Discovery
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This Wednesday, members of the Endurance22 expedition announced that they had found the wreckage of British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, which had been sought since its sinking in 1915.
The camera plods along the dark seabed. Then the carcass of an imposing sailboat on which some crustaceans are hung is gradually revealed. On the stern, one can distinctly read the inscription “Endurance”. Bingo: the sailors and researchers of the Endurance22 expedition have just found the most wanted boat in the United Kingdom, missing for one hundred and seven years.
A month earlier, a team of around 100 had left Cape Town aboard the South African icebreaker Agulhas II, one of the largest and most modern polar research vessels in the world. The objective of this mission of a few weeks, financed to the tune of 10 million euros by a mysterious anonymous donor, was to find theEndurance, large three-masted schooner that sank in Antarctica in October 1915.
dangerous exploration
If large means have been spent, it is because the boat in question is, to say the least, legendary. Considered one of the most powerful boats of its time, theEndurance left England in 1914, heading for the frozen lands of the South Pole. On board, 28 men, including the British explorer Ernest Shackleton, accustomed to polar explorations. As well as food for two years and a horde of 69 dogs, supposed to be able to tow the crew on the ice.
The objective was to…