This ship was lost for 107 years before she was found in 2022. This post is just as much about explorer Ernest Shackleton as the ship. What an expedition he led. He took an 800-mile journey in a 23-foot boat to get his people rescued after his ship The Endurance went down.
The Endurance was built in Norway in 1912 as a tough wooden ship designed for Arctic conditions. In 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton bought her for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Shackleton wanted to cross Antarctica on foot, something no one had ever done.
The ship left England in 1914 and headed for the Weddell Sea near Antarctica. Before the expedition could start, the ice closed around the ship. Endurance became trapped in January 1915. For months the ship drifted helplessly with the ice while the pressure slowly crushed the ship’s mast timbers. Shackleton’s men watched the vessel groan, bend, and break until they finally abandoned her in October 1915. A month later she slipped beneath the ice and disappeared into the Weddell Sea. There is this film clip of the Endurance folding in because of the ice pressure.
The ice build up caused millions of tons of pressure on the ship and warped the hull. The ship was built to withstand cold, but it was more a ship designed for Arctic tourism and hunting voyages. It was not made to withstand the pressure of Antarctic ice bearing down on it. So, Shackleton and his crew abandoned ship when they saw it was sinking slowly.
Shackelton and his crew camped on floating ice for months before sailing in small lifeboats. They eventually reached the desolate Elephant Island after nearly 500 days away from solid ground. Shackleton then made an incredible 800-mile open boat trip with 5 men (on a small boat not designed to do this) to South Georgia (British Overseas Territory located in the Southern Ocean) to organize a rescue while most of the men had to wait until he got someone. It took them 17 days to reach South Georgia Island, some 800 miles to the northeast. This after capsizing three times in 24 hours. They got a rescue team and went back to Elephant Island to get the rest of the men.
Every man survived! The story turned Shackleton into a legend and made Endurance one of the most famous lost ships in history. For decades people wondered where the wreck rested under the Antarctic ice and deep water. After many failed searches, the wreck was finally discovered on March 5, 2022, after 107 years, by the Endurance22 expedition. Using underwater robots and modern sonar equipment, the team found the ship nearly 10,000 feet below the surface of the Weddell Sea.
The wreck was amazingly preserved because the freezing Antarctic water has no wood-eating organisms. The name “Endurance” could still be clearly seen across the stern. Explorers said it looked almost like the ship had sunk yesterday. The wreck was found only a few miles from the position originally recorded by Captain Frank Worsley back in 1915. It was one of the great shipwreck discoveries of modern times. Notice how well preserved the ship is.
I want to add that if you have any ships you want to know more about, let me know. I have around 30 posts in scheduled and drafts and I add them every day. I haven’t even ventured into the Military ships yet…they will be coming as well.
The Shackleton Story. One of the most courageous stories I’ve ever heard.
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Amazing story. How on earth did Shackleton know where to go back to pick up the rest of his crew. I wonder how many of those dudes thought they were goners both on the rescue boat and the ones left behind on ice. Thanks for posting. Great read.
He had a compass…thats about it. They also could chart out by the stars where they were at and where they were going. No pulling out your gps for this lol.
HAHA… if that was this day and age those dudes would have been screwed! lol
LOL…it wasn’t always perfect…the location the Titanic gave was 13 miles off course…the survivors were lucky to be found on the way to that site…but it was said…the Titanic crew wrote one number down wrong. One miscalculation and you are LOST.
One wrong number..Yikes.
BLIMEY!!!!
What an experience!
remarkable! I think I have heard of the ship and it’s sinking in the ice before but I didn’t know the details. It’s extraordinary they were able to survive it and that they also got such good photos and video of the scene.
30 posts already? Who knew there were so many famous shipwrecks? Well, you I guess!
You may have heard it on the news in 22…how he was able to know exactly where to sail…is incredible…in what was a lifeboat…not the sturdiest boat ever.
Oh…30 is just starting… some are about the ships that didn’t sink and was just scrapped…but one is still around! The Great Lakes holds many…up to 6000 shipwrecks. They call Thunder Bay…shipwreck alley….and not because of deKe! lol
I don’t know… what’s Deke doing up there, LOL?
lol…making mischief!
I eat up this Antarctic stuff. Shackleton was one amazing guy. The whole experience would certainly change the men involved . That they all survived is a miracle. That didnt happen with a lot of other Artic exploration.
Yea it didn’t happened a lot with people being safe…a lot of credit goes to this guy. I’m reading about few more like the Franklin Expedition. Some tough hard men and like you mentioned…not exactly safe.
I couldn’t believe that ship was in that good of shape…and I never knew ice like that would crush a ship/boat.
Ive read up on Franklin also. I try to put myself there and how life is reduced to survival. Yea ice and ice flows are amazing. If Im not mistaken the Grand Canyon was carved by glaciers.
Those guys on that ship would hear the ice doing its work on the boat. Just waiting for things to stove in. Good stuff Max. Looking forward to the Franklin takes.
That ice crushing the masts is amazing to watch. I’m glad they filmed it. I can see how it could carve out things. Lisa was just saying water in general has so much power.
I’m also getting into the riverboats in the Missouri and Mississippi.
The name Shackleton sounds familiar but I knew nothing about this ship. At the opposite end in sinking time from the one that was just minutes that you covered. I’m glad all survived. The rescue mission sounds harrowing to say the least. The guy is a real hero!!!!
Mind-boggling that the ocean goes 2 miles deep!
I know you’ve mentioned it a few times, but it is the lack of wood-eating organisms combined with cold water that preserves them and has nothing to do with whether the water is fresh or salt, yes?
I remember something about it in 2022…but that is all. I’m wondering if we covered him in high school…yes he is a real hero! What I didn’t understand is the ship was made for that area…but I guess it was meant to keep moving…not being stuck in the ice like that.
Saltwater is worse in preserving…the fresh waters like the Great Lakes preserve very well as we will see in some gruesome (the Kamloops) ways and in the Rousse Christmas Tree ship…but look at the Titanic under the ocean 2.5 miles…it’s going to be a rust spot on the ocean floor in a century probably. So fresh water is much better preserving.
Oh, something else I thought about while reading this is the power of water! Whether it is dripping holes in stones over centuries in its liquid form, crushing ships over months in solid form, sinking ships in iceberg form, or falling as avalanches upon places in crystalized form.
It is SO powerful. They sunk a flat barge somewhere and they put some cameras on it while it sank to turn it into a natural marine reef…that was scary as hell Lisa. You have no time and it’s on you quick. You are right…in all forms is dangerous. After reading all of these…I don’t know if I could ever fall asleep in a boat again.
p.s. Will you be covering submarines?
Yes I would like to…this is a new world for me! Did you know…there was a submarine in the civil war??? I had NO clue. It was manually operated.
Oh wow, no, I didn’t know about a civil war sub! Incredible!
And manual! They operated it with their hands and it shot a torpedo. But yes…I’m going to include submarines….and I’m guessing that 60 percent of this blog will be on the Great Lakes.
Question: will they all be steam ships? Just asking because of the name of the blog. If not, we have one old military ship here, the LST 393, and one submarine, the USS Silversides.
No…I already posted one on a non steam ship…the Wahine disaster that happened in New Zealand…in the 60s. So I’m including every kind of ship there is…including yachts, river boats (Mark Twain’s time) and others.
Cool! This is the kind of info I need. I’m about to dive into the military…a lot of ships, submarines, and carriers…I’ll look them up! Thank you.
I thought there were two subs in the Civil War. Wrong, not limited to two. Google search of “submarines in Civil War” is full of details. The Union’s blockade of the sea was so important, so disastrous to the South.
Oh…there may have been many…the one surprised me because I knew nothing about it. It’s just something I wouldn’t have guessed existed then.
The idea of being on a submarine absolutely creeps me out. I’m not claustrophobic but one trip in one of those rusty pop-riveted metal tubes would definitely do it for me. Brrrr.
Especially a manual one where you have to Fred Flintsone it for it to move. And…the oxygen you have while shutting the door…is all you have.
I’ve heard about their expedition over the years but never knew the whole story. Thanks for this, it’s amazing
Thank you Beth I appreciate you reading it. I can’t believe he did what he did….and that ship still looks good after over 100 years.
Antarctica is one continent that I never want to visit, but I do admire the bravery of all the men who did and continue to do.
Yea that is me as well. Those were some hard tough men….but not for me!
An amazing story. What a beautiful ship and how well preserved she is in that sub freezing water. To see the ships wheel is so cool.
On the PBS clip, in the photos of the men and dogs on the ice…the dog with the big plumy tail that curls over its back…that’s a Malamute. That’s what my dog Jet is. That and Husky. Your dog and her pups would do well in that weather too.
I think some ships, even the Titanic are beautiful in some ways under water. Knowing what they were and now they are immortalized…but it’s too steep of a price on some of them.
Ok! They remind me of a Husky a little. Yes I know them. Yes both Great Pyrenees and Saint Bernards are built for that.
The fact all survived is absolutely brain exploding. The Hell with Arctic or Antarctic exploring, the cold has never been in my comfort zone. Gimmie blazing heat over chilling ice any day. Nah, on second thought I’ll take somewhere between the two extremes.
Both have their drawbacks…but obbverse…I read this…and this guy should have been on a Wheaties box…or something. It reminds me of that guy I posted about in Alaska building his own cabin…a real man through and through.
https://theelephantstrunk.org/2026/06/13/slow-embrace-the-endurance-speaks-old-steam-ships-3/
“Every man survived.” This is one of the most extraordinary tales of resilience in naval history. First time I heard about it was when I read the book “Endurance”, almost 30 years ago. Great book, I recommend.
Thank you! I’ve been reading some maritime books…I’ll add that to the list. I should have heard of this expedition…I remember in 2022 when they found it but that was about it.
Amazing what humans can endure!