![]() Just as the First World War was breaking out in August 1914, the Endurance's crew set out from London with the lofty ambition of becoming the first to cross the Antarctic continent.Ĭarrying an expedition crew of 28 men, 69 dogs and one cat, the 144-foot-long Endurance was a three-masted schooner barque sturdily built for operations in polar waters.Īiming to land at Antarctica's Vahsel Bay, the vessel instead became stuck in pack ice on the Weddell Sea on Januwhere she and her crew would remain for many months. The expedition team has also been filming for a long-form observational documentary chronicling the expedition which has been commissioned by National Geographic to air later this year on Disney+.Įndurance was one of two ships used by the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917, which hoped to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic. It’s a great day for Antarctic archaeology and science.' 'So the findings from the new discovery are important not just from a historical perspective but also in terms of understanding the ecology and evolution of life in Antarctica. 'Tiny "shipworms" - small bivalve molluscs - that normally eat wood in well oxygenated oceans are absent from Antarctica, just as they are absent from the Baltic and Black Seas, other remarkable wooden shipwreck "vaults". The Antarctic circumpolar current - an ocean current that flows clockwise from west to east around Antarctica - has essentially acted as barrier to the larvae of deep-water species that could have eaten away at the ship's wood.ĭr Glover told MailOnline: 'The preservation of Endurance is quite remarkable, but not totally unexpected. 'In addition, we have undertaken important scientific research in a part of the world that directly affects the global climate and environment,' Dr Shears said.ĭr Adrian Glover, a deep-sea biologist at the Natural History Museum, not involved with the expedition, led a 2013 research paper predicting very good wood preservation for Endurance, based on experimental work. ![]() You can even see Endurance arced across the stern, directly below the taffrail.īound also paid tribute to the navigational skills of Captain Frank Worsley, the Captain of the Endurance, whose detailed records were 'invaluable' in the quest to locate the wreck.ĭr John Shears, the expedition leader, said his team, which was accompanied by historian Dan Snow, had made 'polar history' by completing what he called 'the world's most challenging shipwreck search'. 'It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. 'We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance,' said Mensun Bound, maritime archaeologist and director of the exploration. The expedition's director of exploration said footage of Endurance showed it to be intact and 'by far the finest wooden shipwreck' he has seen. The wreck is protected as a Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty, ensuring that whilst the wreck is being surveyed and filmed it will not be touched or disturbed in any way, according to the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. Agulhas II, assisted by non-intrusive underwater search robots. The Endurance22 Expedition had set off from Cape Town, South Africa in February this year, a month after the 100th anniversary of Sir Ernest's death on a mission to locate it.Įndurance was found approximately four miles south of the position originally recorded by the ship's captain Frank Worsley, but within the search area defined by the expedition team before its departure from Cape Town.īack in 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew set out to achieve the first land crossing of Antarctica, but Endurance did not reach land and became trapped in dense pack ice, forcing the 28 men on board to eventually abandon ship.įor the mission, the expedition team worked from the South African polar research and logistics vessel, S.A. Remarkable footage of the wreck shows it has been astonishingly preserved, with the ship's wheel still intact and the name 'Endurance' still perfectly visible on the ship's stern. The wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance has been found 107 years after it became trapped in sea ice and sank off the coast of Antarctica.įalklands Maritime Heritage Trust said the wooden ship, which had not been seen since it went down in the Weddell Sea in 1915, was found at a depth of 9,868 feet (3,008 metres).
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