L’Endeavor was scuttled by the British Navy in 1778 off Newport, USA during the Revolutionary War. This three-master with square sails is one of the greatest symbols of maritime history: ten years earlier, she served the British James Cook on his very first expedition to New Zealand and Australia, which he was able to map the east coast.
It is nice to know where theEndeavor sank (in an area of 5 square kilometers where other ships lie), so far no one has been able to name it with certainty. Its wreck is still only an RI number 2394. Yet it has been more than 20 years that maritime archaeologists have been excavating, collecting, analyzing. Thursday February 3 at 11 a.m. in Sydney, a dramatic turn of events, the Australians get the scoop: “That’s it, we found it, it’s him“.
HMB Endeavor has been found! After 22 years of fieldwork, Director & CEO @KevinSumption announces that the remains lies in Newport Harbor, RI, USA.
Explore what role this vessel played in exploration & science: https://t.co/Ly5jSGL2CV
Zak Page & James Hunter #FindingEndeavor pic.twitter.com/5op5XEYW9b—Australian National Maritime Museum (@seamuseum_) February 3, 2022
Their evidence? Rather beliefs. “I am convinced that this is the final resting place of one of the most important and controversial ships in Australia’s maritime history“, said the director and CEO of the Australian National Maritime Museum in a press release accompanied by a site containing graphics and videos of the discovery.
Kevin Sumption assures that it is a whole addition of details which made it possible to remove the last doubts. The length of the hull (theEndeavor was much larger than the other boats), the type of wood (Northern English oak), the location of the foremast, etc. The Australian researchers’ full report will be published within a few months. After two centuries in the muddy bottoms of the ocean, the wreck is very degraded, only 15% of the building has remained intact.
Except that the world of underwater exploration is worse than the Wild West. An hour after their press conference, their findings were challenged by their US research partners. Touched flowed.
Kathy Abbass said any conclusions would be “driven by proper scientific process and not Australian emotions or politics”. Furious search team claim announcement Captain Cook’s Endeavor has been found ‘premature’ https://t.co/gK8XEEXd5Z
— ThePlacard@ChristianBrown (@Christi05571146) February 3, 2022
“What we see at the wreck site is what one would expect from the Endeavor (note the conditional), but no incontrovertible data“proves it,” says Kathy Abbass, the lead researcher at Rimap (Rhode Island Marine Archeology Project) in a statement.This announcement is premature“Our conclusions, she continues, will be the only ones”legitimate“: “They will be based on a scientific process, not on emotions or politics.“.
They get their boards well soaped, the Australians! Which didn’t stop a spokesperson for the Australian National Maritime Museum from responding: “I disagree with the statement that we don’t have enough information. But Mrs. Abbass is entitled to her own opinion.“.
Partners but also competitors, the two teams of researchers each want to be the first to go down in history and above all to bring part of the wreckage back to their country to display it triumphantly in a museum. The naval battle continues.