News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
Endurance : A new way to explore
ENVIRONMENT
Protect Our Seas
News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
ROV image of Endurance ’ s stern
A view of the 3D model
Endurance : A new way to explore
A 3D scan of the Endurance wreck has been created using photogrammetry techniques at 3,000 metres . The digital scan is made of 25,000 high resolution images and is being released as part of a new Nat Geo ( National Geographic ) documentary , ‘ Endurance ’.
The scans show the vessel frozen in time at the bottom of Antarctica ’ s Weddell Sea , where it has lain since November 1915 . The Endurance was famously captained by Sir Ernest Shackleton , an Anglo-Irish explorer who led the doomed mission to make the first land crossing of Antarctica . Endurance became stuck in pack ice weeks after setting off from South Georgia and drifted for months before the order was finally given to abandon ship .
Shackleton and his men were forced to travel for hundreds of miles over ice and land to reach safety , and all 27 survived , recording their journey in diaries and now famous photographs . The Endurance remained lost until 2022 , when it was found in a nearperfect state of preservation , 3km down .
The 3D scan was made using autonomous underwater vehicles that mapped the wreck from every available angle . The resulting model shows how ice eventually crushed the ship , its masts toppled and deck in tatters . Yet the vessel remains otherwise intact .
While it ’ s unlikely the Endurance will ever be raised , the team behind the scans say they hope the digital models will offer a new way to study the ship .
A top-down view created with high resolution photogrammetry
54