If you were going to guess which exploration ship may have been found beneath the waters of Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, you might think: one of Champlain's, or one from the early Portuguese explorers, or maybe something related to Henry Hudson. John Cabot, I don't think so. But Captain Cook? Didn't the navy keep track of its ships by his day?
Local marine archaeologists, however, claim that HMS Endeavour, the ship in which Cook circumnavigated the world in 1768-71, later became a naval transport, served during the American Revolutionary War, and was deliberately scuttled in Newport Harbour in August 1778 during conflict there.
'Course other accounts have the ship wrecked in New Zealand, used as a whaling ship by French interests, and abandoned along the Thames. But the Rhode Islanders say they have found the ship and can prove it's the right one.
Cook visited both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada, but not aboard Endeavour. So... let 'em squabble.
