Wooden Ship Vanished After Being Crushed By Ice Is Found Intact After 106 Years
by Alexa Heah
After being lost to the waters of Antarctica over a century ago, Endurance, the ship of legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, has finally been found.
In November 1915, the boat had been crushed by ice and sank in the Weddell Sea, never to be seen again … till now.
According to The Guardian, the shipwreck was found 3,008 meters (9,868 feet) below sea level, in a place Shackleton had once described as “the worst portion of the worst sea in the world.”
Poetically, as per the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, the wreckage was found by divers on the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s funeral.
“The Endurance 22 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,” said Dr John Shears, leader of the expedition.
Footage of the ship captured from the bottom of the sea showed it to still be intact, with Mensun Bound, the expedition’s director of exploration, calling it “the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen.”
“It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see ‘Endurance’ arced across the stern,” he explained.
Due to the fact that the boat’s site was declared a historic monument under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, Bound said that no one had touched or retrieved anything from the wreck just yet.
“We hope our discovery will engage young people and inspire them with the pioneering spirit, courage, and fortitude of those who sailed Endurance to Antarctica,” he added.
[via The Guardian and Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, images Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust / National Geographic]