Australian Archaeologists Find Captain Cook’s Shipwreck

A replica of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, sailing off the coast of New Zealand in 1995. The replica was built in Australia in 1994, where Cook is a national hero. Reuters
A replica of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, sailing off the coast of New Zealand in 1995. The replica was built in Australia in 1994, where Cook is a national hero. Reuters
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Australian Archaeologists Find Captain Cook’s Shipwreck

A replica of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, sailing off the coast of New Zealand in 1995. The replica was built in Australia in 1994, where Cook is a national hero. Reuters
A replica of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, sailing off the coast of New Zealand in 1995. The replica was built in Australia in 1994, where Cook is a national hero. Reuters

Australian archaeologists have found the wreck of Endeavour, the vessel of Captain James Cook that sank off the coast of the US state of Rhode Island over 200 years ago. But their US research partners are not amused.

The vessel, in which Cook sailed in a historic voyage to Australia and New Zealand between 1768 and 1771, sank in Newport Harbor during the War of Independence.

"Since 1999, we have been investigating several 18th-century shipwrecks in a 2-square-mile area (3.7 square kilometers) where we believed that Endeavour sank," Kevin Sumption, director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, told a Thursday media briefing.

"Based on archival and archaeological evidence, I'm convinced it's the Endeavour," he added. But the US Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project also involved in efforts to locate the vessel has slammed the announcement as premature.

In a statement, the executive director of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, DK Abbass said the Australians were guilty of a "breach of contract," adding that "conclusions will be driven by proper scientific process and not Australian emotions or politics."

The Australian Museum, in its turn, denied violating any partnership agreement, with a spokesperson saying Abbass was "entitled to her own opinion regarding the vast amount of evidence we have accumulated."

Endeavour is the ship used by Captain Cook to voyage from England to Tahiti before charting Australia's east coast in 1770.

When it sank in the Newport Harbor, in August 1778, it was renamed as Lord Sandwich and used by the British forces to lockup prisoners during the American War of Independence.

The British forces deliberately sunk Captain Cook’s ship and four others to block a French fleet from entering the harbor to support the Americans in the War of Independence.

This took place few months before Cook died in Hawaii, in February 1779. The museum said only about 15 percent of the vessel had survived two centuries under water. "The focus is now on what can be done to protect and preserve it,” Sumption said.



Germany Granted Citizenship to a Record Number of People in 2024, Led by Syrians 

People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Germany Granted Citizenship to a Record Number of People in 2024, Led by Syrians 

People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Germany granted citizenship to a record 291,955 people last year, a 46% increase from 2023, with Syrians making up the largest group, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Tuesday.

Reforms in the citizenship law contributed to the jump, the office said. Last June Germany reduced its residency requirement for naturalization from eight years to five and even three in special cases.

Many Syrians who arrived as refugees during 2015 and 2016 when former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany's borders to hundreds of thousands fleeing war and persecution in the Middle East became eligible for naturalization during 2024.

As a result, they made up the largest group of new citizens, accounting for 28% of all naturalizations, or 83,150 people, a 10.1% increase. They were followed by Turks, Iraqis, Russians, and Afghans, who represented 8%, 5%, 4%, and 3% of the total, respectively.

Russians saw the largest percentage increase in naturalizations, with the number rising to 12,980 in 2024 from 1,995 the previous year. The number of Turks taking German citizenship more than doubled to 22,525.

The new citizenship law also allows individuals to retain their original citizenship while acquiring German nationality, enabling tens of thousands of Turkish citizens — many of whom, or whose ancestors, came to Germany as guest workers in the 1960s and 1970s — to become naturalized.

However, Germany's new coalition government of the conservatives and Social Democrats plans to roll back some of these measures and reinstate a minimum waiting period of five years for citizenship.

The conservatives have said citizenship should come at the end of a period of integration, not "jump-start" it, and fear shorter wait times to become a German citizen may drive increased migration and public resentment.