![]() ![]() The tale of the Endurance is fascinating. The first was in 2019 the ship was not located on that occasion. It was the second time the polar icebreaker reached the coordinates that Endurance’s Captain Frank Worsley recorded as the ship went down. ![]() But thanks to a South African vessel, the SA Agulhas II, Endurance was found in March 2022. The icy Weddell Sea is inhospitable and the wreck lay in more than 3000 metres of water. It was difficult to believe that the Endurance might ever be found. (Shackleton and his entire crew survived the ordeal by escaping in smaller boats.) It sank to the bottom of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. It was an ill-fated journey: the ship got trapped in the ice and eventually crushed by pack ice in 1915. This story was published by The Sun and reproduced with permission.It was 1914 when the English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard a ship called Endurance. The icebreaker is now on its way back to Cape Town - but the team plan to make a stop at the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia where Shackleton is buried to pay their respects. The Agulhas II wrapped up the survey of the historic wreckage and left the search site on Tuesday. “The Endurance, looking like a ghost ship, is sprinkled with an impressive diversity of deep-sea marine life - stalked sea squirts, anemones, sponges of various forms, brittlestars, and crinoids (related to urchins and sea stars), all filter feeding nutrition from the cool deep waters of the Weddell Sea.” The shipwreck is a designated monument under the international Antarctic Treaty and must not be disturbed in any way.Īnd the ghost ship has been taken over by an “impressive diversity of deep-sea marine life”.ĭeep-sea polar biologist Dr Michelle Taylor from Essex University said: “It would appear that there is little wood deterioration, inferring that the wood-munching animals found in other areas of our ocean are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not in the forest-free Antarctic region. The mission to find the lost ship was launched by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust using a South African icebreaker, Agulhas II - equipped with remotely operated submersibles. Miraculously, the brave explorer managed to get his men to safety on foot and on small lifeboats. ![]() SA Agulhas II docked in the sea ice during the search for Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship. Sir Ernest had set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica - but he had to abandon the quest when Endurance was trapped and holed by sea-ice. He added: “In addition, we have undertaken important scientific research in a part of the world that directly affects the global climate and environment.” “We have achieved what many people said was impossible.” “We have successfully completed the world’s most difficult shipwreck search, battling constantly shifting sea-ice, blizzards, and temperatures dropping down to -18C. He said: “The discovery of the wreck is an incredible achievement. I don’t usually go with this sort of stuff at all, but this one I found a bit spooky.”ĭr John Shears, the expedition leader, described the moment cameras landed on the ship’s name as “jaw-dropping”. “We found the wreck a hundred years to the day after Shackleton’s funeral. “At that moment, you really do feel the breath of the great man upon the back of your neck. The Endurance22 Expedition located the wreck of Endurance. ![]()
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