Picture this: It is 1915, and you are a polar explorer embarking on an expedition to be the first man to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Your journey begins on a base in the Weddell Sea but abruptly comes to a halt when your ship gets trapped in ice. You and your crew drift for 10 months before your ship is crushed. However, this is not the end. You continue to drift on sheets of ice and eventually make it to Elephant Island. From there, you and five of your men sail 800 miles and land in South Georgia. The five of you get help and, 4 months later, succeed in saving almost every one of your crewmembers from Elephant Island. 

This is the story of Ernest Shackleton, a polar explorer who sailed on a ship called the Endurance. Now, 107 years later, scientists have found the Endurance once again. It is quite a coincidence that March 5, 2022, the date of discovery, is exactly 100 years (to the day) after Ernest Shackleton was buried.

The ship lies 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) below the surface of the Weddell Sea. This location is around four miles south of the location that was recorded by the ship’s captain, Frank Worsley, who wrote the coordinates of the location where the ship sank in his diary in 1915. 

Luckily, because of the lack of wood-eating microbes in the area of the wreck, the ship is still in very good condition. The ship was found by the scientists in the Endurance22, an expedition that set off to search for the Endurance about a month ago. Mensun Bound, the director of exploration of the Endurance22 expedition, described the ship as, “by far the finest wooden shipwreck [he] had ever seen.”

The scientists of the Endurance22 expedition are not the only people who had searched for the Endurance. Since it sank, many others have searched for the lost ship. The well-known shipwreck hunter David Mearns was one of them, and his research helped the crew of Endurance22 on their expedition.

While the ship won’t be touched by any people, the ship is anything but abandoned. It is now home to many deep-sea creatures. Fledgling anemones, sea squirts, and thousands of other animals are living in the humongous structure. 

It is incredible that the Endurance, a ship that was part of such an inspiring story, was discovered after over a century of searching.