Captain Cook explored the Pacific in the HMS Endeavor, but by the time it was lost not a decade later it had been retired by the Royal Navy, sold off, and turned into a prison ship. Renamed the Lord Sandwich, it was scuttled off the U.S. coast during the revolution after being used to hold prisoners of war—and has now been found on the sea bed near Rhode Island.
In 1778, the vessel was in poor condition and relegated to gaoling American prisoners of war in Newport Harbor. When American and French forces besieged the British-held town, Lord Sandwich was one of thirteen vessels scuttled (deliberately sunk) to act as a submerged blockade. It was never salvaged and remained where it sank. In 1998, two Australian historians, Mike Connell and Des Liddy, determined Endeavour's fate via archival research (Connell and Liddy 1997). Dr Kathy Abbass of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) built upon their work, and consequently in 1999 the state of Rhode Island laid claim to the wrecks of all ships scuttled in Newport Harbor in 1778
Several wrecks were identified as candidates, and a slow process of analysis at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) led to confirmation.
Kieran Hosty, ANMM archaeologist, who co-wrote the report, said: "The timbers are British timbers. The size of all the timber scantlings are almost identical to Endeavour, and I'm talking within millimetres – not inches, but millimetres.
"The stem scarf is identical, absolutely identical. This stem scarf is also a very unique feature – we've gone through a whole bunch of 18th-century ship's plans, and we can't find anything else like it."
The same wreck was claimed to be the Endeavor in 2022, but the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project then claimed the finding was "premature."
"The Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) is now and always has been the lead organization for the study in Newport Harbor," they said. "The ANMM announcement today is a breach of the contract between RIMAP and the ANMM for the conduct of this research and how its results are to be shared with the public."
