australia to establish a British colony.
The wreck that was presented by James Cook in the South Pacific was found in the US
