Lost ship endurance found after 107 years in near-perfect years
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Lost ship endurance found after 107 years in near-perfect years
The Endurance - British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship which has not been seen since it was crushed by the ice and sank in 1915 - was discovered by scientists at a depth of 3008 meters in the Weddell Sea, part of the Southern Ocean.
Images show the ship to be in excellent condition with the word “Endurance” still clearly visible across the stern.
“It is just a beautiful wreck,” he said.
The Endurance was the ship of Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who attempted to become the first person to cross the Antarctic ice sheet over land in December 1914 with 27 men. Two days into the expedition and before they could reach land, their ship encountered pack ice and by January it had become stuck. The men had to decamp to the ice, where they camped for months, before crossing the ocean in lifeboats and reaching the inhospitable Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton and five others sailed to South Georgia, an island in the South Atlantic, from where they organized the rescue of the rest of the crew.
Just getting to the location of the Endurance was a difficult task but it was made easier as the past months have seen the lowest level of Antarctic sea ice since the 1970s.
The ship has been colonized by sea life but has not significantly decayed. As the Southern Ocean has little plant life, it is also free of sea life that consumes wood. “The wood is as fresh as the day the ship went down,” said Mensun Bound a marine archeologist with a 50-year career.
The expedition’s director said footage of Endurance showed it to be intact and “by far the finest wooden shipwreck” he has seen.
“It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see ‘Endurance’ arced across the stern, directly below the taffrail.
“This is a milestone in polar history.”
He added: “We hope our discovery will engage young people and inspire them with the pioneering spirit, courage and fortitude of those who sailed Endurance to Antarctica.
“We pay tribute to the navigational skills of Captain Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance, whose detailed records were invaluable in our quest to locate the wreck.
“I would like to thank my colleagues of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust for enabling this extraordinary expedition to take place, as well as Saab for their technology, and the whole team of dedicated experts who have been involved in this monumental discovery.”