Incredible footage reveals explorer Shackleton’s lost Endurance ship in remarkable 3D detail over 100yrs after it sank
THE wreckage of legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton’s lost expedition ship Endurance has been revealed in incredible 3D detail like never seen before.
Endurance was sailing for the Antarctic in 1914-15 but became trapped in ice forcing the crew to abandon ship.
It eventually sank and lies 3,000m below the Weddell Sea, located in the Southern Ocean, east of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Miraculously, all 27 men onboard the ship survived after travelling hundreds of miles over ice, land, death-defying mountains and sea.
Remarkable new footage has been released of Endurance as part of a new National Geographic documentary, which will be shown in cinemas next week.
The digital 3D scan was put together by using 25,000 high resolution images taken of the ship when it was found two years ago.
It’s so detailed that small objects like plates and old boots can be made out.
The flare gun used by expedition photographer Frank Hurley can also be seen.
“Hurley gets this flare gun, and he fires the flare gun into the air with a massive detonator as a tribute to the ship,” Dr John Shears 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.”
While the masts have fallen, the footage reveals Endurance’s structure remains largely intact all these years later.
Director Jimmy Chin said: “It’s the greatest survival tale ever told, but the world may have forgotten the details.
“I thought I knew the story, yet when we dove into it and had so much incredible access from the Scott Polar Research Institute and Royal Geographical Society, all the new details helped us re-experience the journey that Shackleton and his team went through.
“It was very humbling and eye-opening. I’ve been a professional climber for over 20 years and have done a lot of expeditions, but to see what they were able to achieve through Shackleton’s leadership was extraordinary.”
As part of the documentary, filmmakers used AI technology to generate the voices Shackleton and six of his crew members based off archive recordings.
This allows the men to “read” their historic diary entries from the voyage and rescue.
“Being able to bring those diary readings to life using AI means you’re listening to Shackleton and his team narrating their own diaries, and it is their voices,” Chin continued.
“That was something that couldn’t have been done even a few years ago, which really brings a new aspect of the film to life.”
Endurance premieres at the London Film Festival on October 12, before hitting cinemas across the UK on October 14.
It will appear on Disney+ later this year.