The wreck of Endurance, which carried Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton to the continent’s edge before being crushed and sunk by ice in 1915, was found more than 100 years later, about 3,000 meters below the surface of the Weddell Sea. A search expedition organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, called Endurance22, announced the discovery in a press release on March 8.
The ship was found approximately 6.5 kilometers south of the last location recorded by Frank Worsley, the ship’s captain, in 1915.
The Endurance22 crew set sail from South Africa on the icebreaker Agulhas II in early February. The team began searching for unusual features on the seafloor using a series of autonomous submarine vehicles. As a result of this search, they found the ship and used high-resolution cameras to record their findings.
Images of the wreck show it is impressively intact, colonized by all manner of marine life, but without serious decay. The icy conditions in the Weddell Sea are thought to have greatly inhibited the build-up of any organisms that could destroy the wood.
Endurance is Found pic.twitter.com/e8VxYhmUCb
— Endurance22 (@Endurance_22) March 9, 2022
Endurance22 exploration director Mensun Bound said, “This is the best wooden shipwreck I’ve ever seen”. It stands upright in its bed, proud, pristine and perfectly preserved.”
Under the Antarctic Treaty, the wreck of Endurance is protected as a Historic Site and Monument.
One of the reasons it took so long for the ship to be found is because the Weddell Sea is covered with thick ice, the same ice that sank Endurance. Even with modern polar icebreakers, getting into the area where Endurance sank is pretty difficult. This year, however, Antarctica has seen record low sea ice coverage. The Weddell Sea was still frozen, but these conditions were particularly favorable for Agulhas II.
The Story of Endurance
The shipwreck spawned one of Antarctica’s most famous survival stories. The Endurance got stuck in the ice in February 1915 and remained in place through the winter months until finally succumbing to the ice on November 21. At this point, Shackleton and his crew of 27 were stranded in sea ice, which put them at risk of drowning, and set up makeshift camps.
Shackleton and a crew of five managed to reach Elephant Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula before setting off for the island of South Georgia. They have completed the nearly 1,300-mile journey and were able to obtain assistance for stranded crew from a whaling station on the island. The story became famous for Shackleton’s leadership and the fact that there were no casualties.
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