US row with Australian experts after Captain James Cook’s HMS Endeavor shipwreck is ‘found’

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He said the museum was working closely with maritime experts in Rhode Island as well as with state and federal officials in the US and Australia to secure the site.

Cook charted Australian coastline before claiming it for Great Britain

But Abbass said that while her organization recognised the connection between Australian citizens of British descent and the Endeavor, its conclusions would be driven “by proper scientific process and not Australian emotions or politics”.

The ship was launched in 1764 as the Earl of Pembroke. Four years later, it was renamed Endeavor by the British navy and was readied for a major scientific voyage to the Pacific.

From 1768 to 1771, the Endeavor sailed the South Pacific, ostensibly to record the transit of Venus in Tahiti in 1769. Captain Cook then continued sailing the region searching for the “Great Southern Land”.

He charted the coastline of New Zealand. His first significant encounter with the indigenous Maori people ended badly, with his crew killing several Maori. In 2019, the British Government expressed regret over the killings but stopped short of a full apology.

He also charted Australia’s eastern coastline, before claiming the land for Great Britain in 1770.

The Endeavor was later sold to private owners and renamed Lord Sandwich. It was deliberately sunk in 1778 by British forces during the American Revolution.

A year later, Cook was killed in Hawaii during another Pacific voyage. In 1788, the so-called First Fleet of 11 ships, with hundreds of convicts aboard, arrived in Australia to establish a British colony.

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