Captain James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour
is FOUND at the bottom of the ocean more
than 250 years after it reached Australia
- here's why experts are SURE they've
solved the enduring mystery
Daily Mail (UK) & Australian Associated Press,
by
Kylie Stevens
&
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
2/2/2022 9:09:47 PM
The wreckage of British explorer James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour which has laid in US waters for more the two centuries has been found after a 22 year search by maritime archaeologists.Cook famously sailed the ship around the South Pacific before he landed on the east coast of Australia in 1770.Australian National Maritime Museum chief executive Kevin Sumption confirmed on Thursday the shipwreck of Cook's vessel had been identified in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, where maritime archaeologists had been investigating several 18th century shipwrecks since 1999.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 2/2/2022 9:34:11 PM (No. 1059597)
There's not much left of it. I'm not sure it's worth trying to salvage despite the ship's illustrious history.
1 person likes this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Strike3 2/2/2022 9:53:44 PM (No. 1059611)
Not deep enough or cold enough water to preserve a wooden ship for very long but the experts certify it as the Endeavor from plans. Doctor Karen in Australia disputes the claim.
7 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 2/2/2022 11:14:33 PM (No. 1059655)
Ad if no other ship at that time could have used the same joinery or mast location. Sounds a bit speculative, too me.
If it had sunk in Newport Harbor....didn't anyone see it sink and write about it? Survivors telling where it sank?
4 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Highlander 2/2/2022 11:36:49 PM (No. 1059663)
Only 15% of the ship remains. Why bother?
1 person likes this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 2/3/2022 8:12:19 AM (No. 1059906)
James Cook was a man of immense ability and achievement. A fabulous navigator, surveyor, mapmaker, explorer, and leader.
He was murdered by ignorant savages - - but the same thing happened to Archimedes and other geniuses.
I hope they can preserve the ship - - one of the most significant vessels in world history.
1 person likes this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
udanja99 2/3/2022 8:43:37 AM (No. 1059951)
About 40 years ago, there was a big deal made of the discovery of the Mary Rose off the coast of the Isle of Wight in England. It had been one of Henry VIII’s warships and had sunk in 1545. It was raised and partially reassembled and my husband and I went to see it in Portsmouth in 2010. What a disappointment! There was some timber from the hull which had been put back together and mounted on a wall, and a few artifacts. The most interesting thing about it was the skeleton of a dog which was found in the wreckage.
Sounds like this discovery will be pretty much the same.
1 person likes this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 2/3/2022 12:58:03 PM (No. 1060346)
Different interests, #6. Perhaps you visited the Mary Rose exhibits early in the process, before the new huge display building was completed relatively recently. We visited about 4 years ago and found it very interesting. Hundreds of artifacts, all well displayed and explained in a good museum around what was about 40-50% of the ship's hull and deck timbers, all assembled in the full size, in a huge room. There are three floors of displays, and glass walls overlooking the ship's remains itself. Cannons, tools, cooking equipment, personal effects.
Personally, I found the hundreds of bow staves for the fabled English longbows to be especially interesting.
Old texts had listed the pull weights of the English longbows/warbows at 100-140 lbs pull. For years modern archers were CERTAIN that there was something wrong with these old texts. "Everyone knows" that no normal human, even today, can't pull a bow over ~75 or 80 lbs pull and those guys were smaller and more poorly nourished than we are---right? The bow staves (new wooden bows, never used) stored in bundles were too waterlogged and old to test, but were known to be yew wood, and exact modern duplicates were prepared and tested. They ranged from 90-140 lbs pull weight. What???
Then more research discovered that some ancient texts said that you "don't pull an English warbow, you must "bend it", with a special technique using the whole body" More research and more testing....and people were learning about "bending English warbows" again. Very tricky, took a skilled and strong man, with a special technique using the whole body. One of the skeletons on Mary Rose was clearly an archer. His shoulder and arm bones were much thicker and heavier on one side from years of "bending the warbow". He had his own glass display explaining all this.
My wife and I found the whole dockyeard area at Portsmouth to be fascinating history. Nelson's HMS Victory is there, intact. The huge steam and sail HMS Warrior is there with docents playing roles in costumes to answer questions. A short boat ride over to the submarine museum across the bay. We spent several days at the Portsmouth dockyards in all the museums.
But, what is fascinating to some is pure tedium to others, I get that.
2 people like this.
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