Shackleton and the Endurance a Tale of Survival and Leadership

Having met the Shackletons personally, this has always been a story that has inspired me. I was lucky enough to care for Ernest Shackleton's grandson; it was a name I did not connect with then. Over the years, the stories they told me about their famous explorer brought all aspects of the story to life.

The story of the Endurance was one of my favourites, having always been fascinated by the Titanic. Here was another famous ship that sunk around the same time. An iceberg caused both of their demises.

When the Endurance was finally found, the pictures that the underwater cameras came back with far outweighed that of the Titanic. Here was a ship preserved under the ice for one hundred years. The cold water kept any bacteria that would harm the ship away.

The Endurance sits at the bottom of the icy water and is as intact as the day it sunk. The wood is as new as the day it set sail, you can still observe the rivets that hold the ship together. Looking at it, you are transported back to another time entirely.

Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton was an Irish-born explorer passionate about exploration, especially in inhospitable frozen environments, none more so than the South Pole.

Before the trip on the Endurance, Shackleton had led two previous trips to the South Pole. The Endurance started its trip in 1914. The goal was to sail a crew of fifty-six men between two ships to Wendell Bay in Antarctica.

The crew would make their first land crossing of the continent and finish their journey at the Ross Sea.

Endurance

Endurance was a barquentine wooden ship built to withstand extremely low temperatures. On the 8th August 1914, it left Plymouth.

The ship sailed from Buenos Aires, Argentina. It then sailed on to British-controlled South Georgia Island in October. Finally, on 5th December, the Endurance set sail for Antarctica. It was almost immediately that the crew started experiencing problems.

Ice packs throughout the Waddell Sea forced the ship to stop and alter course several times.

I had been prepared for evil conditions in the Weddell Sea but had hoped that the pack would be loose. What we were encountering was a fairly dense pack of very obstinate characters. - Shackleton

By January 1915, the Endurance was stuck in the ice, the crew tried several times to free the ship, but each time they had no success. The ship and the crew continued to float along with the ice pack.

As the ice sheets moved North, so did Shackleton, his men and the ship.

Winter months

The winter months of May, June and July brought the darker months in the South Hemisphere. Shackleton became concerned that the ice was thickening and threatening to crust the Endurance.

The pressure continued to build up as time continued. Ultimately, it ripped through the ship's hull, and the icy water started to enter. On 27th October 1915, Shackleton realised what was happening and ordered his crew to abandon the ship.

Two weeks later, the Endurance finally yielded to the ice. The icy water pulled her under and down into its last resting place. A resting place that would remain hidden from the world for a century.

Shackleton's expedition

This was the end of the Endurance for a century as the ship remained hidden in its watery grave. However, this was not the end of Shackleton's story.

Shackleton and his men faced brutal conditions as they marched through the ice. They camped on the ice for five months before they sailed lifeboats to Elephant Island.

From here, Shackleton, Captain Worley and four other men sailed eight hundred miles to South Georgia. The small crew battled hurricane-force winds and fifty-foot waves in a twenty-three-foot lifeboat. They organised a rescue for the rest of the crew when they landed in Georgia. Months later, they were all picked up alive.

Shackleton's expedition became known as one of the most incredible feats of leadership and survival.

A telegram to his wife stated, 'I have done it, and not a single life lost. -Shackleton

Searching for the Endurance

The ship's story became somewhat of a legend, with many explorers and historians attempting to locate the Endurance. In 2001, wreck hunter David Mearns said he would find the ship. Other rival groups took on the challenge, and the mission became a competition to see who would find the ship first.

In July 2021, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust announced an expedition known as Endurance22. The multi-national research crew took on the challenge of finding the ship.

The attempt used new underwater technology to search the Wendell Sea for the doomed vessel. The machines they used to find the ship were hardy and capable of navigating the icy depths.

On 9th March 2022, the crew found the Endurance only four miles from its last noted position. It was 3008 meters below the surface. The team took remarkable pictures of a ship that looked untouched by time. You could even see the porthole that was Shackleton's cabin. The freezing conditions and lack of sea creatures had left the ship untouched.

Will the Endurance sail again?

Despite its condition, the team has no plans to remove or re-float the Endurance. The Antarctic Treaty System preserves the wreck as a historical site and prevents anyone from tampering with it.

This matters because people will see the images and connect with the extraordinary story from our history - the greatest story of Antarctic survival of all time, of leadership, of comradeship. The ship is almost literally frozen in time - You can see even the compass markings.- Dan Snow, British Historian

The Endurance was lost for one-hundred years, took ten years to find and was a vast international team effort. When discovered, the ship did not disappoint.