Finding Shackleton's Ship 'Endurance'

Bust of Sir Ernest Shackleton (by Anthony Smith) at the South Georgia Museum

Major Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

In 1914, despite World War I, his ship, Endurance, departed from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea on December 5, heading for Vahsel Bay. As the ship moved southward navigating in ice, first-year ice was encountered, which slowed progress, but then deep in the Weddell Sea, conditions gradually grew worse until, on January 19, 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice floe. Their state-of-the-art ship was 144 feet, with three towering masts, its hull ultra-reinforced to resist crumpling in the floating ice. 

Shackleton and 27 crewmen had sailed into the icy waters around Antarctica but would now need to travel by foot across the ice. 

Endurance stuck in the ice - Library of Congress

Endurance was slowly crushed by the floating ice despite its hull's design. The crew's journey is one of the most famous feats of survival in history. Unlike the Endurance, the men endured for over a year. They hunted penguins and seals as they crossed the ice. Finally, they reached an uninhabited island.

From there, Shackleton and a small party sailed 800 miles in a little boat they had rescued from the Endurance, and dragged with supplies across the ice. They made land on the island of South Georgia and hiked to a whaling station. They were then able to return by ship to pick up the rest of the crew.

Discovery in Antarctic waters 1923 - Public Domain, Link

The long-lost wreck of the Endurance was finally discovered using an underwater robot that went down almost 10,000 feet. With blasts of sonar, it uncovered the form of a ship. Switching to the robot’s cameras, the crew captured video of a stunningly well-preserved wooden vessel.