The Endurance – The Lost Ship: Finally Found

By Aryn L

Scientists have found The Endurance, the lost ship of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, 107 years after it sank. It was found on the weekend at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. Despite having been crushed by sea-ice In 1915 and sunken almost 3km below the surface, it was found in remarkable condition.

The project to find the lost ship was mounted by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, using a South African icebreaker, Agulhas II. They finally uncovered the wrecked site after two weeks of looking, on the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s funeral.

“The Endurance, looking like a ghost ship, is sprinkled with an impressive diversity of deepsea marine life – stalked sea squirts, brittlestars, and crinoids (related to urchins and sea stars), all filter feeding nutrition from the cool deep waters of the Weddell Sea,” commented deep-sea biologist Dr Michelle Taylor.

The challenge after that was finding the ship itself. Since the Weddell Sea is nearly always covered in thick sea-ice (what ruptured the Endurance in the first place), getting to the sinking location was tricky enough, let alone conducting a search.

This magnificent boat was first renowned after the Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The boat set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica before they had to abandon the quest when the ship was trapped by sea-ice. Shackleton managed to get his crew to safety on a small lifeboat.