Laser photographs of Ernest Shackleton’s endurance displayed in the control room.
Johannesburg, South Africa:
Explorers announced Wednesday that the Endurance of the Ernest Shackleton, one of the world’s most storied ships, has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica more than a century later.
Endurance was discovered in the Weddell Sea at a depth of 3,008 meters (9,869 ft), about six kilometers (four miles) from pack ice in 1915.
“We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in locating and capturing images of endurance,” said Mensun Bound, the expedition’s director of exploration.
He said, “It’s the best wooden ship I’ve ever seen. It’s upright, proud of the seafloor, intact, and in excellent condition of preservation. You’ll see ‘endurance’ in the stern as well.” can see.” a statement.
The expedition, organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, left Cape Town on 5 February with a South African icebreaker, in hopes of finding endurance before the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer.
As part of Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition between 1914 and 1917, Endurance was intended to be the first land crossing of Antarctica, but it fell victim to the turbulent Weddell Sea.
Just east of the Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula, it was trapped in sea-ice for more than 10 months before being crushed and sank.
‘Worst sea in the world’
The voyage became legendary due to the miraculous escape of Shackleton and his crew on foot and by boats.
The crew managed to escape by camping on sea ice until it exploded.
They then launched lifeboats to Elephant Island and then to South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory located about 1,400 km east of the Falkland Islands.
Despite a lot of effort, all the crew members narrowly survived.
Explorers used underwater drones to find and film shipwrecks in the heartless Weddell Sea, a swirling flow that maintains a mass of thick sea ice that would challenge even modern ice breakers could.
Shackleton himself described the site of the sink as “the worst part of the worst sea in the world”.
This area is one of the most difficult parts of the ocean to navigate.
“This has been the most complex sub-project to date,” said Nico Vincent, the mission’s subsea project manager.
The underwater drone produced surprisingly clear images of the 144-foot-long ship. Amazingly, the hull remains intact after being underwater for more than a century, with the gear stacked against the Tafril as the Shackleton crew had recently left it.
The ship’s timbers, which were damaged by the crushing of ice, are still together. Sea anemones, sponges and other small marine life made homes on the wreck, but did not appear to have caused any damage.
Photos from the expedition show South Africa’s Agulhas II icebreaker surrounded by ice, with the crew lifting it by crane over the frozen sea.
Under international law, the wreck is protected as a historic site. Explorers were allowed to film and scan the ship, but were not allowed to touch it at all – meaning any artifacts on the surface could not be returned.
The team used underwater search drones built by Saab known as sabertooths, which dove beneath the ice in the farthest depths of the Weddell Sea.
During the mission, he also researched climate change, documenting ice drift and weather patterns.
The team is now returning to the port of Cape Town.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)