As the saying goes, what is lost must be found. A ship titled, Endurance, captained by an arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton sank in the Weddell Sea 107 years ago. All the years later on March 5 of this year, the ship has been rediscovered practically undamaged. 

According to Endurance22.org, the ship was first launched from Sandefjord, Norway in 1912 under the original name of Polaris. It wasn’t until 1914 when Shackleton bought the ship that it was given the name Endurance. Only a year later, the ship got stuck in pack ice, drift ice that is not attached to the shoreline, until its inevitable plunge of 10,000 feet to the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

BBC reports, the expedition to find the ship was led by Mensum Bound and launched with the help of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. They were able to navigate the frozen waters with Agulhas II, an icebreaker that is designed to move through ice-covered waters. In fact, what separates icebreakers from any normal ship is their shape and strengthened hull. Also, the ship was equipped with “remotely operated submersibles” to search for the ship, BBC notes. 

The successful expedition was launched on Saturday, February 5, 2022, from Cape Town, South Africa according to The New York Times. It wasn’t until 28 days later that the 46 member crew and another 64 abroad found the ship. 

According to Good News Network, “We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance,” said expedition leader Mensun Bound. “This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see ‘Endurance’ arced across the stern, directly below the taffrail.” 

Good News Network also said the ship crashing into the ocean floor is the only damage that it endured. Neither time nor parasites had eaten away at the ship’s wood planks from what Bound’s expedition team could see. However, it is still undecided whether the ship will be recovered from the depths.