Endurance will ‘decay out of existence’ unless ship is raised from sea

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Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship, Endurance, will “decay out of existence” on the Antarctic seabed unless it is raised and preserved, the archaeologist who found the wreck has said.

Mensun Bound, who found the vessel in March, said the question of whether it should be hauled out of the freezing waters is a “hot potato” and brings forth a cavalcade of legal and logistical issues.

Asked at an event in London, organised by law firm BDB Pitmans who assisted his expedition, Bound said: “There are a lot of contrasting views about [raising the ship]. We have a range of ideas on that one, and we have to remember the Shackleton family, who very likely own the ship, they have fairly strong views of their own.

“Bringing it up – we’ve got to think about conserving it and the process of that, which museum is going to take that, which could take forever and a day. But if we leave it there, it’s organic, it’s going to decay some time beyond our lifetime.”

Shortly after Endurance was found, the explorer’s granddaughter Alexandra Shackleton said she would prefer for it to remain in place.

Endurance was found 3,000 metres deep and four miles south of the position recorded by the ship’s captain, Frank Worsley, by the Endurance22 search team.

Shackleton and his crew set out to achieve the first land crossing of Antarctica, but Endurance failed to reach land and became trapped in dense pack ice, forcing the 28 men on board to abandon ship.

The vessel broke up and sank below the Weddell sea on 21 November 1915. The crew had been stuck in the ice for 10 months before escaping in lifeboats and on foot.

Television historian Dan Snow said the search for Endurance, in which he took part, was “lucky” as they were able to navigate through the sea ice with “relative ease”.

He said: “We had a brilliant search box that Mensun Bound worked out, looking at all the data from 1915, looking at where the ship probably sunk.

“They were still doing readings with the sun to fix their position, latitude and longitude, and they made daily weather observations, things like that.

“The plan was, if we couldn’t near the box, to use helicopters to lift – which was a crazy plan – all the equipment required, build a camp on the ice, drill a massive hole in the ice and drop the drones like VHS tapes through the ice.

“Bonkers idea, because the ice is ever-shifting, it’s moving erratically.”

The team instead deployed a drone off the back of the ship to move around the area.

Bound has revealed he is planning to look more closely at the wreck, which is “by far the finest wooden shipwreck” he had ever seen.

He added: “She’s the ultimate sealed box mystery, it’s an Aladdin’s cave.

“It’s like the film Citizen Kane with all the antiques, everything is there in that box.

“The technology’s there, we can have a look through some of the gaps.

“(We’re) anxious in time to conduct a proper marine biological survey because she is this incredible oasis in a vast plain.”