US historians hope they’ve found Captain Cook’s ship, the HMS Endeavour. The discovery has renewed interest in the explorer at Brisbane’s Maritime Museum.

Manille Lumayag reports.

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2020 will mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook leaving England for the transit of Venus. The beginning of his voyage to discover Australia.

The Queensland Maritime Museum has big plans to commemorate the milestone.

Peter Baston, Deputy Chair: “We are going to be celebrating every stage of Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia in 2020.”

Current artefacts on display at South Bank are a block of Cook’s jettisoned ballast and a piece of coral from the original cannon.

A large replica of the Endeavour will also travel to Brisbane for the anniversary.

Peter Nunin, Researcher: “To Australians, it was the result of his first voyage out here on the coast of Australia, eastern Australia, that we owe the European Settlement.”

The possible discovery of the HMS Endeavour off the American coast has renewed interest and the museum staff now want to gather more of Captain Cook’s history maybe even a sample from the vessel.

Peter Baston, Deputy Chair: “If it is the Endeavour we’ll love to have artefacts and we’d love to show them with the people of Queensland.”

Keen mariners can inspect Captain Cook’s memorabilia at the Museum in South Bank most weekends.

Manille Lumayag, QUT News.