Endurance trapped in the ice.

Sir Ernest Shackleton died 100 years ago yesterday, on January 5, 1922, of a heart attack on South Georgia on an expedition to map the still uncharted coastal regions of Antarctica. He was only 47 when he died. Now, two very different expeditions will honor the memory and the accomplishments of the intrepid explorer. 

A team of scientists, part of the Shackleton Commemoration Expedition by Antarctic Quest 21, held a ceremony in the Antarctic honoring Shackleton. The expedition in his memory will cross Antarctica’s Forbidden Plateau to discover whether microplastics have permeated the peninsula.

Yesterday, there was also an update on a quite different expedition. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust confirmed that the Endurance22 Expedition, which is aiming to locate, survey and film the wreck of Endurance, the lost ship of renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, is undertaking final preparations ahead of its scheduled departure for Antarctica’s Weddell Sea from Cape Town, South Africa, on 5th February 2022.

Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men and one cat sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. She was launched in 1912 from Sandefjord in Norway; three years later, she was crushed by pack ice and sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica. All of her crew survived. Shackleton may be best remembered for leading an epic 720-nautical-mile open-boat journey to a South Georgia whaling station to arrange for the rescue of his crew.

From the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust press release:

On board the SA Agulhas II, the South African icebreaking polar supply and research ship being used for the expedition will be a team of highly experienced extreme environment filmmakers, who will document the events in real-time and publish material on several digital channels and social media platforms. …

The expedition team will include leading polar scientists who will be conducting a range of studies of the ice and climate change related matters, advancing our knowledge of the Antarctic environment and global warming.  These include measuring and recording the sea-ice conditions, in order to develop a system that in time will provide continuous and automatic data of sea-ice conditions in the Antarctic, where currently very limited information exists.

Preparations for the expedition have been progressing well, including successful sea trials.  The trials involved deep water deployment and testing of the SAAB Sabertooth hybrid underwater search vehicles, which will be used to locate, survey, and film the wreck. These state-of-the-art vehicles combine the attributes of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), being able to follow a pre-programmed course, and remote operating vehicles (ROVs), sending digital signals through a fiber optic cable to the surface in real-time.

The teams that will establish and operate ice camps, allowing drilling through the sea ice and the deployment of the Sabertooths at a distance from Agulhas II, have also undertaken training and testing and developed procedures and experience that will be invaluable when they are called on to function on the ice floes of the Weddell Sea.

Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.