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Underwater Drones Dive to Start Search for Shackleton's Famed Ship
The $10-million expedition has about a week left to locate Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, which was lost in 1915.
Credit: Esther Horvath
The hunt is on for Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's ship that sits 10,000 feet below the icy Weddell Sea in Antarctica.
After an 11-day voyage aboard a South African icebreaker, the expedition, known as Endurance22, began searching for the wreck this week. Underwater drones equipped with cameras, sonar and lasers have been scanning 100 square miles of seafloor looking for the remains of the 144-foot wooden ship, which sank in 1915 after being crushed in ice.
Mensun Bound, the expedition's director of exploration, said in an email that after a few technical glitches, the submersibles were functioning well, carrying out several dives each day. Images show that the seafloor is flat and consists of fine sediment and small rocks. "It should be possible to identify quickly any wreckage," he said.
From The New York Times
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