A truly authentic legend of the seas has been discovered in the depths of the Weddell Sea by an expedition led by marine archaeologist, Mensun Bound and the geographer, John Shears.

The Maritime Heritage Trust, an online journal from the Falkland Islands that first shared the news with the world, defined the discovery as, “the most complex subsea project ever undertaken.” And the objective could be none other than one of the most famous ships in the world. A ship that made history in polar exploration: the Endurance belonging to Sir Ernest Shackleton.

The great explorer set sail on his three-masted ship from South Georgia, east of the Falklands, in December 1914, with 27 crewmen on board. The aim of the expedition was to cross the immense Antarctic cap and go around the South Pole.

The Endurance was on route to Vahsel Bay, on the eastern side of the Weddell Sea, the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean that borders the Antarctic continent. Once they reached the South Pole, the ship was supposed to continue on to the Ross Sea, from the other side of the continent, and then return home. A sort of circumnavigation of the world but from north to south, instead of east to west.

An epic enterprise, but sadly doomed to fail. After two days sailing the Weddell Sea, that Shackleton described as “the worst of the worst sea in the world,” the vessel was imprisoned in the polar ice. It was soon clear that the ship would not have resisted the pressure of the ice surrounding it, so the crew had to move to the ice pack with all their food provisions and three life boats.

On 21 November 1915, the Endurance sank, and Capitan Frank Worsley diligently recorded its position. Afterwards, Shackleton was able to save his men by crossing, with two companions, 30 miles of unexplored mountains and ice, until he reached the whaling station of Stromness, located on the northern coast, from where he organised the rescue for his men who were stranded next to the sunken ship.

The stern of the Endurance is three-thousand and eight metres deep

It was on Worsley’s logs that the scientific expedition, Endurance22, based itself and was able to find the shipwreck just 4 miles south of the position recorded by the captain, off the coast of the Antarctic, at 3,008 metres deep. Not exactly a depth one can dive at!

“We are overwhelmed by our good fortune – declared the archaeologist, Mensun Bound enthusiastically – the Endurance is still nearly fully intact.” The ship was 144 feet long, approximately 44 metres. “The images – added the archaeologist – show that the ship is still intact, perfectly preserved thanks to the cold water which helped it hibernate in some way. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation.”

The expedition that discovered Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship set sail around one month ago from Cape Town and cost 10 million dollars, which were kindly donated by an unknown benefactor. The polar research vessel, the SA Agulhas II which found the famous wreck, had a crew of 46 sailors, while the research team was made up of 64 people including technicians and scientists. The location of the Endurance shipwreck has been declared a historical monument in line with the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.