Publications
Partners
It was lodged so deep in a frozen sea that nobody who dared venture that way was able to find it. For more than 100 years the Endurance was nestled at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, disturbed only by marine creatures that dwell in the dark, darting in and out of the wooden wreck.
Now, 107 years after it sank, the ship has been found – the proverbial needle in a haystack, discovered by the Endurance22 Expedition team. Pictures of the remarkably well-preserved ship made global headlines. It was a much-needed dose of good news in a world beset with war and worry.
“We’ve successfully completed the world’s most difficult shipwreck search, battling constantly shifting sea ice, blizzards and temperatures dropping to -18°C,” mission leader and veteran polar geographer John Shears announced.
“We’ve achieved what many people said was impossible. The discovery of the wreck is an amazing achievement.”
But finding the Endurance, which sank after being crushed by ice during an expedition by British explorer Ernest Shackleton, wouldn’t have been possible without the contribution of South African ship’s master Captain Knowledge Bengu and his crew of the icebreaker SA Agulhas II.
“On 28 February we were fortunate to start discovering part of the debris and we knew more or less we were in the right area,” Bengu says.
The mission was launched by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, which contacted the SA department of forestry, fisheries and the environment to get the SA Agulhas II involved.
The icebreaker, a trooper when it comes to breaking through ice floes, powered through the inhospitable waters of the Southern Ocean to reach the Weddell Sea using coordinates recorded in 1914 by the captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley, to find the ship’s resting place.
Pictures of the wreck were captured by the Saab Sabertooth, an extraordinary underwater vehicle operated from the Agulhas. The South African team have received international praise for the key role they played.
“The expedition team, officers and crew of the SA Agulhas II have been simply outstanding,” Shears says.
At the start of the expedition they looked no further than SA for the ship, master, ice pilot and crew they needed, says Donald Lamont, chairperson of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.
“You ensured our expedition team had the right platform in the right place and at the right time,” he says. “This is your success.”
For two weeks the team searched a predefined area before finally locating the wreck on 5 March, which also happened to be the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s funeral.
The Endurance Expedition started when Shackleton and his crew of 27 men set out in a bid to make the first full land crossing of Antarctica.
READ MORE | Cape Town dad-and-son duo paddle to Robben Island on makeshift raft
But the Weddell Sea was frozen and the ship became trapped in ice. When the ship finally sank in November 1915, the men set off in lifeboats and eventually made it to the inhospitable Elephant Island.
From there Shackleton and four crew members got to a whaling station on the British island of South Georgia and returned for the rest of the crew. Not a single man was lost and Shackleton was hailed for his extraordinary leadership and survival skills.
Finding the resting place of the Endurance has long been a dream of scientists and seafarers – and finally, at a depth of 3 008m, the Saab Sabertooth made the discovery the team had hoped for.
Operated remotely from Agulhas, the vehicle recorded footage of the vessel – and the crew were blown away.
The Endurance was found in “pristine condition” thanks to the lack of wood-eating microbes in the water at this depth and temperature, says Mensun Bound, a marine archaeologist and the expedition’s exploration director.
“Without any exaggeration, this is the finest wooden shipwreck I’ve ever seen,” he says.
“It’s upright, well proud of the seabed, intact and in a brilliant state of preservation.”
It’s clear the quality of wood used to build the Endurance was excellent, Bengu adds. “For a ship that’s been beneath the water for 107 years, she’s gorgeous. You can see clearly all areas.”
Pictures show the ship looking remarkably like it did when it was last photographed by filmmaker Frank Hurley more than a century ago.
“Some damage is evident at the bow, presumably where the descending ship hit the seabed,” Bound says.
“The anchors are present. The subs even spied some boots and crockery. You can even see the ship’s name, Endurance, arced across its stern directly below the taffrail [a handrail near the stern].”
Michelle Taylor, a deep-sea polar biologist from Essex University in England, describes the wreck as a “ghost ship sprinkled with an impressive diversity of deep-sea marine life”. No artefacts have been brought to the surface because the ship is a designated monument under the international Antarctic Treaty and isn’t to be disturbed in any way.
The SA Agulhas II, bought from a Finnish shipyard in 2012 for R1,3 billion, is one of the most advanced polar-research vessels in the world.
The 13 687-ton ship, which is owned by the SA department of forestry, fisheries and the environment, is equipped with cargo holds, laboratories and a helideck and is used for yearly science expeditions into the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.
READ MORE | Cutting-edge technology – new surgical robot on the cards for Groote Schuur
Since 2012 the vessel has completed several trips to Gough Island, Marion Island and the South African National Antarctic Expedition IV station in Antarctica.
Barbara Creecy, minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment, couldn’t be prouder of the role the ship has played in successful missions – and the international acclaim of the Endurance expedition is the cherry on top.
For Captain Bengu, who hails from Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal, getting to the location of the Endurance was the most difficult part of the expedition.
Their objective was to find the ship, record footage and then leave it in its resting place.
“I’m privileged and proud of our country’s contribution to the expedition,” he says.
They’re now planning to call into South Georgia where Shackleton was buried after dying of a heart attack in 1922, Shears says.
“We’ll pay our respects to The Boss,” he adds, referring to the nickname Shackleton’s crew had for him.
The moment they discovered the wreck will stay with him forever, Bound says. “I tell you, you’d have to be made of stone not to feel a bit squishy at the sight of the star and the name above,” he told CNN.
“You can see the porthole that’s Shackleton’s cabin.
“At that moment, you really do feel the breath of the great man on the back of your neck.”
SOURCES: NYTIMES.COM, DAILYMAVERICK.CO.ZA, TIMESLIVE.CO.ZA, BBC.COM, CAPETALK.CO.ZA, SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM, FACEBOOK.COM/AFRICANMARINESOLUTIONS, BUSINESSINSIDER.CO.ZA, YOUTUBE.COM, ENDURANCE22.BIGOCEANDATA.COM, SABCNEWS.COM
