VIDEO: Stunning 3D images of Ernest Shackleton’s ship released as film debuts in London
Image courtesy of Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and National Geographic
Images of Endurance, brought together from 25,000 digital scans, have revealed the state of preservation of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance – and it is truly remarkable.
Endurance sank in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica in 1915. Its crew’s survival story is the stuff of legends as Shackleton kept his crew of 27 men alive for over a year.
Endurance was found in 2022, 3km below surface level and the project to document the ship began. The images show the ship’s rigging, helm and woodwork as well as more personal affects like dining plates, a knee-length boot, and a flare gun.
The flare gun was fired by Frank Hurley.
“Hurley gets this flare gun, and he fires the flare gun into the air with a massive detonator as a tribute to the ship,” John Shears, who led the expedition that found Endurance, told the BBC. “And then in the diary, he talks about putting it down on the deck. And there we are. We come back over 100 years later, and there’s that flare gun. Incredible.”
“It’s absolutely fabulous. The wreck is almost intact like she sank yesterday,” said Nico Vincent, whose organisation Deep Ocean Search developed the technology for the scans, along with Voyis Imaging and McGill University.
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Now the British Film Institute is hosting the World Première of the feature-length documentary Endurance which takes place on 12 October at The Royal Festival Hall (part of the London Film Festival).
(Image courtesy of National Geographic, Esther Horvath)
It’s been made by National Geographic Documentary Films. Directed by Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit, the documentary tells the stories of two expeditions – the first is Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and the second is the expedition – Endurance22 – organised and funded by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT), which discovered the wreck on 5 March 2022 at a depth of 3008 metres under the ice.
(Image courtesy of Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, James Blake)
“The release of the National Geographic documentary is a milestone for the trust,” says
FMHT chairman Donald Lamont. “As well as locating, surveying and filming the wreck, our aim was to bring the stories of Shackleton and of his ship to new generations. They are stories of grit and determination that we hope will inspire people across the globe with the qualities of leadership and perseverance in the face of adversity. The stories of both expeditions are set in the hostile environment of Antarctica, a continent whose changing features affect us all.”
Continue reading news about shipwrecks found recently.
Shackleton avoided the Falkland Islands at the beginning of his expedition, concerned that, with World War I under way, he might become embroiled in that conflict. And indeed, as he entered the Weddell Sea, the Battle of the Falkland Islands took place off the Islands on 8 December 1914. He gave his first public account of his epic adventures in Stanley, seeking to organise the rescue of the members of the expedition awaiting their fate on Elephant Island.
The documentary will be screened in selected cinemas across the UK from 14 October prior to streaming.
Flare gun image courtesy of National Geographic, Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and BBC.
