Shackleton's ship Endurance discovered in Antarctica

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/shackletons-legendary-sunken-ship-endurance-discovered-in-antarctica
 

Quote

 

Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship Endurance, which sank in 1915 in Antarctica, has been discovered 10,000 feet deep at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

The ship, which sank under pack ice as Shackleton attempted to cross the Antarctic continent, was discovered sometime last week upright on the ocean floor by the Endurance22 expedition, which began its search last month. The project used submersible vehicles that captured ghostly footage showing rope draped across the deck, the ship’s wheel and the brass nameplate ‘Endurance’ on the stern.

 

 

[shep854]

Wow!  Amazing preservation.

[Stuart Galbraith]

that is remarkable, particularly when its remembered the manner in which she sank.

[Ssnake]

Not so remarkable when you consider that it's pretty damned cold water where all organisms that could corrode the ship have very slow metabolism rates. The ship was half flooded for several days before the ice pressure released to let it sink. So it was about as gentle as a ship sinking gets after cracking a wooden hull.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I'm more astonished she is broadly intact than the condition, no wood boring organisms apparently.

I'm told that as well as a full photographic study, they have done a full laser scan, so hopefully we might get a good look at her on VR.

[Ssnake]

Again, the hull was cracked open during the ice drifts, but it wasn't completely smashed. So water filled the lower hull but the ship was still in the ice vise. Once that the ice pressure relented she simply sank to the bottom; it couldn't capsize, keel over, it didn't go down vertically, and apparently hit the sea floor at a not too great velocity (being wooden probably helped).

If there are wood boring organisms (and I guess eventually there will be), the extreme cold in antarctic waters slows down the metabolism rates. Ice ocean organisms can get very old, but they mostly live in a state of super slow motion.