Amazing Shackleton ship discovery

One of the world's most storied shipwrecks was discovered beneath Antarctica's icy waters, reviving a century old expedition made by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Ensnared by ice and sinking in 1915, Endurance's captain and 27 man crew were forced to abandon ship. They survived by traversing the ice covered terrain on foot and rowing small crafts. The entire crew finally arrived on South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory lying 1,400 kilometres east of the Falkland Islands.

The wreckage was discovered in a well-preserved state three kilometres beneath the icy surface of the Weddell Sea, some 6 kilometres from the originally recorded location and clearly identifiable by its name on its stern.

Deep-sea biologist at the Natural History Museum in Britain, Adrian Glover remarks on the wreck's preservation.

Adrian Glover: "Wood is amazingly well-preserved in the Antarctic. And there's only a few other places where that is the case. But it seems that Antarctica may also be a shipwreck vault, if you like, because of the, the lack of particular species which normally eat wood."

The expedition was launched by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and carried out by a well-equipped South African icebreaker. Despite being equipped with all the latest technology including remote controlled submersibles called Sabertooths Adrian Glover maintains that the success of this undertaking was nothing short of a miracle.

Adrian Glover: "You know, obviously, they had these very powerful hybrid ROVs - remotely operated vehicles - mini submersibles which were able to survey quite broad areas of the sea floor. But even so, it was right at the end of their voyage, from my understanding, that they, they found it, which shows just how difficult it is and there's obviously therefore a large amount of, of luck."

Under international law, Endurance is a protected historic site which meant archaeologists couldn't touch the wreck or remove anything from it. Instead, they returned with captured images and footage of the famous shipwreck.

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