Ship Modelers Database
Image: Public domain (artist Samuel Atkins, c.1794 painting; held by National Library of Australia, out of copyright) · commons.wikimedia.org
HMS Endeavour
Sunk (scuttled 1778); wreck site formally identified in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island in 2025. A full-scale sailing replica, HMB Endeavour, operates as a museum ship and active sailing vessel at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.
HMS Endeavour was a British Royal Navy bark best known as the vessel Lieutenant James Cook commanded on his first Pacific voyage of exploration (1768-1771), during which she became the first European ship to reach New Zealand since Abel Tasman and to chart Australia's eastern coast. She began life as the Whitby-built collier Earl of Pembroke before the Admiralty purchased and refitted her for the Royal Society's Transit of Venus expedition.
Kits of this ship
+ Add a kitNo image | HMS Endeavour | Caldercraft | 1:64 (3/16 in=1 ft, S) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | — |
| Endeavour | OcCre | 1:54 | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available | |
| HMS Endeavour | OcCre | 1:54 | Plank-on-Frame | Available | |
| HM Endeavour Bark 1768 | Mantua | — | Plank-on-Frame | Available | |
No image | Vessel HMS Endeavour 1:65 Wooden Model Ship Kit | Artesania Latina | 1:65 | Plank-on-Frame | Available |
No image | HMS Endeavour Wood Model Ship Kit | Constructo | 1:60 | — | Available |
| H.M.S Endeavour Model Boat Kit | Billing Boats | 1:50 | Plank-on-Frame | Available | |
| HM Endeavour Bark 1768 | Corel | — | Plank-on-Frame | Available | |
No image | HMS Endeavour Childrens Model Ship Kit | Mini Mamoli | — | Solid Hull | Available |
No image | HMS Endeavour | Caldercraft / Jotika | 1:64 (3/16 in=1 ft, S) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Discontinued |
Plans
No plan sets listed for this ship yet. Know of museum, archive or publisher drawings? Add them so the next builder can find them.
Links go to the publisher's or museum's own page. Ship Modelers Database lists plan sets; it doesn't host or display the drawings.
Build logs
+ Link a build logNo build logs linked yet.
Resources
+ Submit a resourceHistory & specifications
- gCaptain: Captain Cook's Long-Lost Ship Confirmed in Newport HarborArticle
2025 news report on the Australian National Maritime Museum's confirmation of the Endeavour/Lord Sandwich wreck site in Rhode Island.
- Wikipedia: HMS EndeavourWebsite
Overview article on the original ship's construction, voyage, and later fate as a scuttled transport.
- Wikipedia: HMS Endeavour replicaWebsite
Details on the 1988-1994 full-scale replica's construction, dimensions, and rig, useful for modelers seeking accurate specifications.
Museums & archives
- Australian National Maritime Museum: HMB EndeavourMuseum
Museum page describing the operating replica ship's current role, rig, and visiting details.
Photos
- Wikimedia Commons: HMS Endeavour off the coast of New Holland by Samuel Atkins, c.1794Photo
Contemporary-era painting of Endeavour (held by the National Library of Australia) used as the reference image; public domain due to age.
History
Service history
After departing Plymouth in 1768, she rounded Cape Horn, observed the transit of Venus at Tahiti, charted New Zealand, and mapped Australia's east coast, running aground on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770 and undergoing emergency repairs at what is now Cooktown. Returning to Britain in 1771, she later served as a naval transport, was sold into private hands and renamed Lord Sandwich, and was ultimately scuttled by British forces in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War to block the harbor against French ships.
Notable facts
In 2025 the Australian National Maritime Museum, working with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, announced confirmation that shipwreck site RI 2394 in Newport Harbor represents the remains of Endeavour/Lord Sandwich, based on matching bow joinery, mast-step timbers, and a pump well consistent with 1768 Admiralty plans. A meticulously researched full-scale sailing replica, HMB Endeavour, was built in Fremantle between 1988 and 1994 and now serves as a working museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, giving modelers an accessible real-world reference for rigging and deck arrangement.