Passion around Endeavor

September 22, 20193min read

September 19, 2019

Passion around Endeavor
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the first meeting of Europeans and the indigenous people of New Zealand. As part of the celebrations of HMB Endeavor – more precisely, a replica of the famous sailing ship Captain Cook – is due to visit a number of New Zealand cities this fall.

Only now, Endeavor suddenly found itself in the center of a scandal. This is what the website www.vesti.ru reports:

“Endeavor did not want to see a copy of Captain James Cook’s ship in the harbor of Mangonui on the North Island of New Zealand.

The leader of the Maori tribe Ngati Kau – Anacher Herbert-Graves forbade him to call at the port, as planned as part of a program to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the first meeting of Europeans and the indigenous inhabitants of the islands.

They explain the ban by the fact that they do not consider the famous navigator the discoverer of their lands.

Leader Herbert Graves said British explorer James Cook “just took Maori land like a barbarian,” he “didn't open anything here,” and “all kinds of euphemisms like“ first meeting on the beach ”don't change the meaning of what 250 years ago invasion".

In addition, the leader noted, Cook himself “did not call at the port of Mangonui and did not land on these shores,” so they have nothing to celebrate.

As a result, the voice of the Maori Ngati Kau was heard.

The harbor of their hometown has already been removed from the list of stops of the flotilla, which, in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the “first encounters on the shore” between Māori and New Zealanders of European descent, must bypass the entire coast of New Zealand in September-October. ”

… That's how Captain Cook and his sailboat became “unwanted guests” 250 years later. But, imagine, this is not the only news regarding the famous traveler and his equally famous sailing ship. Here is the site https://nat-geo.ru message under the heading "Scientists believe they have discovered the legendary Endeavor":

HMS Endeavor (His Majesty Endeavor Ship) is the first ship commanded by British explorer and pioneer of the eighteenth century, Captain James Cook. In 1768-1771 he sailed on Endeavor to Tahiti, established friendly relations with local Aborigines, later went to the shores of New Zealand, and then reached the east coast of Australia and named it New South Wales, and also opened the strait between Australia and New Guinea .

Scientists 20 years ago determined the approximate location of the sunken ship, but only now they may have managed to find its wreckage. Researchers believe the Endeavor rests in the waters of Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. Participants in the Rim Island Marine Archaeological Project (RIMAP) dived and retrieved samples from the seabed that were sent for laboratory analysis.

“We don’t think that we will find something that directly tells us:“ Captain Cook was sleeping here ”- this is unlikely. But all that we saw is consistent with the fact that this is Endeavor, ”said Katie Abbas of the Marine Archeology Project in Rhode Island.

The Endeavor was decommissioned shortly after its return to the UK, and then sold to the Royal Navy in private hands, and its name was changed to Lord Sandwich.

A few years later, Great Britain hired Endeavor as a transport ship for the troops participating in the American Revolutionary War. The last time Endeavor was seen in 1778 off the coast of Rhode Island. Scientists believe that the ship sank or was deliberately flooded. "

201 September 19, 2019 # 9490

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