A new study reveals why endurance has flowed

The British polar explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton has established his place in the annals of history after having ensured the survival of all his crew after the sinking of Endurance In 1915. A new paper highlighted the state of the infamous ship – and what Shackleton knew it before leaving.

Jukka Tuhkuri, a polar explorer and researcher specializing in ice mechanics and Arctic Marine Technology at the Finnish Aalto University, revealed that Endurance was not as solid as it was largely raw, and that Shackleton knew his structural gaps. His work adds nuances to one of the most famous survival stories over 100 years since the death of the explorer and three years since him and the rest of the Endurance22 mission found the sinking.

A dramatic turn of events

In August 1914, Shackleton and his crew sailed from England. The imperial trans-through-to-year expedition was aimed at making the first land crossing on the Antarctic continent. The plan was for a team to go on Weddell Sea hike on the South Pole to the Ross Sea, but the main shipping ship Endurance I was stuck in Pack Ice in 1915 and was finally crushed, flowing underwater in November. The 28 crew members survived the ice before using boats to reach Elephant Island. From there, a small team including Shackleton sailed 800 miles (1,300 km) to the island of Southern Georgia to get help. In September 1916, the whole Endurance The crew had been rescued without losing a single life.

“Even a simple structural analysis shows that the ship was not designed for the compression package ice conditions which finally sank it,” said Tuhkuri in a declaration from the University of Aalto. “The danger of moving ice and compression charges – and how to design a ship for such conditions – was well understood before the ship sails south. So we really have to ask ourselves why Shackleton has chosen a ship that was not reinforced for compression ice. ”

According to Tuhkuri, Endurance is widely considered the strongest polar ship of its time, but with a defect – a problem with the rudder – this would lead to its unhappy end. By combining technical analysis and archival research in a study published today in the Revue Polar Record, the researcher revealed that it was an erroneous perception.

“”Endurance Clearly, several structural deficiencies compared to other early antarctic vessels, “he said.” The bundles and bridge frames were lower, the machine compartment was longer, leading to a serious weakening in an important part of the shell, and there were no diagonal beams to strengthen the shell. Not only does this challenge the romantic account that it was the strongest polar ship of his time, but he also denies the simplistic idea that the rudder was the Achilles heel of the ship. “”

Why did Shackleton sail Endurance?

Despite investigating Shackleton intimate newspapers, personal correspondence and other crew communications, Tuhkuri does not know why Shackleton decided to navigate with Endurance. He knew the problems of the ship – Tuhkuri said that the explorer complained to his wife before the start of the expedition, wishing his previous ship.

“In fact, he had recommended diagonal beams for another polar ship when visiting a Norwegian shipyard. This same ship was stuck in compression ice for months and survived,” said Tuhkuri.

As such, the document arouses an interesting question. Was the ship “unhappy” or was it bad calls to the heart? Tuhkuri, however, chose to leave it unanswered. Although he hopes that his research will contribute a new point of view to our understanding of the ship, he says that he does not try to decrease Shackleton and the accomplishment of his crew.

“We can speculate on financial pressures or time constraints, but the truth is that we may never know why Shackleton has made the choices he has made. At least now we have more concrete discoveries to expand the stories,” he concluded.