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Living legend - 16th March 2022

Endurance, the ship of legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, has been discovered more than a century after it sank in Antarctica.

The ship was crushed by sea ice in 1915 in a voyage that’s become legendary. The celebrated explorer and his team of 27 men escaped the sinking ship on foot across the ice and on small boats to South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory 1,400 kilometres east of the Falkland Islands. Miraculously, all survived!

Discovered at a depth of three kilometres in the Weddell Sea just 6 kilometres from where it went down, the vessel’s in remarkable condition and its name Endurance is clearly visible on the stern.

Adrian Glover, a deep sea biologist at Britain’s Natural History Museum explains why the wreck’s so well preserved.

Adrian Glover: "Wood is amazingly well-preserved in the Antarctic. And there’s only a few other places where that is the case. But it seems that Antarctica may also be a shipwreck vault, if you like, because of the, the lack of particular species which normally eat wood."

The project to find the lost ship was mounted by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. A South African icebreaker equipped with remote controlled drones known as Sabertooths investigated the icy depths. But as Adrian Glover explains, the discovery of the Endurance was still a matter of luck.

Adrian Glover: "You know, obviously, they had these very powerful hybrid ROVs – remotely operated vehicles – mini submersibles which were able to survey quite broad areas of the sea floor. But even so, it was right at the end of their voyage, from my understanding, that they, they found it, which shows just how difficult it is and there’s obviously therefore a large amount of, of luck."

But this is as close as archaeologists can get. The wreck’s protected as a historic site. The modern day explorers were allowed to film and scan the ship, but not to touch it at all - meaning no artefacts can be returned to the surface.