In 1915, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew found themselves stranded in Antarctica after their vessel, Endurance, became trapped by pack ice. The ship eventually sank into the icy waters of the Weddell Sea, but remarkably, all crew members survived the ordeal. The widely held narrative surrounding this historic expedition suggests two beliefs: that Endurance was the most robust polar ship of its era and that it sank due to the ice damaging its rudder.
Recent research, however, challenges these perceptions, indicating that Endurance would have ultimately sunk regardless of the condition of its rudder. The vessel succumbed to the overwhelming compressive forces exerted by the Antarctic ice, with no single point of failure leading to its loss. This finding is highlighted in a paper published in the journal Polar Record, which also suggests that Shackleton was aware of the ship’s design limitations and still chose to embark on the hazardous expedition.
Jukka Tuhkuri, a polar explorer affiliated with Aalto University and a key contributor to the Endurance22 mission that located the shipwreck in 2022, authored the paper. His work was documented in an upcoming National Geographic film. During the Endurance22 expedition, the ship was found in exceptional condition, largely due to the absence of wood-eating microbes in that region of the ocean. Mensun Bound, the exploration director for the expedition, remarked to The New York Times that the wreck of Endurance stands as the finest example of ship preservation he has encountered, describing it as “in a brilliant state of preservation.”
The expedition began on August 6, 1914, as Endurance departed from Plymouth. Shackleton joined his crew in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and by January 1915, they had entered the Weddell Sea. Challenging ice conditions and high winds severely hampered their progress. By January 24, Endurance was entirely encased in ice, and by mid-February, Shackleton ordered the ship’s boilers to be turned off, allowing it to drift with the ice until conditions improved. The crew faced a prolonged ordeal, enduring frigid temperatures for 10 months. In August, the relentless pressure from the ice floes led to significant structural damage, causing the ship’s decks to buckle under the strain.
