The ship was launched on 17 December 1912 and was initially christened Polaris after the North Star. Every detail of her construction had been scrupulously planned to ensure maximum durability: for example, every joint and fitting was cross-braced for maximum strength. She was built under the supervision of master wood shipbuilder Christian Jacobsen, who was renowned for insisting that all men in his employment were not just skilled shipwrights but also experienced in seafaring aboard whaling or sealing ships. The wreck is designated as a protected historic site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty System.ĭesigned by Ole Aanderud Larsen, Endurance was built at the Framnæs shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway.
She lies 9,869 feet (3,008 m 1,645 fathoms) deep, and is in good condition. The wreck of Endurance was discovered on 5 March 2022, nearly 107 years after she sank, by the search team Endurance22. All of the crew survived her sinking and were eventually rescued in 1916 after using the ship's boats to travel to Elephant Island and Shackleton, the ship's captain Frank Worsley, and four others made a voyage to seek help. A year later, she became trapped in pack ice and finally sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica on 21 November 1915. After her commissioners could no longer pay the shipyard, the ship was bought by Shackleton in January 1914 for the expedition, which would be her first voyage. The ship, originally named Polaris, was built at Framnæs shipyard and launched in 1912 from Sandefjord in Norway. Location: 69☃9′30″S 52☂6′30″W / 69.65833°S 52.44167°W / -69.65833 -52.44167 ģ50 hp (260 kW) Coal-fired steam and sailĮndurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Sank following crush by pack ice on 21 November 1915 On his fourth rescue attempt, Shackleton managed to return to pick up the rest of the crew from Elephant Island in August 1916, two years after his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition left London.Endurance under steam and sail trying to break through pack ice in the Weddell Sea on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1915, by Frank Hurley. They trekked across the sea ice, living off seals and penguins, before setting sail in three lifeboats and reaching the uninhabited Elephant Island.įrom there, Shackleton and handful of the crew rowed some 1,300 km on the lifeboat James Caird to South Georgia, where they sought help from a whaling station. The expedition – led by British polar explorer John Shears, operated from the South African ice-breaking ship Agulhas II and also researching the impact of climate change – found the Endurance 6 km from the position recorded by Worsley.ĭespite being stranded on the ice, the 28-man crew of the Endurance made it back home alive and theirs is considered one of the great survival stories of human history. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation.” “This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. “We are overwhelmed by our good fortune…,” said Mensun Bound, the expedition’s Director of Exploration. The wreckage of the ship Endurance, seen in this video issued by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. However, the Endurance22 mission, organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and using advanced underwater vehicles called Sabertooths fitted with high-definition cameras and scanners, tracked the vessel’s remains down.įootage showed the ship in a remarkably good condition, with its name clearly visible on the stern. Previous attempts to locate the 144-foot-long wooden wreck, whose location was logged by its captain Frank Worsley, had failed due to the hostile conditions of the ice-covered Weddell Sea, under which it lies. The three-masted sailing ship was lost in November 1915 during Shackleton’s failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. London: The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 10,000 feet to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found, a team searching for it said on March 9.
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