More than a century after explorer Ernest Shackleton was forced to abandon his quest to cross Antarctica by land, explorers have found the wreckage of his ship, the Endurance.
The ship, found 10,000 feet below the surface in the Weddell Sea, “is virtually intact,” said Mensun Bound, director of exploration at the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.
“The preservation is beyond imagination,” Bound said, according to NBC.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, adding that in 30 years of finding wrecks, he had “never, ever seen a wreck as bold and beautiful as this. It just doesn’t get any better.”
Wow. After 107 years. #endurance #shacketon #antartica #explorers https://t.co/rloeqs1xxg
— Sidsel Wold (@SidselWold) March 9, 2022
“You can even see the ship’s name – E N D U R A N C E – arced across its stern directly below the taffrail. And beneath, as bold as brass, is Polaris, the five-pointed star, after which the ship was originally named,” Bound said, according to the BBC.
“I tell you, you would have to be made of stone not to feel a bit squishy at the sight of that star and the name above,” he said.
“You can see a porthole that is Shackleton’s cabin. At that moment, you really do feel the breath of the great man upon the back of your neck,” he said.
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