The HMS Endurance, the ship that sank off the coast of Antarctica during the expedition of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, has been discovered, seemingly whole and in fine shape, more than a century after it went down. Located 3,008 meters (1.9 miles or 9,842 feet) below the surface of the Weddell Sea, a pocket of the Southern Ocean off the northern coast of Antarctica and south of The Falkland Islands, the ship, which sunk in 1915, is still submerged.
The finding was made as a result of a cooperation between the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and History Hit, a multimedia platform developed by historian Dan Snow and others. "This is without a doubt the most beautiful wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. Despite the fact that it is upright and well proud of the seabed, and that it is in excellent condition driving directions, "Mensun Bound, the mission's director of exploration, made the announcement in a press release. "This is a watershed moment in the history of the polar regions," he continued.
A lifelong preoccupation with the South Pole drove the Irish-British explorer Ernest Shackleton to embark on a total of four journeys to the White Continent. Shackleton died at the South Pole in 1922. The ship Endurance set sail from the United Kingdom in 1914 and arrived at Antarctica's McMurdo Sound the following year, as part of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. As a result of the harsh weather conditions, the ship became stranded in thick, unbreakable ice on the Weddell Sea coast. The Endurance was abandoned by the 28 men on board, including Shackleton himself, who put up primitive camp facilities on ice floes that were drifting northward.
After reaching the uninhabited Elephant Island, some members of the team — including Shackleton — volunteered to board a lifeboat and head toward South Georgia Island, eventually crossing it on foot to reach the Stromness whaling station, which was then manned by the Norwegians, and organize a rescue mission for the men who had been left behind on Elephant Island. The team's survival and subsequent rescue months later, with no loss of life, was viewed as a success of their perseverance and the amazing leadership qualities of Shackleton, despite the fact that the mission was a failure. Shackleton died on South Georgia Island in 1922, at the age of 47, after returning from another voyage later in his life. He is buried on the island.
'Important' discovery
Eventually, after being abandoned, Endurance sunk to the bottom of the Weddell Sea, where she has remained ever since. His final resting site is around four miles south of where Captain Frank Worsley, a New Zealander who steered the vessel, originally thought he'd found it. In his statement, Bound stated that Worsley's navigational data were "invaluable" in the process of identifying the ship. The S.A. Agulhas II, a South African polar research and logistics vessel, transported the discovery team from Cape Town to their destination. Endurance22 was the name they gave to their ship, which was also the name of their expedition. There was a diverse collection of people on board, including scientists, historians, and filmmakers who were filming for a planned National Geographic documentary about the search for Endurance.
As soon as they got near to the location where they believed the wreckage was, the explorers employed Sabertooth hybrid underwater search vehicles built by the Swedish company Saab to find her. The ship's name is still engraved across its stern, and it can be seen clearly in the film taken aboard it. According to Bound, who described the find as "monumental," "We are astonished by our good fortune in having identified and recorded photographs of Endurance," he added.