Contents
Contents
Endurance
History
In the early 1910s, Norwegian whaling magnate and philanthropist Lars Christensen and Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache came up with a joint business venture: a luxury cruise vessel designed for polar sailing, to take wealthy tourists and hunters into the arctic to hunt polar bears, among other relatively rare arctic animals.
Their plans materialized with Norwegian ship designer Ole Aanderud Larsen's design for the proposed ship. Named Polaris, the ship would be a three-masted barquentine with a steam engine and reinforced structure. An extra thick outer hull and considerable inner supports ensured Polaris could hold its own against the ice. By 1911 the ship was under construction at Framnæs Mekaniske Værksted (Framnæs Shipyard) in Sandefjord, Norway. Construction was supervised by renowned shipwright Christian Jacobsen. Untypically, Jacobsen mandated that all workers be not only highly skilled in ship building, but in whaling or sealing. This requirement guaranteed the builders knew what a vessel needed to survive in the polar regions.
Polaris launched on December 17, 1912. Designed for luxury cruises, it was outfitted with a large galley and mess, a darkroom for developing photographs, a fumoir (smoking room), and electric lighting.
Unfortunately, de Gerlache was forced to withdraw from his partnership with Christensen due to financial difficulties. Christensen could not complete the venture on his own, and looked to sell the ship. The ship's unique features made this difficult. It had little storage room, so it wasn't suitable for large hunting parties. And while luxurious for a polar vessel, it was not luxurious enough for wealthy tourists. Christensen needed to sell fast in order to pay off the shipyard.
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton began organizing his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He needed a ship to take him and his crew to Antarctica as well as hold up in the treacherous Weddell Sea. He found the perfect match in Polaris. It was rugged enough for the harsh climate and had relatively luxurious accommodations—perfect for the long journey ahead. Christensen, an enthusiast of polar exploration, was eager to sell the ship to Shackleton. Shackleton could not initially afford to pay, so Christensen even paid the deposit himself. He sold it to Shackleton for £14,000 (equivalent to about £1,400,000, or $1,900,000 today). The move was a financial loss to Christensen, and didn't fully cover the costs of the ship's construction.
Shackleton changed the name to Endurance, after his family motto "Fortitudine Vincimus" (Latin for "By endurance we conquer"). The ship was refitted, with a new black lower hull and the tween deck converted into a cargo hold. Three* ships were added to it: a whaleboat and two cutters. They would later be named the James Caird, the Dudley Docker, and the Stancomb Wills. Finally, the ship sent sail from Plymouth on August 1, 1914.
*According to photographs, there were actually four boats. Records on this fourth are scarce because it was not taken when the crew abandoned ship, and was not named like the other three. In photographs, it appears to be a whaleboat similar to the James Caird. It was likely left behind because it was heavier than the cutters, and the crew needed to travel light. Initially, the crew only took two boats and only later went back for a third. It would have been difficult to take all four; or it may have been damaged during Endurance's drift and final days.After stops in Madeira, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and South Georgia, Endurance finally reached the Weddell Sea a few days later in December 1914, on course for the expedition's landing site: Vahsel Bay. It immediately encountered pack ice far worse than ever recorded. Several times ice floes surrounded the ship, temporarily holding it in place. Progress toward Vahsel Bay was slow, and the ice conditions were worsening. On January 24, 1915, Endurance became fully beset and unable to move.
For months the crew maintained a routine, waiting for the floes to break up, but they never did. Endurance drifted around the Weddell Sea, moving with the ice. In August, pressure waves caused the ship to begin listing to support, resting at 5°. For the next several months, the ship increasingly showed signs of the incredible pressure it was under. The decks began to buckle and the hull creaked and groaned. On October 18, another pressure wave caused Endurance to list to 30°, though after a few hours it returned to a level position. On October 24, mounting pressure caused sections of the hull to give in and the ship began taking on water. At 5 pm on October 27, 1915, the crew abandoned ship. On November 21, late in the afternoon, the floes finally parted and Endurance sank to the bottom of the Weddell Sea.
The wreck laid undisturbed for over a century, until an expedition in 2022 aboard the S.A. Agulhas II located it at a depth of 9,865 feet (3,008 meters) just over six miles from where Captain Frank Worsley had estimated its position. Endurance was found in remarkable condition, and remains undisturbed as a protected site under the Antarctic Treaty System.
Construction
Endurance was built to survive the dangerous ice floes of the polar regions. It measured 144 ft in length with a 25 ft beam and a gross tonnage of 350 tons. The hull used multiple layers of wood throughout its thick structure including solid oak and Norwegian fir. The outer hull was 18–30 inches thick, twice the thickness of a typical ship. The outer layer was made of greenheart, a dense and durable wood from South America known for its resistance to rot and marine borers. The keel was even thicker at 85 inches. The bow was 52 inches thick, designed to ram into ice. It had additional cross-braced internal supports to resist lateral pressure.
The foremast was square-rigged while the mainmast and mizzenmast were fore-and-aft rigged. The Barquentine also had a 350 hp coal-fired steam engine giving it a top speed of 10.2 knots.
Most polar ships of the time had rounded bottoms to help them rise above the ice when pressure was applied. However, Endurance was not intended to be within the ice for protracted periods. Instead, its keel and hull were extra thick to ram into and break through the ice. It's flat keel would not help it rise above the ice, but the thick hull and extra internal supports would help it resist the pressure of the ice. At the time, it may have been the strongest wooden ship ever built.