Ten months later, in November 1915, ice crushed the ship and it sank, presumably forever lost to the deep.
The crew had no way to call for help, their only hope was to save themselves. First, they camped on the ice for months alongside their lifeboats, waiting for open water. Then they sailed for days to reach Elephant Island. It was the first solid ground they had stood on in almost two years, but it was still 720 nautical miles from the nearest people at a whaling station on South Georgia Island. Shackleton and five of his crew mates left the rest of the expedition team on Elephant Island and sailed the lifeboat James Caird for 15 days through some of the toughest seas imaginable.
Against all odds, they made it to South Georgia Island, but they came ashore on the opposite side of the island from the whaling station. Shackleton and two of his crewmates then made the first-ever crossing of the island, climbing snow-covered mountains and reaching the whaling station in only 36 hours--a feat that has still never been repeated. Even after Shackleton reached safety, it took an additional three months to go back and rescue his crew mates on Elephant Island. But, famously, everyone under Shakleton’s command survived the expedition. Even after 100 years, this story remains one of the great examples of exploration in what's now known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
I am very excited to be joining the Endurance22 Expedition. We'll be returning to the Weddell Sea in hopes of re-discovering the Endurance. Using cutting-edge marine robotics, this team of modern-day explorers will attempt to locate the shipwreck, take a lot of photos and create a 3D map of the wreck site almost 10,000 feet beneath water.
