More than a century ago, Ernest Shackleton and his crew aboard Endurance were trapped in the frozen Weddell Sea in the Southern Antarctic Ocean. The ship ended up being crushed by ice and the crew had to abandon the ship in the wide polar ether. Although this would result in an unsuccessful expedition, its tales would capture the imagination of the wider public and inspire intrepid explorers for years to come.
Picture: F. Hurley/ Wikimedia Commons
Shackleton and his crew of 27 men set sail in 1914, bound for Vahsel Bay on the eastern side of the Weddell sea. Their plan was for Shackleton and a small team to journey across the Antarctic sheet to the South Pole and keep going to the Ross Sea on the other side of the continent.
But in early 1915, the plan went awry. About 160km from the bay, their ship became stuck in a drifting pack of ice. The crew were trapped amongst the ice for months as the ship suffered from the immense pressure surrounding it.
The Endurance eventually gave way to the pressure of the ice. Picture: F. Hurley/ Wikimedia Commons.
The crew eventually abandoned the ship, clearing all their food stores and three lifeboats. In an extraordinary feat of sailing, the crew fought the most treacherous of conditions in three lifeboats before arriving at Elephant Island off the coast of Antarctica.
The Crew with one of the three lifeboats travelled in for 36 consecutive hours before arriving at Elephant Island. Picture: F. Hurley/ Wikimedia Common.
In another extraordinary feat of mountaineering, Shackleton and two of the crew members crossed the island’s peaks to reach the whaling station on the other side of the island to get help for the rest of the crew. The expedition is renowned for its efforts in rescuing the crew, and the fact that only the three fatalities were recorded after surviving the most perilous of climates is perhaps a testament to this.
One of the requirements Shackleton had for selecting his crew was whether or not they enjoyed singing, as the affective spirit on board the ship was more important than braving the elements. As historian Carolyn Strange writes: ‘Sociological and psychological surveys of recent Antarctic explorers have found that ‘group fit,’ the capacity of individuals to get along and work together effectively, is the most important attribute for a group separated from the rest of the world.’ This is at odds with the macho bravado we see in movies.
‘Men who upheld the ‘stiff upper lip’ code of manliness, in which the expression of intense feelings, including fear and anger, were to be suppressed, were well-suited for this goal,’ Strange writes. ‘But men with a bright outlook and a talent for jollying their mates were valued even more, as the cheerful ’emotives’ in their memoirs confirm.’
‘Greatest wreck hunt of all time’
107 years later, South Africa’s icebreaker ship, the S.A. Agulhas II set sail on 5 February 2022, bound for the Weddell sea, an integral part of Endurance 22. With its crew of 46 and a 64-member expedition team aboard, they hope to find the wreck and explore it with a pair of underwater drones.
The SA Agulhas II, the icebreaker vessel from the South African National Antarctic Program has been tasked with chartering the expedition crew. Picture: Getaway Gallery
If Endurance is found, the drones will be used to take photographs and videos, and take exact scans of the wreckage. The wreck is expected to be in good condition thanks to the cold waters and the absence of wood-eating organisms in the Antarctic seas. The expedition was financed by an anonymous donor at a cost of more than $10 million.
Thankfully, the ship captain aboard Endurance, Frank Worsley, was able to determine the ship’s location around the time it sank and the expedition crew for Endurance 22 is confident that the wreck is within a 7 by 14 nautical mile zone in the western Weddell.
‘We know pretty much where we need to go,’ said John Shears, leader of Endurance22, to the New York Times (NYT). ‘We’re very optimistic that we’ll get over the wreck site with the ship.’
Should the wreck site be unreachable, the team has a plan as bold as Shackleton himself. Plan B involves using two helicopters to dispatch equipment and technicians onto a drifting ice floe, where they will drill a metre wide hole to launch to subversive drones.
If the wreck is found, the site won’t be disturbed – it has been declared a historic monument under the Antarctic treaty signed in 1959 to preserve the continent for peaceful purposes. The expedition team, therefore, includes digital media specialists who will chronicle the search and if the wreck is found, the images and data gathered will become the basis of museum exhibitions.
If the wreck is not found, scientists are on board to take samples and study the properties of the ice in the Weddell Sea to understand it better, and how it changes with global warming. on 16 February 2022, the crew arrived at the site of the wreck and have deployed the first remote-operated underwater drone. Below is some footage of this exciting event.
The search begins! 🤞#Endurance22 @HistoryHit @Endurance_22 pic.twitter.com/R1uoZ3ifOT
— Alice Loxton (@history_alice) February 17, 2022
There are only 15 days left until the vessel is due to return, but it can be extended for 10 more days if necessary. ‘It’s the most unreachable wreck ever,’ Mensun Bound, a marine archaeologist and director of exploration of the expedition, Endurance22, told NYT. ‘Which makes this the greatest wreck hunt of all time.’
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