Endurance (1912 ship)

Endurance under steam and sail trying to break through pack ice in the Weddell Sea on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1915 Paget colour photograph by Frank Hurley.
History
Name	Endurance
Owner	Ernest Shackleton
Builder	Framnæs shipyards, Sandefjord, Norway
Launched	17 December 1912; 111 years ago (17 December 1912)
In service	1912–1915
Out of service	27 October 1915; 109 years ago (27 October 1915)
Fate	Sank following crush by pack ice on 21 November 1915
Notes	Location: 69°44′21″S 52°19′47″W / 69.73917°S 52.32972°W / -69.73917; -52.32972
Wreck discovered	5 March 2022, Weddell Sea
General characteristics
Type	Barquentine
Tonnage	350 GRT
Length	144 ft (44 m)
Beam	25 ft (7.6 m)
Propulsion	350 hp (260 kW) Coal-fired steam and sail
Speed	10.2 kn (18.9 km/h; 11.7 mph)
Complement	28

Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The ship, originally named Polaris, was built at Framnæs shipyard and launched in 1912 from Sandefjord in Norway. When one of her commissioners, the Belgian Adrien de Gerlache, went bankrupt, the remaining one sold the ship for less than the shipyard had charged – but as Lars Christensen was the owner of Polaris, there was no hardship involved. The ship was bought by Shackleton in January 1914 for the expedition, which would be her first voyage. A year later, she became trapped in pack ice and finally sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica on 21 November 1915. All of the crew survived her sinking and were eventually rescued in 1916 after using the ship's boats to travel to Elephant Island and Shackleton, the ship's captain Frank Worsley, and four others made a voyage to seek help.

The wreck of Endurance was discovered on 5 March 2022, nearly 107 years after she sank, by the search team Endurance22. She lies 3,008 metres (9,869 ft; 1,645 fathoms) deep, and is in "a brilliant state of preservation".^[1] The wreck is designated as a protected historic site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty System.