3. Endurance: An Expedition Preserved Beneath the Ice
Frank Hurley’s photographs show Endurance surrounded by Antarctic ice, its masts rising above a landscape that seems to have swallowed the horizon. In 1915, the pressure of the Weddell Sea ice crushed Ernest Shackleton’s expedition ship, ending the plan to use it as the starting point for a crossing of Antarctica.
Finding the wreck took more than a century. The Endurance22 expedition located it on March 5, 2022, roughly 3,000 meters below the surface. Searchers combined modern underwater vehicles with historical evidence, including the position recorded by the ship’s captain, Frank Worsley.
The discovery did not require raising the vessel to make it historically valuable. Images and surveys allow researchers to compare the surviving ship with expedition records while leaving the wreck on the seabed. The photograph here is Hurley’s 1915 view of the ship before it sank, not a modern image of the wreck. It captures the world above the water that the underwater remains help us understand.
Add Comment