The wreck of the historic ship, which was crushed in pack ice and sank during an expedition by Ernest Shackleton, has been found 106 years later.
The wreck was located using underwater drones by a team of explorers, marine archaeologists and technicians. The team had been searching for more than two weeks in a 150-square-mile area around where the ship went down in 1915.
One of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration was the story of Endurance, a three-masted wooden ship. Its location, nearly 10,000 feet down in waters that are among the iciest on Earth, made it one of the most celebrated wrecks that had not been found.
The wreck was discovered by the search expedition, Endurance22.
John Shears, the expedition's leader, said that they had made polar history with the discovery of Endurance.
The first images of the ship were taken by Frank Hurley, and they were amazing. The name of the stern was above a five-pointed star, a holdover from before Shackleton bought the ship. The rear deck and the ship's wheel were shown.
The bow and portions of the deck and hull were shown in a video provided by the expedition's organizers.
Mensun Bound, the expedition's exploration director and a marine archaeologist who has discovered many wrecks, said that Endurance was the best he had ever seen. He said that it is upright, clear of the seabed and in a brilliant state of preservation.
The ship was found four miles south of the last location. The search was done to make sure that the navigation equipment was working correctly.
The cold water and lack of wood-eating marine organisms in the Weddell Sea have ravaged wrecks elsewhere.
Mr. Bound said that the wreck was intact, despite the damage to the mast and rigging.
The video showed damage to the decks and broken masts.
The hunt for the wreck, which cost more than $10 million, was conducted from a South African ship that left Cape Town in February. The search went well despite a few technical problems and a day of icebound operations.
For about six hours at a time, the battery-powered submersibles combed the seafloor. They used a tool to find anything that was above the ocean. High-resolution cameras and other instruments were used to make detailed images and scans after the wreck was found.
The wreck is considered a historical monument under the terms of the treaty. The images and scans will be used in educational materials and museum exhibits. There is a documentary planned.
The bay on the Weddell Sea was supposed to be the starting point for an attempt by him and a small party to be the first to cross the ice. This was close to the end of what has become known as the heroic age of exploration, which included treks by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who in 1911 was the first to reach the pole, and by Robert Falcon Scott, a Briton who died after reaching it a month later.
He was a hero in Britain because of his exploits, which included an 800-mile open-boat journey across the Southern Ocean to the island of South Georgia, but he never made it to the pole or beyond.
The thick, long- lasting sea ice of the Weddell causes a circular current that keeps much ice within it. In January 1915, Endurance became stuck less than 100 miles from its destination and was stuck for 10 months as the ice slowly crushed it.
After the ship sank, the crew set up camp on the ice and lived on it for five months.
In recent years ice conditions have been lighter than usual in the Weddell Sea. The situation this year made it easier for the expedition to reach the search site. The search area was left on Tuesday for the voyage back to Cape Town.
The Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany has several ice researchers on board. Dr. Arndt and others spent a lot of time on the ice drilling cores to study how the sea ice may change as the world warms. She said on Monday that they had collected 630 samples from 17 locations.
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