A South African icebreaker sailed from Cape Town yesterday, headed for the Weddell Sea and the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance. Per the New York Times report, the expedition - dubbed Endurance22 - will use drones to take video and detailed laser scans of the wreck. But first, they’ll have to find it.
Endurance sank in 1915, crushed by pack ice as Shackleton and his crew were still en route to Antarctica. Shackleton was aiming to complete the first land crossing of the continent, but instead, he and his 27 crew were forced to camp on the ice for months before finally making their way to Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton and five others sailed a lifeboat 800 miles to reach help, and succeeded: all hands survived.
I’ve had a fascination with shipwrecks since I was seven, when I found a Titanic picture book on the shelves at summer school. I’m not sure why that is. Something about the eerie solemnity of deep, dark water, or an archaeologist’s drive to read the human-scale stories contained in monolithic ruins. There’s an echo of Shackleton’s striving in modern shipwreck searches: taking on the impossible out of a desire to see and know, a connection that’s not lost on Endurance22’s members. The expedition will be sharing real-time updates on their website and social media, and if all of their hard work pays off, maybe we’ll get to experience our own taste of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.
Be sure to check out the New York Times article for some incredible contemporary photos from the Shackleton exhibition, and cross your fingers for the Endurance22 expedition over the coming weeks.