‘The Antarctic is the last frontier’: the quest to save Shackleton’s Endurance

The Antarctic seabed’s near-freezing conditions have helped keep the wreck intact for more than a century, providing a reef for wildlife. But that is likely to change as the oceans warm, with a wood-eating lobster possibly colonising the wreck. Photograph: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust/National Georgraphic/PA

The harsh temperatures, treacherous currents and shifting pack ice of the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, which crushed and sank his ship, Endurance, in 1915, led Ernest Shackleton to describe it as the “worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.

For more than a century, the inhospitable conditions, which present a challenge even for modern icebreaker ships, helped to protect the lost wreck, which was discovered in 2022, its structure still largely intact.