Research News

Marine archaeologists may have discovered Endeavour in Newport Harbor

The ship has had several names and performed several jobs—including carrying coal and serving as a British transport ship during the American Revolution—but it is best known as the Endeavour, aboard which Captain James Cook first circumnavigated the globe in the 18th century. And, since 1778, its remains have lain deteriorating undisturbed at the bottom of Newport Harbor.

During the war, the British purposely sunk the ship, and a dozen others, to blockade the harbor from the approaching French fleet, which was coming to Narragansett Bay to provide support to the American army. This was the first attempt of the French and the American colonists to cooperate in the Revolutionary War, which gives the discovery additional historic significance, and adds to Rhode Island’s cachet as having the largest number of Revolutionary War shipwrecks found in the world.

Two of these transports were discovered and studied several years ago, and four more were discovered recently. Results of research conducted indicate a near-50 percent chance that one is the Endeavour.

D.K. Abbass, director of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP), which led the investigation, announced the findings at a press conference in May 2006. “We found them right where they should be,” she said, based on historical records.

Though the British recorded where they sank the ships, there were some challenges to spotting them, said Rod Mather, URI associate professor of maritime history and underwater archaeology, who used side-scan sonar to locate the sunken vessels.  He said that 18th century shipwrecks tend to collapse in predictable ways. Biological, chemical, and physical processes break down the ships. What’s left is a ballast pile—a heap of rocks used to provide stability to ships—under which preserved materials, including even textiles and leather, may be found. Essentially, Mather said, “We were looking for piles of stones in a bay full of rocks.”

The first passes made by the sonar yielded no wrecks, and the course was adjusted. The telltale ballast piles were found, and RIMAP volunteer divers explored the finds, “ground truthing” them. Filmmaker Sprague Theobald later recorded the site for an underwater video that was shown at the press conference.

Once historic wrecks are located, the largest threat to them comes from looters, emphasized several speakers. A sunken cannon appeared on the film, and Theobald said that in the time between first filming it and a return trip three weeks later, a rope had been tied around it. “Somebody had tried to raise the cannon in the few days we’d been gone,” he said.

While shipwrecks in Rhode Island waters belong the state, Abbass said, “the hardest part to do is enforcement.”

Mike Tikoian, R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) chairman, announced that CRMC is establishing a marine protected area around the site. This will authorize police, harbormasters, and the R.I. Department of Environmental Management to enforce protection of the wrecks within a 2-mile area.

Abbass encouraged divers who are interested in seeing the wrecks first-hand to volunteer with RIMAP, take the program’s training courses, and participate in field work. She noted that the “real work of archaeological investigation” of the wrecks has yet to begin.

Governor Donald Carcieri, who attended the event, said, “We are so blessed as a little state. We have more real sites where people can touch history … whether we’ve got the Endeavour or not, we’ve got history here.”

RIMAP undertook work on the project through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and with research partners including Rhode Island Sea Grant (see BayMap), URI, and the R.I. Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.

See also:

URI News Bureau: The undersea world of URI's Rod Mather and RIMAP, URI discover four more Revolutionary War shipwrecks in Newport Harbor

CRMC: CRMC will provide protected site for sunken ships in Newport