Tea at Trianon: Captain Cook's Ship

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, May 9, 2016

Captain Cook's Ship

From Mental Floss:

During his historic 1769 to 1771 voyage, English explorer Captain James Cook became the first European sea captain to chart New Zealand and explore Australia’s east coastline. Cook’s trip made history—but his ship, the legendary HMS Endeavour, was largely forgotten. Now, the New York Daily News reports that archaeologists believe they’ve located the vessel’s sunken remains in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.

The find comes courtesy of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP), a non-profit group that received a grant from the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney to find the Endeavour's potential resting place. RIMAP will publicly announce their findings on Wednesday, May 4, on Rhode Island’s 240th birthday, their website states.

In the years following Cook’s first successful Pacific voyage, historians believe that the Endeavour was later sold, renamed the Lord Sandwich, and used to transport British troops during the American Revolution. In 1998, RIMAP unearthed archival documents stating that the Endeavour had been scuttled along with 12 other ships in Newport Harbor in the lead up to the August 1778 Battle of Rhode Island. The records listed the ship under its later name, the Lord Sandwich, News.com.au reports.

By analyzing remote sensing data and poring through historic records, RIMAP says they’ve mapped "9 archaeological sites of the 13 ships that were scuttled in Newport Harbor in 1778." One group of five sunken ships reportedly includes the Lord Sandwich—also known as Captain James Cook's Endeavor. (Read more.)