Explorer said the ship is intact on the seabed, “in a fantastic state of conservation”. “You can even read the name of the Endurance inscribed in an arch at the stern,” he said, adding that the ship was discovered about six kilometers from the wreck site.
“We are thrilled to have located and captured images of Endurance,” said Mensun Bound, director of the exploration expedition organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.
The explorer said the ship is intact at the bottom of the sea, “in a fantastic state of conservation”.
“You can even read the name of the Endurance inscribed in an arch at the stern,” he said, adding that the ship was discovered about six kilometers from the wreck site.
The search expedition, which involved around 100 people, left Cape Town on 5 February aboard a South African icebreaker, hoping to find the wreckage before the end of the southern summer.
The Endurance22 expedition used state-of-the-art technology, including two underwater drones, to explore the area, which Shackleton described at the time as “the worst part of the worst sea in the world” due to its icy conditions.
In 1914, Anglo-Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) boarded the ship Endurance for his third voyage to Antarctica and planned to cross the region via the South Pole.
However, in 1915, the boat ran aground and sank after 10 months, being crushed by ice.
The expedition became legendary because of the survival conditions of the crew, in all there were 28 elements and all survived, who camped for months on the ice before it melted. Ernest Shackleton and his companions set out in small boats for Elephant Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula.
From the island, the explorer and his team made a treacherous journey of 1300 kilometers to the island of South Georgia, with the boat “James Caird”, having arrived at their destination 16 days later, in 1916.
Source: with agencies