The Ship That Lived Up to Its Name

The HMS Endurance, captained by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, was recently discovered off the coast of Antarctica more than a century after it was lost, bringing an end to “one of the greatest maritime mysteries of modern times” according to the WSJ.

🚢 🧊The story... Sir Ernest Shackleton set out on his journey in 1914 with the aim of becoming the first explorer to cross Antarctica on foot via the South Pole. But as he was traveling there, the Endurance became trapped in a pack of ice and was slowly crushed.

• The entire crew escaped on 20-foot lifeboats and crossed 830 miles of stormy ocean to safety; their tale quickly became an Antarctic exploration legend.
• This month, an international team of marine scientists and archaeologists located the wreck of the Endurance 10,000 feet under the Weddell Sea, roughly four miles from where it was thought to have sunk.
• "Without any exaggeration, this is the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen - by far," Mensun Bound, the mission's director of exploration, told the BBC.

👀 Looking ahead... National Geographic will air a documentary about the search and discovery as part of its "Explorer" series this fall.