Shackleton's Endurance found after 107 years
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From reddit:
Summary of the story: (source):
In 1914, after several years of fundraising efforts, Ernest Shackleton leaves England bound for exploration in Antarctica on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The purpose of the expedition is to traverse Antarctica from west to east by use of dog sleds. He purchases a sturdy wooden boat designed for hunting polar bears and changes the boat’s name tothe Endurance. Against the advice of experienced whalers whom he meets in South Georgia en route to his destination, Shackleton proceeds with his plan to cross the Weddell Sea. During this time period,the Endurance is pummeled by enormous ice floes on a consistent basis, and ultimately is damaged beyond repair and sinks in November 1915. Shackleton and his twenty-seven crew members abandon the boat and establish a number of consecutive camps on various ice floes, moving their tents, sledge dogs and food stores in the process.
Attempts are made to traverse the pack ice by dog sled; however, the condition of the ice makes such travel excruciatingly slow and difficult. The men are forced to hack the pressure ridges with axes in order to allow the sleds to progress. It becomes clear that travelling by ice floe toward the possibility of finding help at South Georgia Island is quicker; however, this plan leaves the group entirely dependent upon the capricious nature of wind direction and sea conditions. Nonetheless, the crew remains essentially jovial and optimistic, despite the onset of the six-month-long polar night. They accustom themselves to diminished food stores as well as a diet consisting largely of penguins and seals. Eventually, the sledge dogs are executed. Their carcasses are dressed and cooked; the men claim that they taste delicious.
Warming sea temperatures lead to the pack ice breaking up; it also causes deterioration and cracking of the floes. On more than one occasion, the men evacuate on an emergency basis when deep crevices form in the floe on which they are camping. In spring of 1918, Shackleton directs the crew into three small, open wooden boats. After a perilous series of horrific misadventures, the boats and crew reunite on Elephant Island, where they establish a camp on a narrow stretch of beach. While they are finally ensconced on solid ground, it is clear that they cannot survive on the island indefinitely. In April of 1918, Shackleton selects five crew members to accompany him on a final effort to reach help on South Georgia by traversing the Drake Passage in a small wooden boat. Withstanding gales, eighty-foot waves and sixty-mile-per-hour winds, the sailors overcome inconceivable hardships and finally arrive on South Georgia Island. Fearing that further sea travel in the area will result in certain death, Shackleton selects two crew members to accompany him in crossing the island–replete with glacial mountains–by foot. In a thirty-six-hour period, they overcome numerous setbacks, climb mountains that are thousands of feet in height, and avoid certain death by freezing when they speed their descent from a glacier by sliding, rather than climbing, down its face.
Finally, the men reach the whaling outpost where they are idolized by seasoned whaling captains who are aware of the full extent of their achievement. Shackleton rescues the remainder of his party on the far side of South Georgia Islandand immediately attempts to effectuate a rescue of the men left behind on Elephant Island. After three abortive attempts when rescue ships are thwarted by pack ice surrounding the island, he effectuates a rescue of the entire crew and delivers them back to England. No fatalities occur over the course of the expedition.
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While 107 years ago seems a long time ago, in other views, it feels somewhat recent. Still, it's hard to fathom how tough, scary, unknown....these types of exploring efforts were like, especially in harsh environments like the Antarctic and surrounding islands and waters. And here I am... with a sore neck because of how I slept last night.
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While 107 years ago seems a long time ago, in other views, it feels somewhat recent. Still, it's hard to fathom how tough, scary, unknown....these types of exploring efforts were like, especially in harsh environments like the Antarctic and surrounding islands and waters. And here I am... with a sore neck because of how I slept last night.
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Wow, that really is amazing.
It looks exceptionally well preserved.
I was only joking
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Awesome story!!!
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Wow, that really is amazing.
It looks exceptionally well preserved.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Shackleton's Endurance found after 107 years:
Wow, that really is amazing.
It looks exceptionally well preserved.
Indeed, almost like a movie prop.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvv2w2e69go
Wreck hunters have found the ship on which the famous polar explorer Ernest Shackleton made his final voyage.
The vessel, called "Quest", has been located on the seafloor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack on board on 5 January 1922 while trying to reach the Antarctic.
And although Quest continued in service until it sank in 1962, the earlier link with the explorer gives it great historic significance.
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https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/heres-the-real-reason-endurance-sank/
In 1915, intrepid British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew were stranded for months in the Antarctic after their ship, Endurance, was trapped by pack ice, eventually sinking into the freezing depths of the Weddell Sea. Miraculously, the entire crew survived. The prevailing popular narrative surrounding the famous voyage features two key assumptions: that Endurance was the strongest polar ship of its time, and that the ship ultimately sank after ice tore away the rudder.
However, a fresh analysis reveals that Endurance would have sunk even with an intact rudder; it was crushed by the cumulative compressive forces of the Antarctic ice with no single cause for the sinking. Furthermore, the ship wasn't designed to withstand those forces, and Shackleton was likely well aware of that fact, according to a new paper published in the journal Polar Record. Yet he chose to embark on the risky voyage anyway.
Author Jukka Tuhkuri of Aalto University is a polar explorer and one of the leading researchers on ice worldwide. He was among the scientists on the Endurance22 mission that discovered the Endurance shipwreck in 2022, documented in a 2024 National Geographic documentary. The ship was in pristine condition partly because of the lack of wood-eating microbes in those waters. In fact, the Endurance22 expedition's exploration director, Mensun Bound, told The New York Times at the time that the shipwreck was the finest example he's ever seen; Endurance was "in a brilliant state of preservation."
