An expedition discovered the wreck of the ship, which was trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915, this month.

The Endurance had been missing for more than a century and was led by the renowned British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

It was assumed that it would be destroyed or degraded after it had been on the seafloor for over 100 years.

It was surprisingly intact when the explorers found it in March.

The director of exploration Mensun Bound said that it was the finest wooden wreck he had ever seen.

The name Endurance is visible across the stern.

The stern of the Endurance with the name and emblematic polestar
The stern of the Endurance with the name and emblematic polestar.
Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust/ National Geographic

The sea life that feeds on wood was unable to survive in the icy waters of theAntarctica, so the Endurance was frozen in time.

Over the past 100 years, other marine life has colonized the ship.

The Endurance is sprinkled with an impressive diversity of deep-sea marine life, including stalked sea squirts, anemones, sponges, brittlestars, and crinoids.

Mensun Bound, left, director of exploration, and John Shears, the expedition leader.Credit...
Mensun Bound, left, director of exploration, and John Shears, the expedition leader.
Esther Horvath

The lost ship was found at a depth of almost two miles down. It was four miles south of the original position recorded a century ago by the captain.

Bound said that the navigation skills and detailed records of Worsley from November 1915 were valuable in helping to locate the wreck.

The New York Times reported that the expedition used historic coordinates and advanced technology to find the missing vessel.

An undersea drone
An undersea drone being used to scan for the Endurance.
Esther Horvath

The Times reported that technicians ran underwater drones in that zone for two weeks, day and night, to look for the Endurance.

The paper said that the drones carried radar equipment on either side, which was able to Scan vast sections of the seafloor beneath it.

'The world's most challenging shipwreck search'

The expedition had no luck for weeks. John Shears described the task of locating a ship in remote and icy waters as the world's most challenging search.

On the afternoon of March 5, the drone sent back images that suggested the Endurance had been found, days before the license to explore the area expired.

The discovery was made public four days later. Shears described that moment as apolar history.

The control center for the undersea drones.
The control center for the undersea drones.
Esther Horvath

The ship is being surveyed and filmed, but will not be touched, as it is now protected as a historic site.

Bound said that it is not all about the past.

A tale of survival and endurance

One of the best-known tales of survival and endurance is the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition.

When the Endurance became trapped in pack ice in January 1915, the expedition had to abandon its attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

The crew had to abandon the ship in order to set up a camp. When the spring arrived, the ice broke, but instead of allowing the ship to drift towards safety, water seeped in and eventually sunk the Endurance.

Shackleton leaves Elephant Island on the James Caird
Shackleton leaves Elephant Island on the James Caird.
Frank Hurley/ Wikimedia Commons

The crew of Shackleton camped on ice for months before rowing hundreds of miles to Elephant Island.

The crew of the open boat James Caird traveled to South Georgia whaling stations. Some of the men went across the island to reach the whales.

The crew on Elephant Island were saved when rescue missions began in August 1916.

In 1921, he went back to South Georgia for another expedition. He died of a heart attack at 47 years old and is buried on the island.

After discovering the ship, the Endurance22 team visited the grave of Shackleton, according to a sea ice physicist who was on the expedition.

She wrote that it was an emotional end to the story.