In 1915, a man named Ernest Shackleton set sail on the Endurance vessel with his crew to Antarctica, becoming the first team to undergo such an expedition.
However, the Ship sank during their trip. The remains of the wreckage were not discovered until almost a century later.
As the world prepared for war in 1914, Shackleton set out for Antarctica. The plan was for him to take about 56 men divided among two ships to Weddell Bay in Antarctica. Then, they would finish their journey at the Ross Sea.
On August 8, 1914, the Endurance departed from Plymouth, England, and headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Afterward, they made their way to the South Georgia Island. On December 5, the crew began their voyage to Antarctica. From the start, it was anything but smooth sailing.
The Endurance was a wooden ship built to survive frigid temperatures, but the Weddell Sea proved to be a challenge.
It contained choppy waters and large chunks of ice, forcing the vessel to pause in its tracks and change course multiple times.
In January 1915, the Endurance became lodged in the ice. The crew did their best to hack away at the ice, but their efforts were unsuccessful–the ship was trapped. Shackleton held out hope that the sheets of ice would lead them to their destination.
However, the ice sheets started moving North, causing Shackleton and his men to spend the next few months aboard the ship, imprisoned among the ice. As the months passed, the ice sheets grew thicker the further North they headed.
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Eventually, the pressure of the ice became so heavy that it crushed the Endurance. Once water began leaking into the boat, Shackleton ordered his crew to abandon ship. The Endurance sank into the Weddell Sea in November of 1915.
The men were forced to trek through icy conditions and sail in lifeboats until they were finally rescued in early 1916.
Years after her shipwreck, the Endurance inspired several books and movies, and many hunters have even embarked on quests to locate the vessel’s remains.
None of the missions were successful until recently. On February 5, 2022, an expedition headed by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust located the sunken ship using sonar technology.
A team of professionals traveled from Cape Town, South Africa, out to the Weddell Sea. Once they reached the spot where the ship was thought to have gone down, they employed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to find it.
The Endurance was found on March 9, 2022. The AUVs were able to capture images of the ship 10,000 feet underwater. The Endurance was also in surprisingly good condition. With the freezing temperatures and lack of creatures around to eat away at it, the ship was able to be well-preserved.
It has been decided that the wreck will stay where it was found. The Endurance will be protected as a historical site and hopefully serve as an inspiration to the next generation.
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