Endurance, Weddell Sea, Dec. 1914

Endurance was a steam-assisted barquentine built at Sandefjord, Norway, in 1912. Intended for tourist cruises in the Arctic, she was chosen by Ernest Shackleton to convey his 1914-16 Trans-Antarctic expedition party to the Weddell Sea from where he and six men would cross the continent via the South Pole. After leaving England in August 1914, Endurance cleared her last landfall on South Georgia on 5th December and entered the pack ice in the Weddell Sea on the 11th. A month of intermittent progress followed but, by mid-January 1915, the ship was stuck fast in the ice from which she never escaped. Although Endurance was subsequently crushed and sunk, her crew was eventually rescued after Shackleton's legendary mission to get help which is now recognised as one of the most epic journeys in the history of exploration.