Antarctica: Following Shackleton’s Endurance mission 100 years on
No British research ship has been this far south at this time of year since 1915, as ITV News' Science Correspondent Martin Stew explains
We’ve been in the Antarctic Circle for three weeks now. Each day, we edge closer to midwinter, as the thickening sea ice inches toward us.
Our next stop is Elephant Island, at the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Scientists are collecting data from a nearby glacier, but there’s also an emotional connection.
It was on Elephant Island that Shackleton’s men made their base after being stranded when the Endurance was crushed by ice and sank in 1915.
In total, they survived nearly two years on the ice before being rescued - in one of the most daring missions in polar history.
No British research ship has been this far south at this time of year since then. Now, it’s up to Captain Will Whatley to get us there - to mark the southern winter solstice, or midwinter, and make a new chapter in history.
“I love reading polar history while in the Polar Region,” Captain Will tells me. He first became interested in Shackleton’s adventures as a 19-year-old, joining the British Antarctic Survey. Now, just turned 36, he’s the man in charge.
A lot has changed since the Endurance. The hull of the RRS Sir David Attenborough is made of inch-thick steel, not wood, for starters. Even so, they have to plan for the worst.
The ship has several lifeboats. The two largest can each hold all 90 passengers in a squeeze — and it would certainly be that tight.
There are two chemical mini toilets, rations that look like firelights, and sea-sickness tablets, which are mandatory on the bobbing boat. It’s fair to say survival takes priority over comfort.
If the sea is frozen over, the ship is also equipped with enough camping gear to sleep and survive in the ice for 20 days. Hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of super-warm clothing for 100 people is stored onboard - hopefully never to be used.
Cadets showed me the meticulously maintained safety equipment: bags filled with dried food, water purification tablets, shovels, and even giant, vicious-looking saws.
The gruesome end of Arctic explorers aboard Erebus and Terror springs to mind, but I’m assured these tools are for cutting ice blocks, not human flesh!
We laugh about the grim prospects of anything going wrong, but it’s reassuring to know safety is taken extremely seriously.
Back on the bridge, Captain Will and his team keep watch 24 hours a day. Even when stationary, bergs can drift in from any direction.
In Antarctica, midwinter’s day is a big deal. I’m incredibly lucky to be celebrating it south of 60 degrees latitude onboard a British research ship for the first time in more than a century.
I just hope our journey home will be a little smoother and a lot quicker than Shackleton’s crew experienced.
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