One of Australia's greatest maritime mysteries to be solved

A team of Australian divers are set to close the lid on the 25-year-long maritime mystery surrounding the final resting place of Captain Cook's Endeavour.

Four experts will delve into the depths of Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, in a renewed search for the vessel, which disappeared from records in 1778.

Following its famous journey with Cook in 1768-1771, it was sold to John Wilkinson in 1775 and renamed Lord Sandwich before archival records named it one of 13 ships to arrive in the US harbour in 1778 as a troop carrier.

The vessel later became a prison ship in that same harbour before ultimately being scuttled - that is, deliberately sunk - to form a blockade against the French Fleet.

It was a document recently discovered by Kathy Abbass of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project which suggested that Lord Sandwich was the very same ship as Captain Cook's famous Endeavour.

Sydney-based marine archaeologist James Hunter from the Australian National Maritime Museum will be one of the men tasked with the potential history-making discovery, The Australian reported.

Dr Hunter said the cluster of ships were between 15 and 25 metres beneath the surface, but Endeavour now was likely to be one of five in the area.

'You're dealing with five vessels from the same century, the same decade, roughly the same size, mainly from England,' he said.

'What you have is several shipwreck sites built at the same time and they don't have plaques that say, 'Hey, I'm this ship'.'

Dr Hunter said being able to identify the ship would be reliant on meticulous investigation, involving scoping out structures in murky, muddy water.

'You get this section of hull that's buried but, if you're lucky, you have elements of that site that are above the mudline. We look at the overall length of the hull. If timbers are exposed, we would look at those timbers.'

He added that often the most crucial giveaways were in the minute details, such as the size of each structure and the types of materials.

The team of divers seeking to find the wreck of the Endeavour are set to begin their search next month.

Their mission will commence just weeks after the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's historic departure, on August 25th, aboard the ship from Plymouth, England in 1768.

It is believed the vessel was sunk ten years after it disembarked on that famous journey.