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Daniella McCahey, Assistant Professor of History, Texas Tech University

Endurance captain Frank Worsley, Shackleton's gifted navigator, knew how to stay the course

Navigator Frank Worsley, left, works with scientist Reginald James to take an observation by the stern of the Endurance. Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

When the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance was found nearly 10,000 feet below the surface of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea in March 2022, it was located just 4 miles from its last known position, as recorded by the Endurance’s captain and navigator, Frank Worsley, in November 1915.

That’s an astonishing degree of accuracy for a position determined with mechanical tools, book-length tables of reference numbers, and pen and paper.

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