Endurance was the name of a ship that ran into pack ice on an Antarctic expedition more than 100 years ago. The ship drifted through the Weddell Sea for almost a year before finally breaking up under the ice pressure and sinking in November 1915.

The crew of 28 was able to escape in three lifeboats to Elephant Island. From there, expedition leader Ernest Shackleton and five other crew members set out again in one of the lifeboats under the most adverse conditions to get help.

They headed for the sealing and whaling island of South Georgia from where the expedition had set out. Shackleton and his colleagues actually managed to reach the island in the South Atlantic and were able to organize the evacuation of the men left behind on Elephant Island in August 1916.

Since then, the “Endurance” was considered lost. All attempts to locate the ship failed — that is until March this year when researchers of the Endurance22 expedition found the wreck with the help of two diving robots.

Information, photos, and videos from the expedition can now be found at endurance22.org, a website put online by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, the organiser of the Endurance22 expedition.

The website is the closest people can get to the wreck as under the international Antarctic treaty the “Endurance” is considered a historical monument and can’t be touched. ©dpa