• The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship ‘Endurance’, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 10,000 feet (3,000 m) to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found.

• The three-masted sailing ship was lost in November 1915 during Shackleton’s failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

• Endurance was discovered in the Weddell Sea, about six kilometres from where it was slowly crushed by pack ice in 1915.

Shackleton’s voyage

• It was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ambition to achieve the first land crossing of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. 

• As part of Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition between 1914 and 1917, Endurance was meant to make the first land crossing of Antarctica, but it fell victim to the tumultuous Weddell Sea.

• Just east of the Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic peninsula, it became ensnared in sea-ice for over 10 months before being crushed and sinking.

• The voyage became legendary due to the miraculous escape Shackleton and his crew made on foot and in boats.

• The crew managed to escape by camping on the sea ice until it ruptured.

• They trekked across the sea ice, living off seals and penguins, before setting sail in three lifeboats and reaching the uninhabited Elephant Island.

• They then reached South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory that lies around 1,300 kilometres east of the Falkland Islands.

• Despite being stranded on the ice, the 28-man crew of the Endurance made it back home alive and theirs is considered one of the great survival stories of human history.

Locating the Endurance 

• Previous attempts to locate the 144-foot-long wooden wreck, whose location was logged by its captain Frank Worsley, had failed due to the hostile conditions of the ice-covered Weddell Sea under which it lies.

• The Endurance22 mission, organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and using advanced underwater vehicles called Sabertooths fitted with high-definition cameras and scanners, tracked the vessel’s remains down.

• Footage showed the ship in a remarkably good condition, with its name clearly visible on the stern.

• The expedition — led by British polar explorer John Shears, operated from the South African ice-breaking ship Agulhas II and also researching the impact of climate change - found the Endurance 6 km from the position recorded by Worsley. 

• The explorers used underwater drones to find and film the shipwreck in the merciless Weddell Sea, which has a swirling current that sustains a mass of thick sea ice that can challenge even modern ice breakers.

• The region remains one of the most difficult parts of the ocean to navigate.

• Under international law, the wreck is protected as a historic site. Explorers were allowed to film and scan the ship, but not to touch it at all — meaning no artefacts may be returned to the surface.

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