Multinational Team Finds Shipwreck from 1915

A Watery Death

Picture this: it’s the year 1912, and you’re destined for the Antarctic in what might have been the strongest ship of its time as part of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. These are much different times. There are no airplanes, no laptops on which to book flights, or even compare consumer goods on https://vertaatuote.fi/.

You toil through stormy seas and frigid winds, only for something tragic to happen and put the journey to a sudden halt. The ship gets stuck in pack ice, and the ice crushes its hull, sinking it to the ocean floor to be forgotten by time. Fortunately, the crew survived to tell the tale, but the ship would never be seen again.

This would have been the fate of the Endurance were it not for the team of scientists and experts from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany, and Finland who located the wreck 3,008 meters below sea level. On 5 March 2022, Endurance was found 107 years after she sank, and exactly 100 years after the expedition leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton, was laid to rest.

A Quest to Find Out More

The South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment’s Agulhas II carried the sharpest minds of the world to the Weddell Sea. Here, they conducted hundreds of hours of research into the thickness of ice sheets at sea, as well as the impact that the remote continent of Antarctica has on environmental trends and the global climate. Their findings aided climate experts in the quest to understand the mysterious region.

Another reason for their voyage was Endurance22, a quest to find the wreck of the ill-fated ship by the year 2022. By using advanced modern technology, they scanned for Endurance until they finally found her.

Rediscovered

As the shipwreck is considered a Historic Site and Monument in terms of the Arctic Treaty, it was not disturbed or damaged in any way. At the same time, it was being documented by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust for posterity.

Expedition leader Dr. John Shears, an established polar geographer and environmental scientist, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, remarked that his team had made polar history by locating the Endurance and successfully completing the world’s most difficult shipwreck search.

For his outstanding achievement and service in polar research, Dr. Shears was awarded the Polar Medal by Her Majesty the Queen.