Enduring Endurance - 16th March 2022

The famous ship Endurance which sank in Antarctica over a hundred years ago has been discovered. The ship belonged to British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

In 1915, Endurance got crushed by sea ice on its famous voyage to Antarctica. Shackleton and his crew of 27 men survived by trekking across the ice and travelling in tiny boats. They arrived on South Georgia Island, which is 1,400 kilometres east of the Falkland Islands. Amazingly, they all survived.

The ship was found three kilometres below the Weddell Sea in very good condition. Its name, Endurance, can still be seen.

A deep sea biologist, Adrian Glover explains the ship's condition.

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 Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust was responsible for the search. A team on a South African icebreaker with underwater drones and other equipment onboard carried out the investigation.

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."

This is the closest archaeologists can go to Endurance as it's a protected historical site. The only thing that can be brought from the site are videos and images of the ship.