falklands maritime heritage trust
It doesn’t get much better than this for maritime archaeologists trying to identify a shipwreck.
Frank Wild, second in command of the expedition, takes a last look at Endurance after the crew had abandoned the ship and set up camp on the ice a safe distance away. The ship was obviously severely damaged when it sank with its rig in a tangled broken mess, but the 2022 team was confident that the hull beneath the ice would likely still be intact. SEA HISTORY 179, SUMMER 2022
designation assures that any expeditions to the wreck site will not make contact or disturb the vessel’s remains “including all artifacts contained within or formerly contained within the ship, which may be lying on the seabed in or near the wreck within a 150-meter radius. This includes all fixtures and fittings associated with the ship, including ship’s wheel, bell, etc. The designation also includes all items of personal possessions left on the ship by the ship’s company at the time of its sinking.”
The submersibles did not make contact with the vessel’s remains or its associated artifacts; the images and scans captured on the seafloor will be used to create educational materials, museum exhibits, and a documentary. Mark Antelme is CEO of Celicourt Communications, the PR adviser for the Endurance22 Expedition. The Celiocourt team also handled communications for the Weddell Sea Expedition in 2019.
royal geographical society
vessel on the bottom of the ocean, but this shipwreck leaves no doubt. When the team sent the second AUV down with highresolution video and still cameras, there was the name “ENDURANCE” staring them in the face, without a letter missing or out of place. The wreck site is approximately four miles south of the last recorded position as logged by Endurance’s captain, Frank Worsley. The photos of the ship on the seafloor excited not just people interested in the Shackleton saga, but marine scientists who are reveling in the images coming back from the depths of strange and rarely seen marine life growing on and near the wreck, including a wide variety of sea stars, sponges, anemones, and a deep-sea squat lobster thriving in the frigid waters so far down that no sunlight penetrates to the seafloor. In 2019, the Endurance wreck site was added to the Antarctic Treaty as a designated historic site and monument. This
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