Sunday Newsletter: An Incredible Expedition

Every week in our Sunday Newsletter, a Noa editor writes an explainer column to provide background information on a developing news story.

In February this year, scientists and historians embarked on a discovery expedition from Cape Town to find one of the world’s great lost shipwrecks: Endurance.

Endurance had belonged to Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of the foremost polar explorers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Lost for over 100 years, the expedition team located the vessel 10,000ft under water on the 5th of March 2022.

The background…

In 1914, Shackleton and his crew of 27 men set off from the UK. Their goal was to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic.

At the time of the expedition, the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was coming to an end. Shackleton was building his reputation as an explorer but was yet to reach the South Pole.

That achievement would evade him on the 1914 trip, but his legend would be created for other reasons on that expedition.

As the Endurance approached the continent, it became trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea, a body of water that sits at the northern most point of Antarctica. The crew were forced to abandon ship and take their chances on the ice sheet.

A route to safety was needed. Shackleton settled on launching lifeboats to make the treacherous journey to the Elephant Islands. Battling through harsh conditions, and after six days and 80 hours without sleep, the crew triumphed and reached their destination.

But they were not safe yet.

The likelihood of being found on a deserted island was small, so Shackleton and five others sailed off again to seek help at a whaling station on South Georgia Island more than 800 miles away.

For 16 days they struggled through dangerous conditions until the eventually found land. However, they were on the opposite side of the island as strong winds had blown them off course.

Shackleton set off again, this time climbing mountains and sliding down glaciers until the whaling station was reached. The station manager, not expecting any visitors, asked “Who the hell are you?” The matted haired man replied, “My name is Shackleton.”

And so, after weeks at sea and surviving inhospitable conditions, all of his crew were saved, and the legend was born.

The Endurance suffered an icy fate, as it was crushed by the ice and sank to the bottom of the Southern Sea.

The expedition to find the ship received funding of over $10 million from an anonymous donor and took more than two weeks to complete. Battling freezing conditions and using undersea drones, the ship was found four miles south of its last recorded location in incredible condition, with ocean currents acting as a barrier to the larvae that could have consumed the ship’s wood.

Our coverage…

Listen to this Noa article to find out more about Shackleton’s incredible expedition, the groundbreaking mission to find the Endurance and the remarkable state the ship is in today.