If you have an adventurous spiritmaybe you’ve imagined yourself discovering an unknown island, an unknown species, or getting your hands on a long-forgotten treasure. The story of the day is made of the same hopes, and the same legends : the wreck of a ship that History has retained as legendary has just been found, and this, thanks to the determination of several dozen men.
A mythical wreck has just been found
Endurance was trapped by sea ice in January 1915, at the start of Shackleton’s famous expedition of 1914-1917, which led to the abandonment of ship and the attempt to cross the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. It was a three-masted schooner with which Sir Ernest Shackleton led the fourth British expedition to Antarctica in the 20th century. The mission was to cross this continent through and through, which would have been a great success, but was unfortunately a failure.
The Endurance sank after being trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea in November 1915. Photograph taken by Frank Hurley.
However, on Saturday March 5, 2022, the Endurance22 expedition, organized by the Falklands Maritime Trust, discovered the famous ship, this mythical wreck, 100 years to the day after Shackleton was buried in South Georgia (after dying of natural causes). Chance of the calendar, and major discovery.
An exceptional expedition
The Endurance22 Expeditionwho was on a mission to get their hands on the wreckage of the Endurance (as its name suggests), put 35 days to locate the wreckage. The leader of the expedition was Dr. John Shears, geographer and polar explorer, and the latter was assisted by Mensun Bound, a famous British maritime archaeologist. The crew and the expedition team counted in total 50 people.
Mensun Bound.
Nico Vincenthead of the underwater project, deployed two underwater drones from the mothership to explore the wreckage, and described the difficulties faced by the team working in the same treacherous waters that were once fatal to Endurance :
This is the most complex underwater project ever undertaken, and several world records have been achieved to ensure the Endurance’s safe detection. Hybrid vehicles combine the technologies of remotely operated vehicles with autonomous underwater vehicles.
A remarkable state of preservation
Although the wreck of the Endurance lay at the bottom of the Weddell Sea for more than a century, the latter is currently in a remarkable state of preservation, the name of the ship being clearly visible in photographs and videos captured by the expedition’s underwater technology.
According to Mensun Bound, this discovery is a milestone in polar history. The latter declares:
We are overwhelmed by our luck in locating and capturing Endurance footage (…). The search for Endurance lasted 10 years. It was one of the most ambitious archaeological undertakings ever undertaken. It was also a huge international team effort that demonstrates what can be achieved when people work together. Shackleton, we like to think, would have been proud of us.
Apart from this golden discovery, the Endurance22 crew also had the chance to make a few friends along the way:
Penguin photo bombing me on #Endurance22 pic.twitter.com/S53GsVS8OI
March 6, 2022
A great collective success that gives us the smile on the lips. And if you don’t want to stop the adventure here, you can find the new animal and plant species discovered by the scientists in 2019 right here.
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