Sunken ship Endurance has been discovered at the bottom of the Weddell sea in Antarctica, 107 years after it sank, the ship, surprisingly, is still in remarkable condition.
The ship Endurance was trapped in sea ice and sank off the coast of Antarctica nearly 107 years ago in 1915.
According to the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, Endurance was found at a depth of 3.008 metres(9,868). The footage of the recovered ship shows that it is in surprisingly good condition, with the ship’s wheel still intact, and its name ‘Endurance’ still perfectly visible in front of the ship.
An expedition named Endurance22 had set sail from Cape Town, South Africa in February 2022 to locate Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three expeditions to the frozen continent.
Sir Ernest and his team had set sail to be the first land crossers of Antarctica, but the ship could not reach land as it was trapped in ice, forcing the 28 man crew to abandon the ship.
Endurance was among the two ships used by the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917, whose goal was to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.
The ship that sailed to locate the sunken Endurance, SA Agulhas II became stuck in ice at the same spot where Endurance sank over a century ago.
Fortunately, thanks to technological advances such as mechanical cranes, engine power and a case of aviation fuel, crew members managed to free the vessel.
Historian Dan Snow, who was on-board the ship told The Times that “Clever people did say to me on the way, ‘How do you know you’re not going to get iced in like Shackleton?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about that. We’ve got all the technology.’ But we are now iced in”.
