Shackleton's lost shipwreck discovered off Antarctica:
One of the world's most storied shipwrecks, Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica more than a century after its sinking, explorers announced Wednesday.
Endurance was discovered at a depth of 3,008 meters (9,869 feet) in the Weddell Sea, about six kilometers (four miles) from where it was slowly crushed by pack ice in 1915.
"We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance," said Mensun Bound, the expedition's director of exploration.
[...] As part of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition between 1914 and 1917, Endurance was meant to make the first land crossing of Antarctica, but it fell victim to the tumultuous Weddell Sea.
Just east of the Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic peninsula, it became ensnared in sea-ice for over 10 months before being crushed and sinking.
[...] The voyage became legendary due to the miraculous escape Shackleton and his crew made on foot and in boats.
The crew managed to escape by camping on the sea ice until it ruptured.
They then launched lifeboats to Elephant Island and then South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory that lies around 1,400 kilometers east of the Falkland Islands.
Despite the hardships, all of the crew survived.
[...] Under international law, the wreck is protected as a historic site. Explorers were allowed to film and scan the ship, but not to touch it at all—meaning no artefacts may be returned to the surface.
The team used underwater search drones known as Sabertooths, built by Saab, which dove beneath the ice into the farthest depths of the Weddell Sea.
Ernest Shackleton and Endurance on Wikipedia.
Also at Al Jazeera and The Washington Post.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 11 2022, @04:50AM (6 children)
I believe it was called Endurance. A very good read. I read it about 30 years ago. A couple of Shackleton books came out within the last 10 years, but I didn't find them as interesting reading as Shackleton's.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 11 2022, @01:03PM (3 children)
Ah, no, actually I found it. It was called South [archive.org]. There were a bunch of books written about that expedition over the last hundred years, but I really enjoyed his version.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 11 2022, @02:12PM (2 children)
I'll second that recommendation. It's one of the most incredible survival stories you could read, and it's 100% true. I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't inspired The Martian, wherein it's one of those situations where you either lay down and die or decide to work the problem.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Friday March 11 2022, @08:43PM (1 child)
If you enjoy that sort of story you might also enjoy, We Die Alone (David Howarth) and "The long walk" (Slavomir Rawicz). They are escape and evasion stories from the great war. The former in Norway, the latter a group that walks from Siberia to India.
Both are currently on Audible and, IIRC, in the free selections if you are a member. The latter is scheduled to go non-free on 3/18.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 11 2022, @10:21PM
Thanks. I did see the 2010 movie adaptation of The Long Walk, titled The Way Back. It's amazing what people are capable of for survival and/or freedom.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Nuke on Friday March 11 2022, @08:20PM (1 child)
Shackleton must rate as one of the greatest leaders of all time, albeit on a small scale, to have kept his men together for so long in such dire circumstances. Only one guy seems to have got a bit bolshy, the shipwright, which is probably why Shackleton kept him with him when he led the small group to seek rescue.
The historian and broadcaster Dan Snow was present on the discovering icebreaker, so hopefully we will see a documentary from him in due course.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by StupendousMan on Saturday March 12 2022, @10:52PM
Well, he DID force the shipwright to kill his cat.