A scientific expedition in the Antarctic is set to depart its current location to go in search of Sir Ernest Shackleton's lost ship. The team has been investigating the Larsen C Ice Shelf and the continent's biggest iceberg, known as A68. And this puts it just a few hundred km from the last recorded position of the famous British explorer's vessel, the Endurance. The polar steam-yacht was crushed in sea-ice and sank in November 1915.
The American geophysical survey company Ocean Infinity is part of the Weddell Sea Expedition group. It has a Kongsberg Hugin autonomous underwater vehicle that it will deploy to map a 20km by 20km grid square on the ocean floor. If it succeeds in locating the Endurance, a remotely operated vehicle will then be sent down to photograph the wreck site.
"I think that if we locate the Endurance, the greater likelihood will be that her hull is semi-upright and still in a semi-coherent state," commented marine archaeologist Mensun Bound. "However, on the evidence of the only deep-water wooden wreck I have been privileged to study, I must concede that there is every possibility that she could have been wrenched wide open by impact (with the seafloor), thus exposing her contents like a box of chocolates," he wrote on his expedition blog.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47000896
Endurance was her name, and the task of the crew who survived for years. A few fingers and toes were lost, but no lives... A credit to the leadership of Earnest Shackleton.
ReplyDeleteAs they abandoned Endurance which was crushed by the ice, he gathered his crew and stressed they could only take with them what was essential to survival. With that, he took out his wallet, removed the pictures of his family dropped them on the ice at his feet along with his wallet and walked away.
I can't imagine the outcome of this expedition, I don't see them being able to raise the ship...
I don't think they're even thinking about raising it, just locating and surveying with ROVs.
ReplyDelete