Endurance: Shackleton's lost ship is found in Antarctic

BBC ^ | March 9, 2022 | Jonathan Amos

[gattaca]

Scientists have found and filmed one of the greatest ever undiscovered shipwrecks 107 years after it sank.

The Endurance, the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, was found at the weekend at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

The ship was crushed by sea-ice and sank in 1915, forcing Shackleton and his men to make an astonishing escape on foot and in small boats.

Video of the remains show Endurance to be in remarkable condition.

Even though it has been sitting in 3km (10,000ft) of water for over a century, it looks just like it did on the November day it went down.

Its timbers, although disrupted, are still very much together, and the name - Endurance - is clearly visible on the stern.

[Tennessee Nana]

PING

[Mercat]

Bookmark

[OttawaFreeper]

Very interesting to see how the biology of the sea at that level in that location did not eat away at the ship like what took place with the Titanic, even when that shipwreck was discovered in 1985.

[KittyKares]

I thought they would pull it out.

[SMARTY]

Ernest Shackleton, now that was one bad a^% guy

[rellimpank]

—according to the piece I saw, water temp there is slightly below freezing (due to depth)—that preserved it-

[Captain Rhino]

There are similarly preserved, intact 18th and 19th century wooden shipwrecks at much shallower depths in the Great Lakes and, although the wrecks are much older, in the Black Sea.

Critical factors for preservation are very cold water combined with very low oxygen content.

By contrast, although it is much deeper than the Endeavor wreck and in fairly cold water, all the organic materials in and around the Titanic, except tanned shoe/boot leather, are reported to have been consumed by scavengers and microorganisms.

[texas booster]

At 10,000' down in the Antarctic Ocean, we can leave it be.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Tennessee Nana.

• full list here: Shackleton’s Endurance Discovered in the Icy Waters of Antarctica [03/08/2022]

[Tennessee Nana]

WOW

[Tennessee Nana]

This really interests me as my grandfather was with Shackleton and Scott in the Antarctic in 1903/04 when Scott’s ship Discovery was suck in the ice ...

Thats a story in itself ...