The Endurance was a three-masted sail and steamship that Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

The ship was built at Framnæs shipyard, Sandefjord, Norway, in 1912 and was originally named Polaris. After her commissioners could no longer pay the shipyard, the ship was bought by Shackleton in January 1914 for the expedition, which would be her first voyage. The Endurance was 44m (144ft) long with a 7.6m (25ft) beam and registered 350 tons gross.

The aim of the 1914-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was to achieve the first crossing of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. The Ross Sea Party, which landed at Hut Point on Ross Island, had the task of setting up supply depots for Shackleton’s crossing part. Their objective was achieved but at the cost of three lost lives.

In the Weddell Sea, the Endurance never reached land and became trapped in the dense pack ice and the 28 men on board eventually had no choice but to abandon ship. After months spent in makeshift camps on the ice floes drifting northwards, the party took to the lifeboats to reach the inhospitable and uninhabited Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then made an extraordinary 1,300km (800mi) open-boat journey in the lifeboat, James Caird, to reach South Georgia. Shackleton and two others then crossed the mountainous island to the whaling station at Stromness.  From there, Shackleton was eventually able to mount a rescue of the men waiting on Elephant Island and bring them home without further loss of life.

Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was a polar explorer involved in several British expeditions to the Antarctic in the early 1900s, a period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Shackleton was a member of Captain Scott’s Discovery Expedition (1901-04), during which he, Scott and Edward Wilson set a new southernmost record by sledging to 82°S.

During Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition (1907-09) he and three companions achieved a new record for the Farthest South latitude at 88°S – only 180km (112mi) from the South Pole. In 1909, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII.

Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17), was an attempt to make the first overland crossing of the Antarctic continent. Despite its failure, Shackleton returned as a public hero and published his first-hand account of the expedition in South.

Shackleton died on board the Quest during his final expedition. At the request of his wife, Emily Shackleton, his body was buried in South Georgia. 

The Endurance entered the pack ice on 7 December 1914. On 18 January 1915, the ship became trapped and drifted gradually north with the ice for 10 months. The crew remained with the ship until 27 October when it began to break up and they were forced to abandon it. The ship eventually sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica on 21 November 1915. 

The Endurance shipwreck was discovered in the Weddell Sea on 5 March 2022, 100 years to the day after the burial of Sir Ernest Shackleton at Grytviken, South Georgia. The wreck was located at a depth of 3,008m (9,869ft) around 6.4km (4mi/3.5nmi) south of where it was estimated to have sunk.

The Endurance22 Expedition was a UK-led expedition organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. The expedition comprised subsea and media teams, scientists and marine archaeologists from many countries aboard the South African polar research ship, Agulhas II.

As the expedition unfolded, the on-board media team were able to share live pictures and interviews which were broadcast into schools. The tweet sent by Dan Snow, historian and TV presenter on March 9th, from onboard ship announcing the discovery, was seen by over 10 million people.

Following the discovery of the wreck, the expedition undertook a detailed non-intrusive survey of the shipwreck between 5-7 March 2022, comprising multibeam side scan sonar, high-resolution digital photography, video filming and laser scanning. The results of this will be able to be seen in a documentary feature film describing Shackleton’s original expedition and the success of the Endurance22 Expedition, to be released later this year.

The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT) is a UK-registered charity with the aim of advancing the education of the public in the maritime history and heritage of the Falkland Islands and their neighbouring seas. In 2019 the Trust mounted the Weddell Sea Expedition, which made a serious but unsuccessful attempt to find Endurance, but which provide useful lessons for the planning of a future attempt. The Trust organised the Endurance22 expedition which did find Endurance on the 5th March 2022.

The Endurance shipwreck was found by the polar research and logistics vessel, S.A. Agulhas II, which is owned by the South African government. Built in 2012 in Finland, the Polar Class 5 vessel is one of the world’s largest and most modern research ships and is able to break through ice up to 1m thick at 5kts (8mph). The Agulhas II is 134m (440ft) long and 22m (71ft) wide. You can find out more about the ship here. 

Despite lying on the seabed for 107 years, the Endurance shipwreck was preserved in remarkably good condition. It was even described as the “Finest wooden shipwreck I’ve ever seen” by the expedition’s Director of Exploration, marine archaeologist Mensun Bound.

Its excellent condition is partly due to the cold temperatures, anaerobic conditions (existing in the absence of free oxygen) and darkness of the environment as these dramatically decrease the decomposition rate of wrecks, in terms of decay and corrosion.

However, perhaps the most significant contributor to the Endurance’s good condition is the absence of wood-eating micro-organisms. Antarctica is forest-free meaning animals that may usually eat through wood in other parts of the oceans are not present there. 

There are no plans to raise the Endurance. Currently, the best place for the ship is on the sea floor where it has been for 107 years and remains very well preserved.

The wreck of the Endurance is designated a protected historic site and monument HSM No.93 under the Antarctic Treaty System and is surrounded by a 500m (1,640ft) protection zone. 

In 2023, the UK Government commissioned UKAHT to prepare a Conservation Management Plan. It has been prepared by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), a charity responsible for the conservation of several heritage sites in Antarctica, in partnership with Historic England, a public body which champions and protects England’s historic places, including shipwrecks in waters around the country. An expert panel of stakeholders is supporting the production of the document, including representatives from FMHT, Endurance22, BAS, and the Shackleton family. 

In caring for heritage sites and artefacts such as the Endurance shipwreck, there are often many features, historic layers and diverse interests to consider. For example, biodiversity has to be considered alongside the business and economic viability of the site.

Conservation management plans are used as a tool to help pull together an understanding of what matters and why, and how to conserve and manage it. From this informed basis, plans are then used to develop programmes of repair, restoration or to draw up proposals for change. 

Conservation management plans not only analyse the history of a landscape but they are also an important record in their own right.