4 November 2024: Here we are in November - less than 60 days left in 2024! Where does the time fly to! U.S. elections loom and other storms still churn in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Some pretty amazing images have been revealed from underwater exploration of the wreck of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic exploration ship, Endurance which sank in the Weddell Sea during his ill-fated journey in 1915 to the South Pole. From HistoryHits.
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Almost a century since Sir Ernest Shackleton’s abandoned exploration ship Endurance sank beneath the ice floes of the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, new 3D images compiled from 25,000 photographs show just how much of the ship survives.
The images show Endurance’s hull intact as the vessel rests on its keel on the seabed at a depth of 3,008 metres. They reveal that the ship’s steam engine funnel, masts, anchors and guard rails remain attached, despite the damage inflicted by crushing ice after the ship became immobilised in 1915. Additionally clothing and crockery can be seen on the deck.
Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition was halted in its tracks when their ship became beset in pack ice in January 1915. Having drifted in the ice, Shackleton ordered the evacuation of the badly damaged ship on 27 October. A month later, he watched the ship sink and its captain Frank Worsley estimated its sinking position.
In March 2022, the ship was discovered by the Endurance22 team on board the S.A. Agulhas II, mere miles from the position given by Worsley. The subsea team led by Nico Vincent used the Saab Sabertooth AUV to capture thousands of images in 4K resolution, which were combined to create a digital 3D photo mosaic.
“It is our hope,” writes Nico Vincent in the book Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Legendary Ship, “the 3D digital model becomes the lasting testimony of our expedition and awakens a wide audience and new generations to Shackleton and the Endurance story.”
The view of Endurance’s portside bow shows the ship’s broken foremast and both anchors on the forecastle deck, which was dislodged from the hull. It also shows the two intact glass portholes of the galley forward bulkhead.
The imagery also shows items on the deck of the vessel. A flare gun, the same gun Frank Hurley recorded firing as the Endurance sank, is among the debris. A seaman’s leather boot is also pictured beside rigging and wooden pulleys. It is speculated to belong to Shackleton’s second-in-command Frank Wild, The images, which depict a ship in a remarkable state of preservation, are highlighted in a National Geographic documentary which features Dan Snow and is co-produced by History Hit. They feature in the accompanying book Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Legendary Ship by John Shears and Nico Vincent. It documents that months of analysis of the digital photographs and 3D laser data led to the identification of additional artefacts, including a telescope and a sewing machine.who is photographed in a similar boot.
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An exciting series of images of the ship and with amazing detail. The technology used to bring us these remarkable pictures is breath-taking. Really cold water is an excellent preservative!
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
