Discovery of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance

It took ten years and two expeditions, but on 5 March 2022, under the auspices of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance was finally found. The discovery made headlines around the world.

The so-called ‘unreachable’ wreck was located beneath the ice of the Weddell Sea at a depth of 3008 metres. Shackleton called it ‘the worst portion of the worst sea on earth.’

It was the greatest wreck hunt ever. The first expedition in 2019 used Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, or AUVs, to survey the seabed. The icebreaker they chartered was the 12,900 ton S.A. Agulhas II out of Cape Town. The search ended when ice conditions deteriorated and the AUV disappeared without trace.

The quest resumed in 2022, using the same ship. This time they succeeded. The main search vehicle was a ‘Sabertooth’, an unmanned submersible made by Saab of Sweden. Its main advantage was that it was linked to the surface by up to 6 km of fibre optic cable which allowed the subsea team to know precisely where it was throughout the dive and to be able to follow the in-coming data stream in real time.

The wreck was discovered upright, semi-intact and in an excellent state of preservation. Even its paintwork was still visible. Her masts were down, and her deck house and most of the quarterdeck had been destroyed by the ice, but the well deck at the stern was untouched. The ship’s wheel was in position and largely unscathed as was the binnacle, or wooden stand in front of the wheel which held the vessel’s magnetic compass.

Most remarkable was the fact that the Endurance had been found exactly 100 years to the day after Shackleton had been buried at South Georgia.

For those who saw the wreck through the Sabertooth’s cameras, the most moving sight was undoubtedly Shackleton’s cabin and the ship’s name that arced across the stern over the emblem of the North Star, or Polaris, after which the ship had originally been named.

The Polaris was built at Sandefjord, Norway, in 1911-1913. In 1914 she was bought by Sir Ernest Shackleton who renamed her Endurance after his family motto ‘by endurance we conquer.’ His purpose in acquiring the ship was to use her to carry his team to Antarctica where it was his intention to cross the continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea by way of the Pole.

But it was not to be. On 18 January 1915, without having reached their destination of Vahsel Bay, the Endurance became icebound. For ten months she was carried northwards by the pack until, on 21 November 1915, ruptured and leaking she was released by the ice and plunged to the seabed.

For over five months Shackleton and his team of 27 survived on the ice. On 9 April, 1916, they took to their three boats and, after six days of the most brutal conditions imaginable, they made Elephant Island.

Shackleton realized that if they stayed on ‘that hellish rock’ they would most likely perish. So he took his best boat, the 22 foot long James Caird and five of his men (Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, ‘Chippy’ McNish, John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy) and departed for South Georgia to seek help.

It took over two weeks to reach their destination where, after nine days of recuperation, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean set off over the Island’s mountainous spine for the whaling stations on the other side. 36 hours later they turned up at Stromness where they were greeted with disbelief and astonishment by the small community of Norwegian whalers.

After a failed attempt to reach the 22 men on Elephant Island with a small whaling steamer, they set out for the Falklands. This was the first of Shackleton’s three visits to the Islands. Further attempts were made to relieve the party but it was not until 30 August 1916, that Shackleton finally got through and rescued them all using a Chilean naval tug, the Yelcho, under the command of Lt. Luis Pardo.

They all survived. It was a story of extraordinary leadership, courage and determination. Some have called it the greatest escape – ever.

Text by Mensun Bound.

Technical Details:

Photography

£1.90, £2.50 & S/S Background Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust & National Geographic

£3.60 & FDC image of Endurance Scott Polar research Institute

Layout Bee Design

Printer Cartor Security Printing

Process Stochastic lithography

Perforation 13 ¼ x 13 ½ per 2cms

Stamp size 42 x 28mm

Sheet Layout 10

Souvenir Sheet size 110 x 74mm

Souvenir Sheet stamp size 45 x 33mm

Souvenir Sheet Perforation 13 ¾ x 14 per 2 cms

Release date 27 March, 2023 05/11/2024

Production Coordination Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd