New deep-sea video pinpoints Shackleton treasures

When archaeologists began studying images and data taken from a frame-by-frame survey of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sunken vessel, they noticed a number of personal possessions and artefacts lying on the damaged decks and the seabed nearby.  These include a gun, a leather boot, and a set of dinner plates.  Left behind by the ship’s crew when they abandoned ship. Digital stills show these artefacts to be in almost pristine condition, despite lying on the wreck for more than a century.

Now, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, which organised the 2022 expedition to find Endurance, has released a new video which reveals the locations of the finds and their relationship with each other. A stunning 3D model of the wreck, which takes the viewer on a ‘fly-over’ that pinpoints the location of each artefact, revealing where they are.  

“We can now see for the first time where they in relation to each other on the actual wreck,” says Mensun Bound, the Endurance22’s Director of Exploration and an FMHT Trustee. 

“When we surveyed the wreck we created around 25,000 digital images. Thanks to new technology, and the work of the Canadian technology company, Voyis,  we have managed to piece together a series of them into a video which reveals where these finds lie. The gun is almost certainly a Very Pistol that would have been used to fire a salute to the ship just before she sank. The leather boot could have been worn by the expedition’s second-in-command, Frank Wild.  

“These are priceless historic treasures, which will remain where they are, but now we are at least able to see and analyse them. They are in amazing condition. It’s like the crew of the Endurance dropped them only yesterday.”