Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance, lost since 1915, is found off Antarctica

The ship was trapped in ice during the failed attempt to cross the ocean.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The lost ship of Ernest Shackleton has been found 106 years after it sank.

The wooden ship Endurance has been found underwater in the Weddell Sea.

Mensun Bound, a maritime archaeologist and director of exploration on the expedition, said that the find was a milestone in polar history.

This is the best wooden wreck I have ever seen. It is in a brilliant state of preservation and upright. You can see it across the stern.

The Endurance was found by an expedition 106 years after it sank.

Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust & National Geographic

As World War I began in 1914, the British explorer Shackleton set out to go to the South Pole. The plan was for Shackleton to take 27 men on two ships and explore two routes by sledge across the ice. In January 1915, the Endurance became trapped in ice off the coast of Antarctica.

The men lived on the ship for a long time, but the ice began to crush it. The order to abandon the Endurance was given by Shackleton. The men were told to get no more than two pounds of gear from the ship, as much of the supplies had already been cut off due to the broken timbers. The Endurance sank into the sea in 1915.

The crew made a new camp on an ice floe, and their ambition to cross the ocean dissipated. The mission was now one of survival, a saga that would stretch into August 1916 before all the men were rescued.

The Aurora was trapped in ice. The three men who died before the final members of the crew were rescued were from that voyage.

The crew poses on the deck of the Endurance.

Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

The expedition to find the Endurance will leave Cape Town, South Africa, on February 5.

John Shears, the expedition leader, said the hunt for Endurance was probably the most challenging wreck search ever done.

An expedition set sail from Cape Town, South Africa, to find a lost ship.

Nick Birtwistle/Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust

The sunken ship was found with the help of the expedition. The ship was located about 4 miles south of where Frank Worsley had noted it in 1915.

The team used an underwater vehicle with a camera to confirm what they had found.

The starboard bow of the Endurance.

Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust & National Geographic

Shears said that it can only be one ship. I think we are the fourth ship to ever get into this place. It is called Endurance. It can be nothing else.

Shears was amazed by the condition of the vessel, which has hardly anything living on it and some of the original paint is intact.

You can see inside the hatchways, the stairs, the ropes and the rigging. He said it was as if it sank yesterday.

Jean-Christope Caillens, off-shore manager, is shown weather data by a senior meteorologist from the South African Weather Service.

Esther Horvath

The wreck is protected as a monument under the treaty. The Endurance will not be disturbed because it is being filmed and surveyed.

The crew is going back to Cape Town.

The director of exploration and the leader of the expedition stand on the ice of the sea.

Esther Horvath

The exploration director said that the discovery is not only about the past, but also about bringing the story of Shackleton and Endurance to the next generation.

Bound said that they hope the discovery will engage young people and inspire them with the spirit and courage of those who sailed the Endurance.