'Brilliant news' as wreck of Shackleton's ship found

The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship 'Endurance', which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 3,000m to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found, a team searching for it has said.

The three-masted sailing ship was lost in November 1915 during Shackleton's failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

Previous attempts to locate the 44m-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.

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.

Footage showed the ship in a remarkably good condition, with its name clearly visible on the stern.

"We are overwhelmed by our good fortune...," said Mensun Bound, the expedition's Director of Exploration.

"This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation."

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" 6km from the position recorded by Worsley.

Despite being stranded on the ice, the 28-man crew of the 'Endurance', including Kerry man Tom Crean, made it back home alive and theirs is considered one of the great survival stories of human history.

They trekked across the sea ice, living off seals and penguins, before setting sail in three lifeboats and reaching the uninhabited Elephant Island.

From there, Shackleton and a handful of the crew rowed some 1,300km on the lifeboat James Caird to South Georgia, where they sought help from a whaling station.

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.

Search begins for Ernest Shackleton's lost shipwreck

Shackleton was born in Kilkea, Co Kildare, in 1874 and moved with his family to London when he was ten.

Dr Shears said: "The Endurance22 expedition has reached its goal. We have made polar history with the discovery of Endurance, and successfully completed the world's most challenging shipwreck search.

"In addition, we have undertaken important scientific research in a part of the world that directly affects the global climate and environment.

"We have also conducted an unprecedented educational outreach programme, with live broadcasting from on board, allowing new generations from around the world to engage with Endurance22 and become inspired by the amazing stories of polar exploration, and what human beings can achieve and the obstacles they can overcome when they work together."

Historian and broadcaster Dan Snow said the wreck was in an "astonishing state of preservation".

He tweeted: "The wreck is coherent, in an astonishing state of preservation. The Antarctic seabed does not have any wood eating micro organisms, the water has the clarity of distilled water. We were able to film the wreck in super high definition. The results are magical #Endurance22."

He said nothing was retrieved from the wreck.

"Endurance has been found. Discovered at 3,000 metres on 5 March 2022, 100 years to the day since Shackleton was buried.

"After weeks of searching Endurance was found within the search box conceived by Mensun Bound, only just over four miles south of the location at which its captain Frank Worsley calculated it had sunk. The entire team aboard #Endurance22 are happy and a little exhausted!

"Nothing was touched on the wreck. Nothing retrieved. It was surveyed using the latest tools and its position confirmed. It is protected by the Antarctic Treaty. Nor did we wish to tamper with it."

'We're beyond excited'

Separately, a relative of Tom Crean said the discovery of the Endurance is brilliant news.

Aileen Crean O'Brien, a granddaughter of Tom Crean, said: "To see the footage this morning, it was just amazing. I mean it's pristine.. It makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. And to think that our grandfather, Tom Crean, stood at that wheel over a hundred years ago, it's just fantastic, it's brilliant news."

The discovery has also been welcomed by the Ernest Shackleton Museum, in the town of his birthplace Athy.

Seamus Taaffe, a director of the museum, said: "We're beyond excited, we've been promoting the story of Shackleton's life and his expeditions over the last 20 years and I suppose we hoped against hope that the day would come when they actually would find his Endurance ship, the ship that's at the centre of the greatest story in his exploration life."

A large scale model of the Endurance is one the most prized exhibits at the museum.

Mr Taaffe explained that it was used in the Channel 4 drama series 'Shackleton' which starred Kenneth Branagh.

"It was just before CGI came into modern cinema and TV, and so model ships were used to recreate the expedition ship Endurance, so it is a extraordinarily detailed model of the Endurance and it's a great representation, of what's actually below the ice in the Antarctic," he said.

Additional reporting Colman O'Sullivan