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Revealed: HMS Endeavour's ignominious fate

Captain Cook's famous ship scuttled off Rhode Island

Researchers in the US believe they have identified the remains of Captain James Cook's HMS Endeavour – the ship aboard which he famously sailed the Pacific Ocean between 1768–71.

Captain James Cook: Outlived his famous ship by just one year. Pic: Shutterstock

Cook was killed by Hawaiian islanders in 1779 while on his third voyage of discovery aboard HMS Resolution, but the ultimate fate of HMS Endeavour was a mystery until The Rhode Island Marine Archeology Project (RIMP) identified the vessel as one of 13 scuttled by the British in Newport Harbor in 1778, in the run-up to the Battle of Rhode Island during the American Revolution.

RIMP's executive director, Dr Kathy Abbass, told CNN: "The American army was assembled on the mainland and the French sent a fleet to help. The British knew they were at great risk so they ordered 13 ships out to be scuttled in a line to blockade the city. They were sunk in fairly shallow waters."

The fact that HMS Endeavour disappeared off the map is largely explained by the fact she was renamed Lord Sandwich at some point after her Pacific duty. RIMP examined documents in London confirming the rebranding, and which "identify the groups of ships in that fleet of 13, and where each group was scuttled".

Abbass said: "We know from its size, dimension and these records that the Sandwich was the Endeavour."

The wreckage of HMS Endeavour lies with that of four other ships which suffered a similar ignominious fate. RIMP is now planning "a more intense study of each vessel's structure and its related artifacts" to determine which exactly is which.

The project's website says it will reveal more details tomorrow. ®

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