The Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) has released the authorized study of the Newport, RI transport fleet and archaeological site RI 2394. The report is available to the public for free downloads from RIMAP at: https://www.rimap.org/rimap-publications-1 (The completion of shopping cart check out information is required for free electronic delivery.)

The 2024 RIMAP report offers 285 pages of text, 137 illustrations, and 4 appendices to provide details about the ships lost in Newport, with a focus on the data needed to determine if archaeological site RI 2394 could be the Lord Sandwich transport, formerly Capt. Cook’s Endeavour Bark of his first circumnavigation. The size of the ship in RI 2394 is similar to what is known of the Endeavour, but there are no uniquely diagnostic structural features to confirm it to be that iconic vessel. In addition, no cultural materials (artifacts or samples) found on the site are exclusively associated with this particular ship, the people who were on board, or where she sailed. Therefore, RI 2394 might be the Endeavour, but there is no evidence to prove it.

Details of the scientific research process published in the RIMAP report include:

• That the British scuttled 13 privately owned transports and victuallers in Newport’s Outer Harbor in 1778 to protect the city from a threatening French fleet during the American Revolution. One of these vessels was the Lord Sandwich ex Endeavour.
• That RIMAP has discovered and mapped 10 of the 13 vessels known to have been lost in Newport, and from among the potential candidates to be the Endeavour, RIMAP chose RI 2394 as the most likely candidate for detailed archaeological investigation.
• That the usual image of the Endeavour is based on what is known of the vessel when the Royal Navy bought her in 1768. However, by the time the Lord Sandwich was lost in Newport in 1778, the structural repairs, replacements and removals had significantly changed the vessel’s fabric. Therefore, RIMAP created a revised model to include these changes and used it for comparisons with the structural details found at RI 2394.
• That selected excavations at RI 2394 revealed the ship there to be a typically-built British 18th-century wooden vessel of a size similar to the Endeavour, but
• That no structural details at RI 2394 were found to be unique to the Endeavour, and
• That in the absence of diagnostic artifacts exclusively linked to the Endeavour, the identification of site RI 2394 is not confirmed.

Despite any disappointment that RI 2394 is not proved to be the Endeavour, RIMAP’s continued transport research contributes to an understanding of how these humble vessels supported the British during the American Revolution, and that the limitations of the transport and victualling systems led to the British war fatigue. This ultimately resulted in the Colonial success.