# Shackleton's Antarctic ship "Endurance" found

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 9, 2022, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741 "2022-03-09T10:01:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/41 "2022-03-10T07:16:18Z")

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As I understand it, it’s not the cold water directly but that woodworm doesn’t thrive in very cold water.

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**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/42 "2022-03-10T09:49:48Z")

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> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> So, are there any famous wrecks left to be found?

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is a big one I would think. ‘Big’ partly because of recency bias, but also because it disappeared at a time when–due to technology–things no longer ‘just disappear’ so it’s more mysterious than a shipwreck from 200 years ago.

> [@Lancia](#):
>
> the _Titanc’s_ crew recorded the wrong location when it sunk. Despite that searchers still had a good idea of where to look.

Damn. They just weren’t having a very good day, were they?

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**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/43 "2022-03-10T14:46:42Z")

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Shackleton - and so many other polar explorers - were truly superheroes!

I there any endeavor today that involves quite the stones of these guys who intentionally got their ships frozen into the ice for years on end? 😵

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/44 "2022-03-10T17:39:08Z")

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Supposedly he had heart problems (which ultimately killed him at age 47), but did not let the doctors stop him from, e.g., smoking, or leading dangerous Antarctic expeditions.

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**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/45 "2022-03-10T17:51:01Z")

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And if a bolt, screw or nail stands ‘proud of the surface’ then it is slightly protruding above that surface. This situation can be rectified if necessary by making a shallow recess to bed the nail into.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/46 "2022-03-10T22:51:29Z")

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Wow. I also read the book Endurance. It was aptly named.

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**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/47 "2022-03-11T00:26:15Z")

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> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> I there any endeavor today that involves quite the stones of these guys who intentionally got their ships frozen into the ice for years on end? 😵

Space - the final frontier. Especially if we put together a manned mission to Mars.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/48 "2022-03-11T04:56:54Z")

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Yay for SA AgulhasII! Been on that ship.

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**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/49 "2022-03-11T08:03:36Z")

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I re-watched the George Butler documentary today. Twice. Very emotional in light of this news.

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**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/50 "2022-03-11T14:45:28Z")

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> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> So, are there any famous wrecks left to be found?

An archaeologist was asked which yet-to-be-discovered shipwrecks are of the most historical interest. He cited a couple of Columbus’s ships that sank near Jamaica, plus the US Navy ship _Wasp_ from the War of 1812.

> **[The Most Surprising Thing About Shackleton’s Shipwreck](https://slate.com/technology/2022/03/shipwreck-shackleton-archaeology-discovery.html)**
>
> Archaeologists announced this week that they found the explorer's doomed vessel.

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**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/51 "2022-03-11T15:51:43Z")

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> [@SpoilerVirgin](#):
>
> Space - the final frontier. Especially if we put together a manned mission to Mars.

Yeah - I thought about that. And I thought about comparing space vehicles/technology with period ships and such. But my conclusion is that today FAR MORE attention is paid to the health/safety/comfort of astronauts, than polar explores of the past. (At least until we see what a Mars mission might entail.).

And I acknowledge that modern astronauts are brave and tremendously talented - but my impression is that they are more - um - superfluous to the technology. To some extent, modern rockets can “fly themselves” more than a 19th-early 20th century ship could sail itself. And sitting in a self-contained capsule impresses me as requiring different - and lesser - demands than trudging across miles of ice… Even considering the isolation in space - folk on the ISS have regular contact w/ earth, and they now that other people know where they are.

Finally, you don’t have the modern equivalent of uneducated seaman - someone who just needs to know the right rope to pull when told, and survive for months on a restricted diet. How much “endurance” is required of modern astronauts?

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/52 "2022-03-11T16:06:05Z")

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It’s unfair to compare modern astronauts to early polar explorers. Yes, being an astronaut in 2022 is relatively safe, but so is being an Antarctic scientist in 2022.

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**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/53 "2022-03-11T16:07:40Z")

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Sailors in general a hundred years ago were just more accustomed to that kind of hardship than any profession today. I was just reading about Teddy Roosevelt’s Geat White Fleet (1907-1909). Nearly 15,000 sailors were away from their homes and loved ones for 14 months. In peacetime!

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/54 "2022-03-11T17:30:06Z")

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I thought the Geat White Fleet was from long before T.R. was in the White House.

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**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/55 "2022-03-11T19:37:29Z")

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Nope. Their voyage was made 1907-1909

[Great White Fleet - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet)

The United Fruit Company’s freighters were also nicknamed [“the Great White Fleet”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company#The_Great_White_Fleet)

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/56 "2022-03-11T20:55:16Z")

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A hundred years ago, science was still trying to convince sailors that citrus and fresh vegetables were essential to their good health when at sea. While the benefit was well-known by then, some still refused to believe it. There are other means of fighting scurvy, but none as effective. So some of the hardship was self-inflicted.

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**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/57 "2022-03-11T21:03:41Z")

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> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> There are other means of fighting scurvy, but none as effective. So some of the hardship was self-inflicted.

The best and the brightest weren’t exactly the first to sign up for a job at sea. Some literally had to be abducted. Typical sailors of the time wouldn’t have been accepted for Shackleton’s crew. Almost any other ship’s crew of the time would have met a nastier fate than that of _Endurance_.

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/58 "2022-03-11T21:38:59Z")

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Agreed, especially if it had been a crew with a weaker captain than Shackleton.

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**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/59 "2022-03-12T00:49:20Z")

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> [@mbh](#):
>
> Nope. Their voyage was made 1907-1909

Dunno if it’s true but allegedly Congress was balking at appropriating enough money to fuel the fleet. TR said, “Fine. I have enough to get them halfway around. It’s up to you to get them back.”

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shackletons-antarctic-ship-endurance-found/960741/60 "2022-03-12T10:56:36Z")

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As far as famous sunken vessels not found yet, the _Hiryu_ and _Soryu_ have not been found. The other two Japanese carriers from the Battle of Midway, the _Kaga_ and _Akagi_, have been found.

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