"The end came at last about 5 p.m.," he wrote. Shackleton himself noted the difficulty of the endeavor in his diary. "Despite being designed to resist collision with ice floes and to break through pack ice, Endurance could not withstand being crushed by heavy sea ice," said Ann Coats, a maritime historian at the University of Portsmouth.
In fact, he never set foot on the continent. The British explorer Shackleton never achieved his ambition to become the first person to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. "We have made polar history with the discovery of Endurance, and successfully completed the world's most challenging shipwreck search," said expedition leader John Shears. The team, which included more than 100 researchers and crew members, deployed underwater drones that combed the seafloor for two weeks in the area where the ship was recorded to have sunk in 1915. In this photo issued by Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, a view of the stern of the wreck of Endurance, polar explorer's Ernest Shackleton's ship
The expedition Endurance22 embarked from Cape Town, South Africa, in early February in a ship capable of breaking through 1-meter-thick ice. The bottom of the Weddell Sea is "a very inhospitable environment for just about everything - especially the kind of bacteria, mites and wood-eating worms that would otherwise enjoy munching on a wooden shipwreck," Schwankert said. The combination of deep, dark waters - no sunlight penetrates to 10,000 feet - frigid temperatures and sea ice have frustrated past efforts to find Endurance, but also explain why the wreck is in such good condition. The discovery is "a titantic find" in "one of the world's most challenging environments," said maritime historian Steven Schwankert, who was not involved in the expedition. Bound noted the wreck is still upright, clear of the seabed "and in a brilliant state of preservation." "This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen," said Mensun Bound, the director of the exploration. Images and video of the wreck show the three-masted wooden ship in pristine condition, with gold-leaf letters reading " Endurance" still affixed to the stern and the ship's lacquered wooden helm still standing upright, as if the captain may return to steer it at any time. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust's search expedition Endurance22 announced the discovery on Wednesday. Wilson was born in 1872 in Cheltenham, England, where an art gallery and museum are named after him and display permanent collections of his work.Researchers have discovered the remarkably well-preserved wreck of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, in 10,000 feet of icy water, a century after it was swallowed up by Antarctic ice during what proved to be one of the most heroic expeditions in history.Ī team of marine archaeologists, engineers and other scientists used an icebreaker ship and underwater drones to locate the wreck at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, near the Antarctica Peninsula. “Water colour paintings are particularly susceptible to light so the fact this work has spent more than 100 years tightly packed between other sheets of paper in completely dark and cold conditions is actually an ideal way to store it,” said Bergmark-Jimenez. The discovery was made last year but had been kept as a secret so that conservators could restore some 1,500 other artifacts from two huts built by Norwegian explorers in Cape Adare in 1899.Īlthough buried under paper covered in mould and penguin excrement the darkness worked in favour of the watercolours, preserving the painting perfectly. “I then took the painting out and could not stop looking at it - the colours, the vibrancy, it is such a beautiful piece of work,” said Bergmark-Jimenez. “There was this gorgeous painting, I got such a fright that I jumped and shut the portfolio again,” said Josefin Bergmark-Jimenez, paper conservator at the Antarctic Heritage Trust in the UK. The painting was found in a pile of papers covered in mould and penguin excrement in a hut built by Norwegian explorers, ‘BBC News’ reported. The Scott Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, which took place between 19, was led by Robert Falcon Scott of the UK. The painting labelled 1899 Tree Creeper has the initial T on it and is believed to be by Edward Wilson, who died on the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole in 1912. A 118-year-old watercolour painting of a dead bird by a celebrated British explorer has been discovered inside a hut in Antarctica, researchers said Tuesday.
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