Shackleton’s Endurance Shipwreck Found in the Arctic

At the start of the First World War Ernest Shackleton was at the cutting edge of world exploration. His confident attitude inspired trust from both the public and from his crews. After achieving the record for reaching Farthest South point of Earth during the Nimrod Expedition of 1907-1909, Shackleton decided to attempt to cross the arctic by sea with his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. This party set sail from Plymouth, England, on the same day that war was declared between Germany and Russia. Now the wreck of the historic ship from the voyage, Endurance, has finally been found at the bottom of the ocean.

The lost ship was sunk in 1915 and all these years no one has been able to find it…until now. Endurance was discovered on March 5, 2022 by a team of researchers and divers called Endurance22 from the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.

Using various autonomous underwater vehicles, the team was able to locate the ship. They traveled aboard an icebreaker ship called Agulhaus II that sailed from South Africa. This massive vessel was designed to be able to throw off ice as it sails, unlike Endurance, which was doomed by the ice.

The shipwreck was discovered only 4 miles from where it sank near Vahsel Bay in Antarctica at a depth of 3008 meters. Shackleton’s expedition had the unusual fortune of their ship being stuck on the ice for months, during which time they were able to live off the ship’s provisions and take photographs of life in such a precarious position. The pressure of the ice that surrounded the ship and grew eventually crushed the her and slowly she sank.

Shackleton was a compulsive adventurer who found life at home to be boring and agitating. He preferred to be out in the field, facing extreme conditions. After being stuck on the ice for the better part of a year, it was the sinking of Endurance that prompted him to leave his crewmen and search for help. It took 4 attempts to get the rescue party to the stranded men, since ice and bad weather created impassable conditions. Shockingly, using teamwork and supplied salvaged from the sinking ship, no one from the expedition died on that dangerous expedition.

The researchers from the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust took extensive photos of the shipwreck and were able to do a 3D scan of the vessel, which lay mostly undisturbed for 107 years. The place where the ship sank is ideal for preserving it since the seafloor there are few other vessels or animals that could damage the ship in that ice-bound environment.

The ship is so well-preserved that the name of the vessel in metal letters is still highly visible on her front.

There have been many attempts to find the shipwreck over the past few decades, but the ice was a hinderance to that mission. One expensive automated instrument was lost to the ice on a previous search for Endurance, ending that expedition. The Agulhaus II was being used on that trip as well, but despite being designed for ice she had to turn back for fear she would follow the fate of Endurance.

It was partly due to the thinness of the ice around the bay that researchers were finally able to locate the wreck. The last time the ice was recorded as being this thin was in the 1970s.

Having collected significant data on the shipwreck, it will now be designated an Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty. Unlike many other historic shipwrecks, the Endurance will remain in the state in which she was found.