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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
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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.

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Rare Sahara Floods Bring Morocco’s Dried-up South Back to Life

Tourists camp on the shores of Erg Znaigui, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
Tourists camp on the shores of Erg Znaigui, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
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Rare Sahara Floods Bring Morocco’s Dried-up South Back to Life

Tourists camp on the shores of Erg Znaigui, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)
Tourists camp on the shores of Erg Znaigui, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)

In Morocco's southeastern desert, a rare downpour has brought lakes and ponds back to life, with locals -- and tourists -- hailing it as a gift from the heavens.

In Merzouga, an attractive tourist town some 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of the capital Rabat, the once-parched golden dunes are now dotted with replenished ponds and lakes.

"We're incredibly happy about the recent rains," said Youssef Ait Chiga, a local tour guide leading a group of German tourists to Yasmina Lake nestled amidst Merzouga's dunes.

Khalid Skandouli, another tour guide, said the rain has drawn even more visitors to the tourist area, now particularly eager to witness this odd transformation.

With him, Laetitia Chevallier, a French tourist and regular visitor to the region, said the rainfall has proved a "blessing from the sky".

"The desert became green again, the animals have food again, and the plants and palm trees came back to life," she said.

Locals told AFP the basin had been barren for nearly 20 years.

A man leads his camels along the shores of Yasmina lake, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)

Last year was Morocco's driest in 80 years, with a 48 percent drop in rainfall, according to an October report from the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM).

But in September, torrential rains triggered floods in southern parts of Morocco, killing at least 28 people, according to authorities.

The rare heavy rains come as the North African kingdom grapples with its worst drought in nearly 40 years, threatening its economically crucial agriculture sector.

Neighboring Algeria saw similar rain and flooding in early September, killing six people.

North African countries currently rank among the world's most water-stressed, according to the World Resources Institute, a non-profit research organization.

The kingdom's meteorological agency described the recent massive rainfall as "exceptional".

It attributed it to an unusual shift of the intertropical convergence zone -- the equatorial region where winds from the northern and southern hemispheres meet, causing thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

The sun sets behind the dunes at Yasmina lake, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)

- 'Climate change' -

"Everything suggests that this is a sign of climate change," Fatima Driouech, a Moroccan climate scientist, told AFP. "But it's too early to say definitively without thorough studies."

Driouech emphasized the importance of further research to attribute this event to broader climate trends.

Experts say climate change is making extreme weather events, such as storms and droughts, more frequent and intense.

In Morocco's south, the rains have helped partially fill some reservoirs and replenish groundwater aquifers.

But for those levels to significantly rise, experts say the rains would need to continue over a longer period of time.

The rest of the country is still grappling with drought, now in its sixth consecutive year, jeopardizing the agricultural sector that employs over a third of Morocco's workforce.

Tourists take pictures at Yasmina lake, a seasonal lake in the village of Merzouga in the Sahara desert in southeastern Morocco on October 20, 2024. (AFP)

Jean Marc Berhocoirigoin, a 68-year-old French tourist, said he was surprised to find Yasmina Lake replenished. "I hadn't seen these views for 15 years," he said.

Water has also returned to other desert areas such as Erg Znaigui, about 40 kilometers south of Merzouga, AFP reporters saw.

While the rains have breathed life into Morocco's arid southeast, Driouech warns that "a single extreme event can't bring lasting change".

But last week, Morocco's meteorological agency said such downpours could become increasingly frequent, "driven partly by climate change as the intertropical convergence zone shifts further north".