Search team finds shipwrecked Endurance in Antarctica more than a century ago

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The wreckage of the ship Endurance, owned by the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton, which sank in the Antarctic ice in 1915 and was lost at about 3,000 meters deep, has been found, according to a statement issued by a search team this Wednesday ( 9).

Almost 107 years ago, the three-masted sailing ship was lost during Shackleton’s failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

Previous attempts to locate the nearly 44-meter-long vessel had failed due to hostile weather conditions in the Weddel Sea region, where Captain Frank Worsley confirmed the Endurance’s location.

The rescue mission, organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT), used advanced underwater vehicles equipped with high-definition cameras and scanners. It was these vehicles, called Sabertooths, that made it possible to locate the wreckage of the Endurance.

Footage taken by the mission, dubbed Endurance22, shows the ship wrecked in relatively good condition. The name engraved on the stern of the vessel leaves no doubt that it is Shackleton’s ship.

“We are impressed with our good fortune,” said Mensun Bound, director of exploration at Endurance22. According to him, the famous ship is in a “brilliant state of preservation”, as if it were proud to be at the bottom of the sea. The mission was led by British explorer John Shears.

Despite the Endurance being stuck in the ice, the 28-man crew that occupied it in November 1915 returned home alive. Their stories make up one of the great stories of survival and continue to inspire adventurers.

At the time, Shackleton and his companions walked on sea ice and fed on the meat of seals and penguins until they managed to set sail in three lifeboats and reach the uninhabited Elephant Island.

From there, part of the crew set out to sea again and rowed some 1,300 kilometers in the boat to South Georgia, where they found help at a whaling station.

Shackleton managed to return to rescue the remainder of the crew on Elephant Island on the fourth attempt, in August 1916, two years after his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition departed London towards the icy mainland.

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