The Endurance22 Expedition announced today that they have discovered the remarkably intact remains of Sir Ernest Shackleton‘s ship Endurance, which was crushed by pack ice off Antarctica in 1915.
A team of marine archeologists, adventurers, and technicians on the icebreaking research vessel SA Agulhas II, battled shifting sea ice, blizzards, and temperatures that dropped to -18 degrees C, for over two weeks, before finding the sunken ship. Using undersea drones, the shipwreck of the Endurance was located 10,000 feet below the ice-covered surface of the Weddell Sea.
“Without any exaggeration, this is the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen – by far,” said marine archaeologist Mensun Bound, who is on the discovery expedition and has now fulfilled a dream ambition in his nearly 50-year career.
Its timbers, although damaged by the sinking, are still very much together, and the name – Endurance – is clearly visible on the stern.
“It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation,” he told BBC News.
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.
We found the wreck of Shackleton’s Endurance
Thanks to Alaric Bond, David Rye, and Karen Lorentz for contributing to this post.
More here – https://www.historyhit.com/the-discovery-of-endurance/
Great find and also in such good condition,Tom Crean our Irish hero is well remembered, hid grand daughter spoke on television last night about the find and her great explorer grand father.His pub in West Kerry Ireland is still trading, good for a pint and a good chat with the locals who all know the Crean family.
But what became of the ship’s cat?
Linda, Shackleton killed the cat, as well as the expedition’s sled dogs, before departing the site of the Endurance’s sinking. A cruel man to be sure.
Nice to see John Molloy’s comment. He and I both served our Deck Apprenticeship in Irish Shipping Ltd. in the 1950,s.
Due to Ireland not being a free country in those days many of our nationals, including Shackleton himself, accomplishments were credited as “British”.
Good Watch.
Boca Jim you may want to think about that again. Their was no way for these animals to be fed so they were being saved from agonizing deaths by starvation. One doubts very much that Shackleton was a cruel man rather quite the reverse.
Good Watch.