Archaeologists move a step closer to finding wreck of Captain Cook's ship Endeavour

HM Bark Endeavour, an absolute replica of the ship HMS Endeavour, which Captain Cook sailed to the South Pacific

Marine archaeologists believe they could be a step closer to solving the 200-year-old mystery surrounding the final resting place of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour, after over a decade of underwater exploration.

The Endeavour was built in Whitby and designed to carry coal from the north east of England to London.

But Captain Cook chose the ship to make his voyage around the world, setting sail in 1768 and claiming Australia and New Zealand for the British crown two years later.

Cook, the British Royal Navy officer who explored more of the world than any other person in history, sailed the Endeavour back to England, stopping in South Africa. But while he then continued to charter new waters - until he was murdered by islanders in Hawaii, in 1779 - the Endeavour was repurposed as a troop transport ship by the Navy, and renamed the Lord Sandwich.

Its fate has never been known for certain. 

Now a team from Rhode Island are due to announce their findings in a press conference on Wednesday – timed to coincide with the 240th birthday of Rhode Island. The state’s colonial legislature's disavowed the King of England on May 4, 1776 - two months before the formal Declaration of Independence.

The group, Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, or RIMAP, first raised the possibility of the ship being sunk off Newport Harbour in 1999. They claim that relics previously believed to be from the Endeavour – including a chunk of wood which was taken into space on the Space Shuttle Endeavour – are from another ship.

And on Wednesday they will discuss how they have pinpointed the location where they believe a cluster of ships, including Endeavour, was scuttled in 1778.

The British sunk 13 ships to prevent the French from capturing Rhode Island, during the civil war. Five vessels were sunk together, they now think, and one of them is believed to be the Endeavour.

RIMAP is appealing for further funding to identify which ship is the Endeavour, and to preserve and display the discoveries.

Kathy Abbass, of RIMAP, laughed at how the media “go wild” every time someone writes a story claiming, inaccurately, that the Endeavour has been found. But, she told The Telegraph, they had reached “an important milestone.”

She added they are hoping the renewed interest will encourage donations. The team have also been working with Australian experts, keen to find out the fate of a ship so central to their history.

“The next phase, to do the work to figure out which one she is, is very expensive,” she said.