Sailboat Endurance | Discovered over a century after sinking in Antarctica

More than 100 years after sinking, the sailboat Endurance just found in Antarctica. It is famous because its crew was rescued after a perilous voyage by its captain Ernest Shackleton in a lifeboat.

Mathieu Perreault
The Press

three kilometers deep

I’Endurance was found at 3000 meters depth by an expedition at the beginning of March, only two months after the start of their business. Its preservation conditions are excellent, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Foundation, organizer of the Endurance22 expedition, said in a statement. This exceptional preservation of the 1915 wreck had been predicted in 2013 by researchers from the Natural History Museum in London, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciencesbecause the place where theEndurance a coulé is a plateau where there is very little sediment and where – thanks to the sea currents, the perpetual darkness and the cold – there are very few worms feeding on wood.

The 1915 expedition

The goal of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1915 was to cross the continent via the South Pole, a feat that was not finally achieved until 1958. A few years earlier, in 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole a few weeks before Robert Scott’s British expedition. The latter died on the way back with his crew.

Shipwreck and rescue

Originally designed as a yacht for Norwegian Arctic tourism, theEndurance was made of very strong wood to withstand the ice. But that wasn’t enough and she sank in November 1915, six months after being trapped in the ice. Shackleton then set up camp on the ice, hoping to be able to trek to an island. In April 1916, he launched his lifeboats and reached Elephant Island after five days of sailing, with his 28 crew. Then he left with a few men on a canoe to reach South Georgia Island, 700 nautical miles away. Arriving at his destination, he had to cross the island on foot to reach the port of Stromness, a 36-hour trek through mountains and glaciers. From there, help went to pick up the rest of the crew on Elephant Island in August 1916.

The drone

The expedition to find the wreckage, planned for 20 years, was first launched in 2018, but the drones then in use did not perform well. This time, the researchers relied on a drone made by the Swedish company Saab, the Sabertooth. The drone traveled 160 km before finding the wreckage of theEnduranceless than four nautical miles from where she sank.

In the Canadian Arctic

The story is reminiscent of the discovery of theErebus and terrortwo ships of John Franklin’s Arctic expedition that sank in 1845. The two wrecks were found in 2014 and 2016 in good condition.