A South African icebreaker has departed in search of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which sank off the coast of Antarctica in 1915 after being slowly crushed by pack ice.
As part of the renowned polar explorer’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition between 1914 and 1917, Shackleton’s team were trying to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.
But their landing was thwarted when Endurance fell victim to the 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 3,000 metres below the surface.
The crew managed to escape by camping on the sea ice until it ruptured.
They then launched lifeboats to Elephant Island and South Georgia, a British overseas territory that lies about 900 miles east of the Falkland Islands.
The South African icebreaker SA Agulhas II set off from Cape Town on Saturday morning with a crew of 46 and a 64-member expedition team aboard.
The expedition, named Endurance22, will last for 35 to 45 days, with the vessel navigating its way through heavy ice and harsh temperatures.
The team hopes to find the shipwreck with the latest specialist technology and explore it with two underwater drones.
But the journey will be a difficult one. The Anglo-Irish explorer himself even described the site of the sinking as “the worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.
The 44-metre ship sunk in the Weddell Sea, which has a swirling current that sustains a mass of thick sea ice that can cause problems even for modern icebreakers. They are some of the hardest waters in the world to navigate.
Endurance22’s director of exploration, Mensun Bound, said his team “very much hope we can do justice to this magnificent chapter in polar exploration”.
If they do find it, it will be left untouched but they will do a 3D scan of it and broadcast it in real time.
Despite the optimism, there is no guarantee the 110-year-old ship will be located.
“In terms of shipwreck challenges, it is the most difficult,” David Mearns, one of the world’s leading shipwreck hunters, said. “You won’t get any more difficult than this, because of the ice conditions.”