Easter’s lost ship will decay unless preserved, archaeologist says

The archaeologist who found the wreck has said that Ernest Shackleton's lost ship, Endurance, will decay out of existence on the Antarctic seabed unless it is raised and preserved.

Mensun Bound, who found the vessel in March, said the question of whether it should be hauled out of freezing waters is a hot potato and brings a cavalcade of legal and logistical issues.

Bound said at an event in London organised by law firm BDB Pitmans who assisted his expedition: "There are a lot of contrasting views on raising the ship. We have a lot of ideas on that one, and we have to remember the Shackleton family, who have very strong views of their own."

We have to think about conserving it and the process of that, which museum is going to take that, which could take forever and a day. If we leave it there, it is going to decay some time beyond our lifetime. Shortly after Endurance was found, explorer granddaughter Alexandra Shackleton said she would prefer it to remain in place.

Endurance was found 3,000 metres deep and four miles south of the position of the ship captain, Frank Worsley, by the Endurance 22 search team.

Shackleton and his crew set out to reach the first land crossing of Antarctica, but Endurance failed to reach land and became trapped in dense pack ice, forcing the 28 men to abandon ship.

On November 21st, 1915, the vessel broke up and sank below the Weddell Sea. The crew had been stuck in the ice for 10 months before escaping in lifeboats and on foot.

TV historian Dan Snow said the search for Endurance was lucky as they were able to navigate the sea ice with relative ease. He said that we had a great search box, which Mensun Bound worked out, looking at all the data from 1915, looking at where the ship probably sank.

They were still doing readings with the sun to fix their position, latitude and longitude, and they made daily weather observations, things like that.

If we couldn't get close to the box, the plan was to use helicopters to lift, which was a crazy plan, all the equipment needed to build a camp on the ice, drill a massive hole in the ice and drop the drones like VHS tapes through the ice.

The idea of bonkers is that the ice is erratically moving because it is ever-shifting. The team deployed a drone off the back of the ship to move around the area.

Bound has revealed that he plans to look more closely at the wreck, which is by far the finest wooden shipwreck he has ever seen.

He added: She is the ultimate sealed box mystery, it is an Aladdin's cave.

It is like the film Citizen Kane with all the antiques, everything is there in that box.

We can look through some gaps if the technology is there.

We are anxious to conduct a proper marine biological survey because she is this incredible oasis in a vast plain.