Icy Depths

The Endurance Locker

Endurance at the bottom of the sea

Revealed in stunning new detail

Sensational images

Extraordinary digital scans taken during the FMHT Endurance22 expedition which found Sir Ernest Shackleton’s missing ice ship in March 2022 have been published for the first time, as part of campaign to draw attention to a feature-length National Geographic documentary film which features the Trust and Ocean Infinity's mission to find the iconic vessel which was crushed by Antarctic icefloes and sank without trace in November 1915.

Crystal clear

A series of sensational images and a number of dramatic 3D reconstructions show the iconic wreck lying 3,008 metres (9.869 feet) deep at the bottom of the Weddell Sea in almost crystal clear detail. Normally, at that depth it is pitch black and visibility is further obscured by murky water. They are part of a treasure-trove of 25,000 high resolution images taken for the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust by a consortium of deep sea specialists: Deep Ocean Search, Ocean Infinity and Voyis, a Canadian company using underwater imaging technology.

Pioneering Technology

Underwater robots fitted with Voyis optical laser scanners were used to map the wreck from every angle. These were then digitally 'stitched' together to create a 3D composite of the wreck and the adjacent seabed. We now have a precise 44-metre (144 feet) long bow-to-stern picture of the entire wreck and its surrounding debris field.

NEW FMHT VIDEOS REVEAL THE WRECK FROM BOW TO STERN

Artefacts Ahoy

A series of amazing crew possessions found on the wreck are pinpointed in this new 3D-scan video.

Around and About

The wreck and its debris field gets the full 360° treatment.

“Endurance remains beautifully preserved on the seabed in virtually the same state as she was when she sank on 21st November 1915. Just as the crew left her.”

Mensun Bound (Director of Exploration for Endurance22)

Remarkably intact

The unprecedented collection from the wreck are now being examined and analysed by the Endurance22’s Director of Exploration, Mensun Bound, one of the world’s most experienced maritime archaeologists and an FMHT Trustee. A detailed report of his findings and many more images will be published when his investigations are complete.

Says Mensun: “From the descriptions of the diarists, Hurley’s photographs, the ship’s plans and the 3D renders of the timbers on the seabed, we should be able to explain with some confidence what happened to the hull while trapped in the ice and also upon impact with the seabed. Although the masts are down and the funnel has toppled, and there is much damage around the poop and waist, the hull itself is in a remarkably well preserved condition thanks to the cold and the absence of wood-consuming marine parasites in the Weddell Sea.”

The gun

One laser-scan clearly shows a flare gun lying on the deck of Endurance and it comes with a story. On 8 November, 1915, Shackleton, Wilde and Hurley paid what they called their 'final official visit to the wreck'. On the poop they took the ship's flare gun, inserted a detonator and fired it in salute to the vessel's ensign that was still flying. Then, wrote Hurley, 'we returned sadly to camp.' This is what a Very Pistol from that era looked like. Almost identical to the one in the wreckage.

Washing up

In another laser-scan discovery we see tablewares scattered about the main deck of the wreck. Some of these would almost certainly have been the plates we see in a photograph taken over a hundred years ago by the expedition's Australian photographer, Frank Hurley, of 'a special meal' in 1915, just four months before they had to abandon ship and take to the ice. At that meal they ate roast pork, stewed apples, preserved peas and plum pudding.

Getting the boot

Next to a tangle of rigging and rope pulleys, lies a single leather boot that’s has been there since 21st November 1915. Another of the original black-and-white photographs taken during the expedition shows Sir Ernest Shackleton’s second-in-command, Frank Wild, with one of the expedition’s dogs, wearing a boot which bears a very close resemblance to the one we can see in the wreck. Could it have been his?

1914 LINO

In another classic frank Hurley photograph from the original expedition, we see three of his crew cleaning the floor of the ship's winter quarters. James Wordie, Alfred Cheetham and Alexander Macklin are scrubbing linoleum which, of course, in the picture is black-and-white. Over 106 years later we can see a roll of lino in the debris on the deck which reveals, for the first time, its true colours - light green and white.

The Ladder

In another classic frank Hurley photograph from the original Shackleton expedition, we see three of his crew cleaning the floor of the ENDURANCE’s winter quarters below deck. James Wordie, Alfred Cheetham and Alexander Macklin are scrubbing linoleum which, of course, in the picture is black-and-white. Over 106 years later we have an image of a roll of lino in the debris on the deck which reveals its true colours - light green and white.