State-of-the-art subsea technologies help locate 107-year-old wreckage

The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust has confirmed that the Endurance22 Expedition successfully located the wreck of Endurance, one hundred years after Shackleton’s death.

It was Shackleton’s ambition to achieve the first land crossing of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. However, Endurance never reached land and became trapped in the ice and the men on board eventually had to abandon ship. After an 800-mile open-boat journey in lifeboats and a mountainous crossing on foot, all survived the tell the tale.

The Endurance22 Expedition departed Cape Town in February 2022. The team worked from the South African polar research and logistics vessel, S.A. Agulhas II, owned by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment and under Master, Capt. Knowledge Bengu. The wreckage was found in the Weddell Sea at a depth of 3008 metres, approximately four miles south of the position originally recorded by Captain Worsley.

The search team used two Saab Sabertooth robots to locate the wreckage, fitted with high-definition cameras and side-scan imaging capability. Saab Sabertooth is a roaming and hovering robot that can operate in both fully autonomous and tethered modes. Lowered by helicopter, the robots were sent through a hole in the ice to embark on the 160km search mission.

To help them navigate during their search, the robots used Sonardyne’s SPRINT-Nav hybrid acoustic-inertial navigation system (INS). They also used Sonardyne’s AvTrak 6 tracking and telemetry transceiver, to send commands and position updates from a Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system, also from Sonardyne, onboard the S.A. Agulhas II.

For ease of deployment, the Ranger 2 was configured with a Gyro USBL transceiver. This comes with an inbuilt attitude, heading and reference sensor (AHRS) and is pre-calibrated. Tracking was possible at ranges beyond 7,000m, meeting the Endurance22 team’s potential under-ice tracking requirements.

Sonardyne’s sister company, Voyis, also had equipment on the project. Its Insight Pro and Observer stills camera were integrated into the Saab Sabertooth to generate 3D models and capture high-resolution true colour images of the wreck, all geolocated by Sonardyne navigation data. Another sister company of Sonardyne, EIVA, provided the data visualisation software.

“We’re thrilled that it was our positioning and navigation technology and expertise that were chosen to support this what can only be called extreme science mission and we congratulate the Endurance22 team on their historic discovery. I’m sure this is also just the start of the story, as we begin to learn more about remains of this historic ship,” said Geraint West, Head of Science at Sonardyne.

The wreck is protected as a Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty, ensuring that whilst the wreck is being surveyed and filmed it will not be touched or disturbed in any way.

Mensun Bound, Director of Exploration on the expedition, said: “We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance. This is a milestone in polar history. We pay tribute to the navigational skills of Captain Frank Worsley, the Captain of the Endurance, whose detailed records were invaluable in our quest to locate the wreckage. I would like to thank my colleagues of The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust for enabling this extraordinary expedition to take place, as well as Saab for their technology, and the whole team of dedicated experts who have been involved in this monumental discovery.”

Nico Vincent, Subsea Project Manager, said: “This has been the most complex subsea project ever undertaken, with several world records achieved to ensure the safe detection of Endurance. State-of-the-art subsea technologies have been deployed to achieve this successful outcome and I would particularly like to thank the subsea team for all the engineering support, both on board the ship and throughout the months of planning, design and testing.

“All of them showed a huge commitment and resilience, worthy of the finest tradition of polar exploration. Saab provided the Sabertooth so I also want to thank them, including their ace team on board SA Agulhas II, and those who ensured the vehicles performed as well as they did.”

More information about the expedition can be found here: https://endurance22.org/endurance-is-found