Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance: British team launch hunt for lost Antarctic ship

A British-led research team is launching a bid to find the wreckage of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s polar explorer ship Endurance.

Shackleton and his crew were forced to abandon the vessel after it was crushed by enormous ice floes during an expedition in 1915. The Endurance sank to the bottom of the Weddell Sea, off Antarctica, where it is believed to still lie, 3,000 metres (1.86 miles) below the waves.

“Thick pack ice and extreme weather are among challenges faced by those who venture to the isolated and wild region, much as Shackleton faced more than a century ago,” says The Independent.

The international expedition, which will be lead by UK researcher Julian Dowdeswell, is slated to begin next year. The group also includes researchers from universities in South Africa and New Zealand.

“If the expedition finds the wreck we will survey, photograph and film it and document its condition,” said Dowdeswell, director of Cambridge University’s Scott Polar Research Institute.

“However, we will not remove any items from the wreck.”

Locating the ship is not the only objective of the mission. The researchers’ chief aim is to study the Larsen C Ice Shelf, a floating platform of glacial ice.

Several other missions have attempted to find the Endurance, but this will be the first to use autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

“Because AUVs can free swim, it is not necessary for the vessel to be directly above the wreck location,” Dowdeswell said.

“So long as we can get close enough to the location with the ship, we can deploy the AUVs under the ice and conduct the search.”

If the expedition does find the ship, it will be protected under international law and listed as a historic monument, The Daily Telegraph reports.