Tracing a Ghost Ship: Late Summer Fieldwork
2019, Newport, Rhode Island
Gentle sunlight dances on the surface of the water in the ‘City by the Sea’—Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. It’s a water lover’s haven and home to a handful of America’s Cup Classic yachts—sleek vessels engineered for speed that bob languidly at ease in the marina. A place where eager tourists meander along cobblestone streets, children shield their melting ice cream from the advances of squawking hordes of seagulls and the scent of brine lingers in the air when the fisherman’s catch is unloaded from the nets of fishing vessels with names like Blue Moon or Sweet Misery.
Down by the jetty a group of divers gather into a small motorboat with their oxygen tanks, flippers, cameras and underwater drawing tablets. It’s the annual gathering of volunteers from the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) joined by maritime archaeologists from the Australian National Maritime Museum. What brings this group together you might ask? The answer lies just 500 metres out from shore, resting some 15-25 metres below the surface of the water, buried in more than 200 years’ worth of sediment and silt.
It’s a story that draws many dots on a world map that was still in the making by eighteenth-century explorers like Captain James Cook. It links us to the American Revolutionary War and the ‘discovery’ of the eastern coast of Australia. The object of their attention is none other than a ship. But a weighty hypothesis has been raised—could this broken vessel that is now wrecked on the muddy seabed of Newport Harbor be the H.M.B Endeavour? And is it even possible to ever know for sure?
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One ship, many lives: The Earl of Pembroke
1764, Whitby, England
In the late 1700s, the small seaside village of Whitby was known as the nursery for ‘seamen’, where master shipbuilders and the most competent seafarers completed their apprenticeships. This centre for commercial trade bred ‘colliers’—sturdy ships capable of carrying heavy loads, including coal, across the Baltic Sea and beyond. They were steady workhorses that could be relied upon, their solid floors proving particularly adept in navigating shallow harbours and estuaries. The Earl of Pembroke was one such vessel, built by Thomas Milner in 1764. She had at least one rare and distinguishing feature—installed atop the keelson was a ‘second rider’ or deadwood keelson, a reinforcing structure designed to prevent the vessel from breaking its back when run ashore. A son of a Yorkshire farmer learned how to sail on ships such as these. His name was James Cook.
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A metamorphosis: The H. M. B Endeavour
Letter dated 27 March, 1768
From: The Yard Officers, Deptford
To: The Royal Navy Board
“We have surveyed and measured the undermentioned ships recommended to your Honours to proceed on Foreign Service and send you an account of their quantities, condition, age and dimensions…The Earl of Pembroke, Mr Thos. Milner, ownes [sic] was built at Whitby, her age three years nine months, square stern bark, single bottom, full built and comes nearest to the tonnage mentioned in your warrant and not so old by fourteen months, is a promising ship for sailing of this kind and fit to stow provisions and stores as may be put on board her.”1
Image: Cropped view of ‘Report on condition, dimensions, value of Earl of Pembroke’ http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1641090461
Letter dated 29 March, 1768
From: The Royal Navy Board
To: The Secretary of the Admiralty
“We desire that you will inform their Lordships that we have purchased a cat-built bark, in burthen 368 tons, and of the age of three years and nine months, for conveying such persons as shall be thought proper to the southward for making observations of the passage of the planet Venus over the disc of the sun, and pray to be favoured with their Lordships’ directions for fitting her for this service accordingly…and that we may also receive Their commands by what name she shall be registered on the list of the Navy.”
Letter dated 5 April, 1768
From: The Lords of the Admiralty
To: The Royal Navy Board
“We do hereby desire and direct you to cause the said vessel to be sheathed, filled, and fitted in all respects proper for that service, and to report to us when she will be ready to receive men. And you are to cause the said vessel to be registered on the list of the Royal Navy as a bark by the name of the Endeavour”
And with that, the humble Earl of Pembroke became the H.M Bark Endeavour, now employed at Her Majesty’s Service. Once fitted with a large provision of goods to see out a three-year voyage in unchartered waters, the lives of nearly a hundred men onboard depended on this ‘bark’, and the skills of her Captain, James Cook in navigating the unknown.
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Setting Sail for ‘The Great Southern Continent’
1768, Leaving England
The Endeavour voyage was, on the surface of it all, a scientific mission. Captain James Cook’s first orders were to set sail for Tahiti, a tiny island in the South Pacific that he skilfully steered a course to by the moon and the stars. The crew arrived right on time to observe a once in a lifetime event—the Transit of Venus. It was there that Cook opened a sealed packet, containing secret orders to find ‘Terra Incognito Australis’, or the ‘Great Southern Continent’ that was thought to exist but was yet to be confirmed.
You are therefore in Pursuance of His Majesty’s Pleasure hereby requir’d [sic] and directed to put to Sea with the Bark you Command so soon as the Observation of the Transit of the Planet Venus shall be finished and observe the following instructions.
You are to proceed to the Southward in order to make discovery of the Continent above-mentioned until you arrive in the latitude of 40° unless you sooner fall in with it.
Image: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-229111770/view (Cook, James & Great Britain. Admiralty. (1768). Cook’s Voyage 1768-71 [manuscript] copies of correspondence, etc.
It was this latter mission that led to Cook’s ‘discovery’ of the eastern coast of Australia, a land long occupied by Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander nations with their own distinct languages, cultures and knowledges—passed on through songlines embedded in Country. But Cook had his instructions from the Admiralty,
You are [...] to observe the Genius, Temper, Disposition and Number of the Natives, if there be any, and endeavour by all proper means to cultivate Friendship and Alliance with them…
You are also with the Consent of the Natives to take Possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain. Or, if you find the Country uninhabited take Possession for his Majesty by setting up Proper Marks and Inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors.
Cook and his men saw the signal fires lit by warriors, plumes of smoke dotting the landscape that served as a warning of his presence—danger. But consent was never given.
