One of the world’s most celebrated shipwrecks — the hulk of the sailing ship Endurance — has been found at a depth of nearly 10,000 feet in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, 107 years after it sank.
The wooden ship carried British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew to the Southern Ocean in 1915 — but was trapped in pack ice just one day out from their planned landing point. Shackleton’s expedition was marooned, and the ship slowly slipped beneath the ice.
The saga of how Shackleton and his stranded crew set up camp and organized an 800-mile journey in a lifeboat to seek out rescue stands as a heroic example of overcoming Antarctic adversity. All 28 members of Shackleton’s party survived the 497-day ordeal.
More than a century later, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust organized the Endurance22 expedition to seek out and survey the sunken ship. The team set out last month from Cape Town, South Africa, aboard the icebreaker S.A. Agulhas II for a 35-day mission.
Today the expedition’s organizers announced that they found the ship on March 5 using state-of-the-art autonomous underwater vehicles. It’s sitting on the seafloor about four miles south of the position recorded in 1915 by the Endurance’s captain, Frank Worsley.
Video captured during the underwater survey shows the ship’s bow, the ruined deck and the word “Endurance” emblazoned on the stern.
“The Endurance22 expedition has reached its goal,” expedition leader John Shears declared in a news release.
“We have made polar history with the discovery of Endurance and successfully completed the world’s most challenging shipwreck search,” Shears said. “In addition, we have undertaken important scientific research in a part of the world that directly affects the global climate and environment.”
The wreck is protected as a historic site and monument under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, ensuring that the wreck will not be touched or disturbed in any way as it’s being surveyed and filmed.
A documentary about the expedition is being prepared for broadcast this fall as part of National Geographic’s “Explorer” series.
We are delighted to learn that the #Endurance22 expedition has succeeded in their search for Sir Ernest #Shackleton's ship #Endurance. The ship has lain 3000 metres below the surface of the Weddell Sea since 1915!
📷Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust & Esther Horvath pic.twitter.com/L4JC5JCIyj
— Government SGSSI (@GovSGSSI) March 9, 2022
The wreck is coherent, in an astonishing state of preservation. The Antarctic seabed does not have any wood eating micro organisms, the water has the clarity of distilled water. We were able to film the wreck in super high definition. The results are magical
#Endurance22 pic.twitter.com/ppnJaMcmBa— Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) March 9, 2022
Here's my account of the discovery of Endurance. Including our false dawn a fortnight ago…
via @HistoryHit #Endurance22https://t.co/3eFta4ypy5
— Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) March 9, 2022
