NEWPORT, R.I., May 3 (UPI) — British explorer Captain James Cook’s legendary HMS Endeavour, lost at sea centuries ago, may have been discovered off the coast of Rhode Island by a group of researchers.
Cook, who made the first accurate map of the Pacific, commanded the ship from 1768 to 1771 while he mapped uncharted waters of the south Pacific Ocean. The ship was later used in the American Revolutionary War after being renamed the Lord Sandwich.
The Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project is set to announce that there is an 80 percent to 100 percent chance the Lord Sandwich, formerly known as the HMS Endeavour, is off the coast of Rhode Island’s Newport Harbor.
“We know from its size, dimension and these records that the Sandwich was the Endeavour,” Dr. Kathy Abbass, executive director of the research group, told CNN.
“Lord Sandwich was the first lord of the admiralty at the time so the name makes sense — a nod by its private owner.”
