0:02

Sir Ernest Shackleton's nineteen fourteen

0:05

expedition to Antarctica is one of the most

0:07

astonishing adventure stories of

0:09

all

0:09

time. A ship crushed and

0:11

sunk by surging walls of ice. No

0:14

ship built by human hands could have

0:16

withstand the drain. She went down

0:19

boughs first. Her

0:20

stern, raised in the air, and

0:22

the ice closed over her forever.

0:26

A cruise stranded for almost two

0:28

years, an eight hundred

0:31

mile journey by lifeboat, a heroic

0:33

rescue, and then a century

0:36

of trying to find the shipwreck. In

0:38

twenty twenty two, an international team

0:40

of explorers found EARN's

0:43

chapel and Shipwreck Endurance.

0:45

And today, they'll tell us how they

0:47

did it. I'm David Pogue, and

0:49

this is Unsung

0:55

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of The Wonder Show Business Movers. In

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our latest series, An Intrepid lawyer

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turned fast food executive named George

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Cohen creates an ingenious and wily

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scheme to sell big macs behind

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the iron curtain in the middle of the Cold

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War. Listen to business movers, the

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McDonald's invasion, on Amazon Music,

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or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:57

Season two episode seven, how

1:59

they found the shipwreck endurance. Could

2:02

somebody please tell me

2:04

how the story Ernest Shackleton has

2:06

never become a movie. I mean,

2:09

how is this not the greatest adventure

2:11

ever told?

2:12

Nineteen fourteen, British

2:14

explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, plans

2:17

to become the first man to cross

2:19

the antarctic continent as he

2:21

later wrote in his memoir read

2:23

here by a voice actor Tim Redman. The

2:26

first crossing of the Antarctic continent

2:28

from sea to sea via the pool will

2:30

be a journey of great scientific importance.

2:33

The distance will be roughly one thousand eight

2:35

hundred miles. Every step will

2:37

be in advance in geographical science.

2:39

According to legend, he puts this ad

2:42

in the times of London. Men wanted

2:44

the hazardous journey, small

2:46

wages, bit of cold, long

2:48

months of complete darkness, constant

2:51

danger, safe return doubtful,

2:53

honor and recognition in case

2:55

of success.

2:59

Shackleton is famously charismatic

3:02

and persuasive. He gets his

3:04

men alright. They call him,

3:06

the boss. But he

3:09

still needs a ship, and he hears

3:11

about an amazing brand new,

3:13

barking ship painted white

3:15

and gold sitting in a Norwegian

3:17

shipyard. She's a beauty

3:19

built from Oak and Norwegian fir

3:21

with a hull fifth fifty two inches

3:24

thick made to withstand polar

3:26

conditions. She's got three masks,

3:29

plus a three hundred fifty horsepower

3:31

coal fired steam engine. And

3:33

her name is Polaris,

3:36

that you didn't see that coming. Two

3:39

Norwegian explorers had commissioned

3:42

Polaris' construction, but before

3:44

they can make the final payments, they get into

3:46

a spat and the band breaks up.

3:48

So Ernest Shackleton swoops in

3:51

and buys the ship for a song.

3:53

He retro fits the middle deck for cargo,

3:56

He repaints the ship black. He equips

3:58

her with three robots, each round

4:00

twenty two feet long. Finally,

4:03

he renames her. Inspired

4:05

by his family motto, 2

4:07

dene Vincimus. By endurance,

4:10

we conquer. He dubbed her

4:12

endurance with no

4:15

idea how prophetic that name

4:17

would turn out to be. Only

4:19

one sign of the ship's original decoration

4:21

remains, a metal five

4:23

pointed star on the stern.

4:27

On October twenty six nineteen

4:29

fourteen, Endurance set

4:31

sail from Buenos Aires, carrying

4:33

twenty eight men and sixty

4:35

nine sled dogs. In

4:39

December, Endurance entered the wet

4:41

old sea between the tip of South America

4:44

and ad arctic continent. The

4:46

whale is one cold, nasty

4:48

body of water. It's famous for

4:51

thick long lasting packs of

4:53

sea

4:53

ice, held in place by

4:55

a massive circulating current. The

4:57

Red Sea is the only region in that Arctic

5:00

where the ice survived the summer

5:02

melt.

5:03

Meet polar researcher, Lasse Robenstein.

5:06

Should I pronounce it, the German way? Should

5:08

I say, Robenstein? I think Most

5:11

native English native speakers say Robinsteiner.

5:13

The translation would be Ravenstone, actually.

5:15

But that's wild. Well, Pogue is

5:17

Gaelic for kiss. Yeah. used

5:20

to help me out with with blind dates.

5:22

I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone

5:25

who knows more about sea ice

5:27

than lassa.

5:28

Ice is very dynamic. Ice

5:31

is pushed around by

5:33

the wind. And at some point,

5:36

ice can be ripped

5:38

apart. It can push together

5:40

again. And then ice ridges

5:42

pile up. You cannot imagine it like

5:45

a frozen lake at home in winter, which

5:47

is nice and

5:48

smooth. It's an impassable terrain

5:51

almost. It's it's full of ice ridges,

5:54

That effect spelled doom for endurance.

5:57

Here's how Shaquleton described the morning

5:59

of January

6:00

nineteenth, nineteen fifteen. The

6:02

ice had closed around the ship during the

6:05

night, packed heavily and firmly all around

6:07

the endurance every direction as

6:09

far as the eye could reach from the masthead. There

6:11

was nothing to be done till the conditions changed,

6:14

and we waited through the succeeding days

6:16

with increasing anxiety. They

6:18

were agonizingly close to their goal.

6:21

Land was insight to the east and

6:23

south about sixteen miles

6:25

distant. The men tried

6:27

ramming their way out, sawing their

6:29

way out, chiseling their way out. In

6:32

the end, all they could do was

6:34

wait it out. Hoped for a thaw

6:36

or another gale to move the ice away.

6:40

The men and the dogs lived on their pinned

6:42

ship for ten months.

6:45

Shackleton was not only a charismatic personality,

6:48

he also turned out to be something of a

6:50

mental health genius. He

6:53

knew that it would be essential to prevent his men

6:55

from falling into despair, giving

6:57

up hope, turning on him and each other.

7:00

So he structured the days. He

7:02

established routines, assignments,

7:04

events, there were soccer games on the

7:06

ice and hockey games. They

7:08

went cross country skiing. They

7:10

kept up with their scientific sampling. They

7:13

put on shows in the evenings with

7:15

bits of costumes and music from

7:17

the record

7:18

player. They gave each other haircuts

7:20

and held sled dog races. And

7:23

on the fifteenth of the month, the great race.

7:25

The Antarctic Darn he took place. It

7:28

was a notable event, the betting had

7:30

been heavy involving stores of chocolate

7:32

and

7:32

cigarettes. They posed

7:34

for photos and films taken by crew

7:36

photographer Frank Hurley. Go

7:38

to YouTube and look at some of Hurley's stuff.

7:41

It's incredible footage.

7:43

I mean, it's from nineteen fifteen It's

7:46

all in black and white, but the footage

7:48

is super sharp and you really

7:51

get a sense of those months of waiting.

7:54

By October, the ice was crushing

7:57

the ship. The boss realized

7:59

that the smart thing to do was unload

8:01

all the food and supplies and set up

8:03

a camp on the

8:04

ice. The flows with the force

8:06

of millions of tons of moving ice behind

8:09

them were simply annihilating the ship.

8:11

After long months of ceaseless anxiety and

8:14

strain, the end of the endurance has

8:16

come. That we are alive and well

8:18

and we have stores and equipment for the task

8:20

that lies before

8:21

us. The task is to reach land

8:23

with all members of the expedition. The

8:27

forces on the ship got thicker

8:29

and got larger and at

8:31

some point it just reached the

8:33

limit of what the ship could

8:35

withstand. 2 ship just

8:37

sinks down to the bottom of the ocean. On

8:40

November twenty one, nineteen

8:42

fifteen, the ship went

8:44

down. Shackleton

8:47

ordered the ship's flag hoisted up the mast,

8:49

so she'd go down with colors

8:51

flying.

8:54

No ship built by human hands could

8:56

have withstand the strain. She went

8:58

down, bowed first, her

9:00

stern, raised in the air, and

9:02

the ice closed over her forever.

9:06

Without her, our 2 seems

9:08

more emphasized. Our desolation

9:11

more complete.

9:13

They set up five flimsy tents on

9:16

an ice flow. By April nineteen

9:18

sixteen, a year and three

9:20

months since getting stuck, the

9:22

weather was getting warmer and the ice

9:25

flows were beginning to thaw. You

9:27

might think that'd be good news, but

9:29

then At eleven

9:31

AM, our flow suddenly split right

9:33

across under the boats. The

9:35

crack had cut through the side of my tent.

9:38

I still on the edge of the new fracture and

9:41

looking across the widening channel of water

9:43

could see the spot where for many months my

9:45

head and shoulders had rested when I was in

9:47

my sleeping bag, how fragile

9:50

and precarious had been our resting place.

9:52

Our home was being shattered under

9:54

our

9:55

feet, and we had a sense of loss

9:57

and incompleteness hard to describe.

10:00

How is this story not a movie? They

10:03

needed to find solid ground. Shackleton

10:06

loaded up the Endurance's three lifeboats with

10:08

supplies crammed all twenty

10:10

eight men onto them and set out

10:12

for a little uncharted rock of land

10:15

called Elephant Island. About

10:17

a hundred miles away. It

10:19

took them a week through stormy seas

10:22

and dangerous icebergs.

10:24

Temperature was twenty degrees below freezing

10:26

point. We had now had one

10:28

hundred and eight hours of

10:29

toil, tumbling, freezing,

10:31

and soaking. With little or no

10:34

sleep. On April fifteenth,

10:36

they became the first humans

10:39

ever to set foot on Elephant

10:41

Island. Their first solid

10:43

ground in four hundred ninety

10:45

seven days. They were

10:47

ecstatic.

10:49

The men were reeling about the beach as

10:51

if they had found an unlimited supply of

10:53

alcoholic liquor on the desolate shore.

10:55

They were laughing uproariously picking up

10:57

stones and letting handfuls of pebbles

11:00

trickle between their fingers, like miser's

11:02

bloating over hoarded gold. The

11:04

smiles and laughter, which caused cracked

11:06

lips to bleed afresh. Made me

11:09

think of that glittering hour of childhood

11:11

when the door is open at last and

11:13

the Christmas tree in all its wonder

11:15

bursts upon the vision.

11:18

Elephant Island had fresh water

11:20

and plenty of seals and penguins to

11:22

eat, but they still had no ship,

11:25

no shelter, except their upside

11:27

down lifeboats, and no

11:29

way to communicate with rest of the world.

11:32

Privation and exposure had left

11:34

their mark on the party. And the health and

11:36

mental condition of several men were causing

11:38

me serious anxiety. Then

11:40

the food supply was a vital consideration. A

11:43

boat journey in search of relief was necessary

11:46

and must not be

11:47

delayed. That conclusion was forced

11:49

upon me. Shackleton chose

11:51

five of his healthiest men to accompany

11:54

him on a trip to South Georgia

11:56

Island over eight hundred

11:58

miles away. There actually was

12:00

a closer outpost, but reaching

12:02

it would mean sailing five hundred and forty

12:05

miles into the raging winds.

12:08

He had the ship's carpenter rig up the

12:10

biggest roadboat with makeshift sails

12:12

to take advantage of the winds blowing toward

12:15

South Georgia Island. The boss

12:17

appointed captain Frank Wilde

12:20

in charge of the twenty two men who

12:22

would remain on Elephant Island. Then

12:24

he loaded up the boat with supplies and

12:26

thirty six gallons of water and

12:28

set sail to get help.

12:32

The perils of the proposed journey were extreme.

12:35

The ocean south of Cape Horn in the middle

12:37

of May is known to be the most tempestuous

12:39

storm swept area of water in the world.

12:42

The weather then is unsettled, and

12:44

the gales are almost unceasing.

12:47

We had to face these conditions in

12:49

a small and weather beaten boat.

12:52

We're talking hurricane force

12:54

winds, sub zero temperatures,

12:57

and the sixty foot waves

13:00

known as the Cape Horn rollers.

13:03

Real rest we had none. We

13:05

were cold, sore, and anxious.

13:08

We fought the seas and the winds and

13:10

at the same time had a daily struggle

13:13

to keep ourselves alive.

13:16

How is this not a movie? Finally,

13:19

after seventeen days at sea

13:21

and then thirty six hours crossing

13:24

the rugged island on foot, they

13:26

reached the whaling station. On

13:28

May twenty nineteen sixteen,

13:31

frostbitten, filthy, stringy

13:33

haired, gaunt, and haggard.

13:36

The thought that there might be women at the station

13:38

made us painfully conscious of our uncivilized

13:41

appearance. Our beards were long

13:43

and our hair was matted. We were

13:45

unwashed, and the garments that we had worn

13:47

for nearly year without a change were

13:49

tattered and stained. Close

13:51

to the station, we met two small boys,

13:54

ten or twelve years of age, I

13:56

asked these lads where the manager's house was

13:58

situated. They ran from us

14:00

as fast as their legs could carry them.

14:03

Only two hours later though, the men

14:05

were warmed, fed, cleaned

14:07

up, and dressed in new clothes, a

14:09

radical transformation. It was

14:11

only the next day that they learned

14:14

that a world war was reaching.

14:16

We were like men, arisen from the dead

14:18

2 a world gone mad, Our

14:20

minds accustomed themselves gradually

14:23

to the tail of nations in

14:25

arms of deathless courage

14:27

and unimagined slaughter, a vast

14:30

red battlefields. The reader

14:32

may not realize quite how difficult it was

14:34

for us to envisage nearly two years

14:37

of the most tremendous war in history.

14:40

But now, Shackleton had only one

14:42

fixation. The twenty two men

14:44

he'd left behind. My mind

14:46

was bent upon the rescue of the party on

14:48

Elephant Island for whom By

14:50

this time, I entertained very grave

14:52

fears.

14:54

Over the next three months, Shaquleton made

14:56

three attempts to return to Elephant

14:59

Island In three different

15:00

ships, each voyage had

15:03

to turn back. Our ancient

15:05

enemy, the pack, was lying in

15:07

wait. And within twenty miles of the

15:09

island, the trawler was stopped by an

15:11

impenetrable barrier of ice.

15:14

Finally, On August thirty

15:16

nineteen sixteen, he reached

15:18

Elephant Island on his fourth

15:20

attempt. A year and a half

15:23

since the Endurance had gotten stuck. At

15:25

eleven forty AM, we saw

15:27

tiny black figures, hurry to the beach,

15:30

and wave signals to us. I

15:32

recognized Wilde as I came nearer,

15:34

I called out, are you all

15:36

well? And he answered, we

15:39

are all well boss. And

15:41

then I heard three chairs. Wilde

15:43

had husband did the scanty stock of food

15:46

as far as possible and had fought

15:48

off the devils of despondency and

15:49

despair. That little sand

15:52

spit. Not

15:54

a single man perished

15:56

on the endurance expedition. They

15:59

arrived in Chile to a hero's welcome

16:01

with thirty thousand fans cheering

16:04

them in the streets. Once they'd recovered

16:06

their health back in the UK, virtually

16:08

the entire crew joined the

16:10

British military to fight in the war.

16:13

But Shaquleton didn't go home immediately His

16:16

first objective was to join the rescue mission

16:18

for the Ross Sea Party. See,

16:22

if this whole story weren't incredible enough

16:25

get this. There was a

16:27

second part of the Shackleton expedition whose

16:30

crew also wound up stranded

16:32

on the ice. And nobody knows

16:34

this part. Shackleton's

16:37

master plan involved a

16:39

second ship arriving on the

16:41

other side of Antarctica. Its

16:43

crew was supposed to leave stashes of

16:45

food and fuel along the final

16:48

quarter of Shackleton's planned journey

16:50

so shackleton's gang wouldn't have to carry

16:52

so much. Incredibly, the

16:55

supply team also wound

16:57

up stranded for about two years.

17:00

They also finally got rescued,

17:02

although three of the ten men died.

17:05

Read up on the Roth C Party sometime.

17:08

After the war, shackleton made plans

17:10

to return to the Antarctic on yet another

17:12

voyage, but he never got any

17:15

closer then South Georgia

17:17

Island. There, he

17:19

suffered a heart attack and died.

17:22

January fifth, nineteen twenty

17:24

two. He was forty

17:26

seven. For

17:28

the next one hundred and six years,

17:31

Ernest Shackleton's doomed voyage and

17:33

the crew's incredible survival became

17:36

the stuff of legend. There have been

17:38

books and TV shows and

17:40

documentaries. Although for

17:42

some reason, no movie. And

17:45

nobody ever saw the ship itself again.

17:48

For a lot of explorers, endurance is

17:50

the holy grail of shipwrecks, and

17:53

it shouldn't be that hard to find. We

17:55

know where it went down, Supposedly

17:58

captain Wursley at the time

18:01

marked the position of

18:03

the ship when it went down and

18:05

we have those notes. So

18:07

why is it so difficult? Why is

18:10

it taken until now to find the

18:12

inhertz? Several reasons. So first,

18:15

it is a big effort to go into

18:17

this region because of the ice.

18:19

So you need a good ship,

18:21

you need a lot of money, The second,

18:24

the ice drifts all the time. They

18:26

might have traveled a couple of Nordic miles

18:28

just with the ice, but the

18:31

frankversely didn't notice this

18:33

because you don't feel the drift of the

18:35

ice. I guess there's not a ton of

18:37

suspense about whether or not Shackleton's

18:39

ship was ever found You've probably

18:42

noticed the title of this episode. But

18:44

after the break, you'll find out how

18:46

at last the endurance was

18:48

found. A

18:54

few days before Christmas, Janelle Matthews

18:56

disappeared from her home. There

18:58

were no signs of a struggle, no eyewitnesses,

19:01

no DNA recovered. What

19:03

if the answer had always been there?

19:06

What if a true crime fanatic who'd been talking

19:08

about the case was more than just an obsessive

19:10

fan? The groundbreaking

19:13

True Crime Podcast suspect is back,

19:15

with a new story that attempts to separate

19:17

fact from fiction and one man's

19:20

true crime obsession from a motive

19:22

for murder.

19:23

He says, don't with me, officer Edgerton,

19:26

I buried more people than you'll know.

19:28

He's providing information that hadn't

19:30

even been released to the new ship.

19:32

He's such a good liar that he can convince

19:34

the juror that he wasn't involved.

19:36

Follow suspect wherever you get your

19:39

podcasts. Hey, Prime members, you

19:41

can binge the entire series ad

19:43

free on Amazon Music. Download the

19:45

Amazon Music app today.

19:53

Hi. This is Jill Slessinger, CBS

19:55

News Business Analyst certified Financial

19:57

planner and host of the MoneyWatch podcast.

20:01

This is the show where your money

20:03

is not scary and it's not boring.

20:05

It is a show that's all about you.

20:08

It's your questions that make it

20:10

possible. For me to provide

20:12

unconventional and entertaining insights

20:14

on your money and maybe more importantly

20:17

on your life. I'm going to be your

20:19

financial coach. Someone who brings

20:21

common sense and an insider's perspective

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on how to manage your money and

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your emotions. And I promise we

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are going to have a little bit of fun along

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the way. Have a question from retirement

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to career changes to college funding?

20:35

Just send us an email at ask jill

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app.

20:50

Welcome back. Over the decades,

20:52

people have made various attempts to

20:54

find the wreck of the endurance in Antarctica's

20:57

wet'll see. Most of them ran

20:59

out of money, the economy tank,

21:01

whatever. It's an expensive proposition

21:04

to find the endurance. Because

21:06

it's really hard to get

21:08

to. It have been said that this is the

21:10

most unreachable Fine.

21:13

The most unreachable Shipwreck. It's

21:15

not a bad title actually. And I

21:17

must admit that this absolutely is true

21:20

because, in fact, the real issue

21:22

is high. Yes,

21:24

the ice.

21:26

Nico Van Sant is a veteran undersea

21:28

explorer. He spent twenty years

21:30

finding that the real issue is

21:32

ice. Yes, the ice.

21:36

Nico Van Sant is a veteran undersea

21:38

explorer. He spent twenty years

21:40

finding famous ships, submarines,

21:43

and planes underwater. So

21:45

when a well equipped, well funded expedition

21:47

to find Endurance finally set

21:49

off in twenty nineteen, Niko

21:51

was paying close attention. A history

21:54

channel film crew was onboard hoping

21:56

to document the discovery.

21:58

Somewhere in these frozen seas lies

22:00

the holy grail of shipwrecks. The

22:04

endurance. But

22:06

it's so hard to get to that

22:08

no one's ever been able to hunt for the wreck.

22:11

Until now, here the sea floor

22:13

plunges down forty times the height of

22:15

Niagara Falls

22:17

2 a depth of ten thousand feet.

22:19

And the crew believes this plane

22:21

is the final resting ground of

22:24

Shekelton's Shipwreck

22:28

expedition chartered the Aghulhas two

22:30

2 red, sleek,

22:32

state of the art, four forty

22:35

foot long, South African icebreaker.

22:37

She's got accommodations for a hundred, onboard

22:40

laboratories, a gym, a sauna, an

22:42

auditorium, a library, and

22:44

helicopter landing pad. And

22:47

in twenty nineteen,

22:48

it carried a very special search

22:50

tool.

22:51

They came in twenty nineteen with a set of the

22:53

art of underwater autos

22:56

underwater vehicle. Which is

22:58

absolutely the best workaround, which is

23:00

used now in open water.

23:02

That word he's saying is vehicle.

23:04

I'm not making fun of his pronunciation. Trust

23:06

me. His English is much better than

23:08

my French. Anyway, the

23:11

vehicle in question looks like a bright

23:13

orange twenty foot

23:14

torpedo. The

23:16

propeller's bite and the AUV

23:18

dives. But Nico points out

23:21

that this AUV is an

23:23

autonomous vehicle. You

23:25

preprogram it and then set it

23:27

loose. And if anything goes

23:29

wrong, this kind of VACON, once

23:32

they have

23:32

any issue, the basic solution

23:34

for them is to do an emergency ascent.

23:37

An emergency ascent, automatic

23:39

and unattended, is a good feature

23:41

for an underwater vehicle to

23:42

have. In open water.

23:46

But when there's ice, then when you're all

23:48

nice, it's quite more

23:49

complicated. Because if

23:51

you lose contact with the vehicle and do an

23:53

emergency assistant, then you're losing

23:56

the vehicle. That is precisely

23:58

what happens thirty hours into

24:00

the dive, the AUV that's

24:02

scanning the sea floor has

24:04

gone missing. If

24:07

they can't reconnect, they'll never

24:09

find out what's below. As

24:12

conditions worsen, The team

24:14

makes a difficult call. The

24:16

team holds their mission

24:18

and reluctantly heads home.

24:21

The twenty nineteen crew never saw

24:23

the AUV again. It's

24:26

lost forever under all that ice.

24:28

The history channel film about that expedition

24:31

bound up being really short. For

24:35

Nico though, the twenty nineteen expedition's

24:37

failure to find the endurance has

24:39

its useful aspects. He was

24:41

able to hire a member of its team for

24:43

a new attempt called Endurance

24:46

twenty

24:46

2. And she prepared for

24:48

him a report called

24:50

lessons learned. And this

24:52

lesson learned report has been my

24:55

bible for over two years to

24:57

build a new solution for endurance 2

24:59

without this without this

25:01

report, I think that we will never

25:04

find the endurance.

25:06

The first big lesson, no

25:08

more untethered underwater vehicles,

25:11

which don't give up their data until they come

25:13

back to your ship. So the

25:15

first decision image that 2 came in

25:17

my mind that we need to tether the

25:19

vocal to have a real time

25:22

feedback. It's about what's going on.

25:24

And it has been really the game changer between

25:26

twenty nineteen and twenty twenty

25:28

two. For the twenty twenty two mission,

25:30

the Aghulhaas two was once again

25:32

the support this time,

25:34

the star of the show was an underwater vehicle

25:36

made by Saab called the

25:39

saber tooth. It's a yellow rectangular

25:41

slab like a big metal sled,

25:44

twelve feet long, five feet wide,

25:46

two feet thick. It's ordinarily sold

25:49

to for example, oil companies 2

25:51

inspect their deep sea oil rigs.

25:54

Not only is the saber tooth tethered

25:56

to the support ship with a cable, but

25:58

it's also a hybrid. It

26:00

converts between an autonomous

26:02

underwater vehicle that executes a

26:05

prewritten program

26:06

and a robotic one that you

26:08

drive by remote control. You brush

26:10

a switch and you detect control. On the remote

26:12

control on

26:13

it, So it's quite

26:16

practical if you have an emergency

26:18

situation with

26:19

vacuum. So do you wind up using

26:22

both modes of the saber tooth? Oh,

26:24

you're ready. We use it both.

26:26

Over on two twenty two expedition, we made

26:28

thirty two dives. Over these thirty

26:31

two dives, we got eight magazines,

26:33

yes, and

26:35

So so we have been obliged to

26:37

face an expectation eight

26:40

times. What sorts of things would go

26:42

wrong that

26:42

would need an emergency cent.

26:44

Oh my god. You have a day?

26:50

For example, you are too far. Or not

26:52

on the good duration where you are too far away,

26:55

the level of battery is too low. And

26:57

we got few times dead

26:59

zone recovery just by towing

27:01

the vehicle back to the vessel because

27:04

the vehicle was almost empty of power.

27:08

So the tether is strong enough to pull the

27:10

thing back on board. It's just a fiber

27:12

optic of three point five millimeters with

27:15

some camera

27:16

around. So you may pull

27:18

on it but you have to be

27:20

careful to not pull too strong,

27:22

to not break the tether because

27:26

the breaking strength is quite low.

27:29

The expedition departed from Cape Town

27:31

South Africa on February fifth

27:33

twenty twenty two led by John

27:35

Sheers and Unsung Pound. Nikovasant

27:38

was aboard as the head of underwater operations

27:41

and the chief scientist was our

27:43

friend, Lasse Robinson. The

27:45

ten day journey to the wetter sea was

27:48

wild. We had to cross the

27:50

roaring forties and the wild fifties.

27:52

I don't know if you've known that term for

27:54

the southern 2, we

27:57

had summer conditions. I think the highest

27:59

wave we had is six meters. Six

28:01

meters is still very tall for

28:03

weeks. Yeah. That's true, but

28:05

we wanted to be fast because the charter

28:07

was limited. So we didn't want to lose

28:09

a day. Oh, yeah, about that

28:11

time limit. An anonymous donor

28:14

contributed ten million dollars to this journey,

28:16

which was organized by nonprofit called

28:18

The Falcon's Maritime Heritage Trust.

28:21

The team had chartered the Agoulhaas 2 for

28:24

five weeks with an optional

28:26

ten day extension. After

28:28

that, the ship had to go on to its

28:30

next job. So time was

28:32

of the essence. Now I have a very

28:35

small question for you. How

28:37

did you find it? Okay.

28:41

So that's help it to other small

28:43

small box. The box means

28:45

the search box, the rectangle of

28:47

sea floor that they hoped to search.

28:50

It measured eight miles by fifteen miles

28:53

and it was based on the Endurance's final

28:55

position as recorded by

28:57

captain and ace navigator Frank

28:59

Wursley Unsung nineteen fifteen's

29:02

state of the art navigational

29:03

tool, the sextant. And

29:06

believe me, it was limited

29:08

to sextant position. 2. Absolutely

29:11

accurate. So we

29:13

are extremely close from

29:15

his last known position. The

29:18

difficulties came by the fact that

29:20

usually when you cover our search

29:22

box, you call from a

29:24

point a to a point b and you have

29:26

a task plan. Here in

29:28

weather seat has been quite more complicated

29:31

because due to highs, you cannot

29:33

go from point a to point b.

29:35

So we have been obliged to

29:38

make the

29:39

sub boxes for each dive

29:41

and dive where the

29:43

highest and lowest In other words,

29:46

ideally, they'd searched the box

29:48

sequentially from left to right in

29:50

long parallel lines. But

29:52

because of those doggone ice sheets,

29:55

they had to search random mini boxes

29:58

within the search box, getting

30:00

in around the moving ice sheets as best

30:02

they could. And that wasn't the only tricky

30:04

part. The saber tooth can carry

30:06

either the equipment it needs for long range

30:08

searches of the sea floor or

30:10

the equipment it needs for close-up inspection,

30:13

but not both at the same time. For

30:16

long range search, you need side scan

30:18

sonar, For close-up inspection,

30:21

you need stuff like LiDAR, which

30:23

is laser based radar where

30:25

the laser bounces off of nearby

30:27

objects to determine their

30:28

shapes. So we got

30:31

one settings for long range

30:33

search where the primary sensor was

30:36

a side scanner. And then

30:38

for inspection, we remove this

30:40

one and install in place, the

30:42

leader, the four key cameras, the

30:45

four k broadcast cameras and and all

30:47

devices for the inspection.

30:49

Side scan sonar. There's machine that

30:51

blasts out audio pins and

30:54

then measures the echoes, stitches

30:56

the data together, and produces images

30:58

of big objects underwater. I

31:01

happen to know this because my

31:03

great uncle was one of the inventors

31:06

back in the

31:06

fifties. I don't know if you know

31:08

the name Professor Harold

31:10

Edgerton. Yeah.

31:11

Of course. My grandmother's brother. Oh

31:13

my god. Yep.

31:16

Uncle Harold. I'm very impressed.

31:21

When I was growing up, he was he

31:23

and Jack Kousto who took took

31:25

a prototype

31:27

to Loch Ness to look for the monster.

31:29

Indeed, that was everyone was talking about

31:31

that in my family. They they didn't find it. But

31:34

Yeah.

31:36

Miss Nessie is very shy. Anyway,

31:39

on the Endurance twenty two mission, a

31:41

lot of things went right. The

31:43

ice was forgiven. We were

31:45

super lucky. We needed to

31:47

go only ten nautical miles

31:50

through heavy

31:50

ice. In almost

31:52

all the years before we had to travel

31:54

a hundred 2 hundred fifteen article

31:57

miles through heavy ice. Also,

31:59

the storms held

32:00

off. Also, the saber tooth

32:02

sub worked really well. And for

32:04

Lasse, the big lucky break

32:07

was the cruise health. It's

32:10

not self granted that you have hundred

32:12

ten people on board, and

32:15

there was no large COVID outbreak

32:17

or so on board. That was biggest

32:19

threat to the expedition maybe in the end and

32:21

not the eyes.

32:23

Wow.

32:24

But

32:24

it went well. We were lucky. There was really

32:26

only one little thing that didn't go

32:28

especially well. They could

32:30

not find the dang shipwreck.

32:34

The five weeks had gone by thirty

32:36

saber tooth dives with no

32:38

sign of endurance. The

32:40

expedition managers invoked their

32:43

ten day extension on the Aghulha's charter

32:45

so they could keep looking. And

32:47

now they were eight days into

32:49

the ten day extension period, and

32:51

they still had not found

32:53

endurance. 2 search books,

32:55

where we where we thought

32:58

Iraq will be in was

33:00

eighty percent already scanned. And

33:03

we had only two days left before

33:06

the captain and the owner of the ship

33:08

borne us back to Cape Town in South

33:10

Africa. But then on

33:12

March five, twenty twenty

33:15

two, the sonar picked up

33:17

something. Niko asked

33:19

if they could drive the saber tooth around to get

33:21

a quick video on the built in camera 2

33:23

confirm that the bulky object was

33:25

in fact a ship and not you

33:28

know, a big rock. But

33:30

the pilot of the saber tooth argued that there

33:32

was no more time. He had to

33:34

bring the AUV back

33:35

up. The AUV pilot

33:38

was claiming that we

33:40

are already too low on batteries and asking

33:42

to end of dive. But I'm pressed.

33:44

I'm pressed. I'm pressed. To have the

33:46

visual

33:46

inspection. Just few

33:48

seconds to be sure that we are talking about woods.

33:51

Not only was the object made

33:53

of wood, It was in fact

33:56

the endurance.

33:57

Do you remember the first time

33:59

you heard that they had spotted it?

34:01

Yeah, as a chief scientist, I had a radio, and

34:04

I could listen to some of the other

34:06

communications onboard. And then

34:08

I heard that the Head of

34:10

Exploration and the Chief

34:14

– Head of Exploration, Cheers, they

34:16

were ordered on the bridge to meet with

34:18

nickel And I was already, like,

34:20

something is happening. And then at

34:22

dinner, a lot of people had already a

34:24

smile on their face. And I

34:26

think most people knew it already, although it

34:28

was only official after dinner

34:31

that day that they found

34:32

it. Once they'd equipped saber

34:34

tooth with its high resolution cameras and

34:37

send it back to the spot, they found

34:39

even better news. The

34:41

shipwreck was pristine. It

34:45

looked incredible.

34:46

It wasn't rotted or rusty

34:49

or eaten or degraded parts

34:51

of the hull looked fresh from the shipyard.

34:54

We were all really surprised. Also,

34:56

the heart of exploration, who has seen

34:58

hundreds of shipwrecks in his life. He

35:00

never has seen a shipwreck like this

35:03

before he told

35:03

us. And that all can addition.

35:06

I mean, it looks like it's in a museum that

35:08

the wood looks brand new. Yeah.

35:10

Because there's no light, there's no

35:12

or no organic a lot of

35:15

organic activity down there. It's

35:17

not lot of sedimentation. So in

35:20

the last hundred years, it well was maybe,

35:22

I don't know, a centimeter of settlement

35:24

was falling down onto

35:26

almost

35:27

nothing. And, yeah,

35:29

it's it's just a very good environment

35:32

down there to conserve a ship rig.

35:35

In most oceans, sea organisms would

35:37

ordinarily munch away at sunken

35:39

wood decomposing it. But

35:42

not here. There is one

35:44

certain one which is

35:48

which is the cause for

35:52

like organic erosion or so, which

35:54

eats wood, for example. So in in

35:57

in in lower latitudes, many shipwrecks

35:59

suffering from this

36:00

warm, I heard. At this

36:03

animal does not exist in an arctic

36:06

what happened on board was there champagne

36:10

and yelling. It's a drive vessel,

36:12

so no champagne. Well,

36:19

But, no, it it was I

36:21

think, actually, it was a huge relief for

36:23

everybody because we got exactly twenty

36:26

two days on-site

36:28

to find the hindrance. And and

36:30

we discover her on day twenty.

36:33

Oh, so you really might have missed it.

36:35

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was it emotional or

36:38

less emotional because you pretty

36:40

much knew you'd find

36:41

it? You

36:41

can never be sure that

36:43

you will find it. Never. Okay?

36:46

So the the certainty to find

36:48

your target is is nil. You

36:51

will always always

36:53

have some unknown. But

36:55

so finding the utterance, the most languageable

36:57

Shipwreck of the war, it's really,

37:00

really an achievement. I think it's a

37:02

climax in in in my

37:04

life. In their last two days

37:06

at sea, the crew sent the saber tooth

37:08

back to the shipwreck to capture a high

37:10

resolution three d scan. We

37:13

got AA4 case two camera

37:16

linked

37:17

with laser, a little

37:19

laser to make a facsimile

37:22

in three d of the rack. And

37:24

we expect soon to have

37:27

a result so accurate and so

37:29

clean that anybody in the world

37:31

may walk

37:33

on the deck of the Unsung with

37:35

their glasses. So

37:39

we expect this data already soon,

37:41

and it will be absolutely amazing.

37:44

So what what happens

37:46

now, now that we know where it is,

37:49

do people talk about artifacts? Springing

37:52

back? Do they talk about putting

37:55

people inside a submersible? Well,

37:59

putting people inside submersible, I

38:01

do not recommend it. Except

38:05

if you want some bad

38:07

news at on

38:09

the TV. I

38:12

mean, I don't say it's impossible,

38:15

but it will be quite complicated and

38:17

will require a very expensive expedition.

38:21

the rack itself, the rack is

38:23

protected by

38:23

them on target treaty. Recovering

38:26

artifact is forbidden by

38:28

the Antarctic treaty. And it's

38:31

one of the reason why we build this faximli

38:33

of Shipwreck. To be able to show everything

38:36

at a higher resolution that we can. We expect

38:39

one millimeter resolution. There

38:41

is lot to study and learn of

38:43

their endurance

38:44

to make. I mean, it's

38:46

far far to be to be over.

38:49

The discovery of endurance made headlines

38:51

all over the world. The photos

38:54

blew people's minds because remember,

38:56

until they were published, no human

38:58

being had ever seen a color

39:01

photo of

39:02

endurance. Good morning to you. It's

39:04

been more than hundred years since

39:06

the Endurance went down in the icy waters of

39:08

Antarctica, the vessel that launched one

39:10

of the most remarkable stories of survival

39:13

and determination.

39:14

Well, and what's being described as the soup a

39:16

bold for history buffs. The endurance

39:18

has been found. Sometimes

39:20

I can't believe it actually that I when

39:23

I read the story now that I'm

39:25

kind of I'm somehow

39:27

I'm part of this story now, hundred years

39:29

later. That feels weird. Yeah.

39:32

When I returned home, I mean, people

39:34

told me, like, I've seen you in The New York Times,

39:36

and I saw a photo in another German

39:38

newspaper and so

39:39

on. Yeah. And

39:40

it was a little bit overwhelming from you. Spoke.

39:43

I have to see. Really? I didn't

39:45

expect that it got get this much

39:47

attention. Did anyone recognize you

39:49

on the

39:49

street? Hey. You're that guy. No. Not yet. Fortunately,

39:51

now I can still go to the supermarket with

39:54

that being asked for endurance.

39:57

I still remember the first time I saw that

39:59

stunning photo of endurance on the

40:01

New York Times homepage. It shows

40:03

the stern, with the word endurance,

40:06

arked across the transom, and

40:08

that original Polaris five pointed

40:11

star shining in the subs

40:13

reflected headlamps. I

40:15

swear to you my breath stopped.

40:17

It it was like some mythological object

40:20

suddenly made real. Like,

40:22

if somebody found the actual

40:24

excalibur sword at a garage

40:26

sale in Cincinnati. So

40:29

the holy grail of shipwrecks has been found

40:32

and she's a beauty. Sir

40:34

Shackelton took good care of her for

40:36

as long as he could. And according

40:38

to Nico Van

40:39

Sant, Maybe even

40:41

longer. I have a very very

40:43

great story to share with you.

40:46

We found Shipwreck. On

40:49

fifth of March twenty

40:51

twenty two, which is precisely one

40:54

hundred years after

40:56

the bird of Annis Shekelsom

40:58

in in South Georgia.

41:00

That's right. They found endurance. On

41:03

March five twenty twenty two,

41:05

one hundred years to the day

41:08

after Surchackelton was laid to rest

41:10

in South

41:10

Georgia, but not just one hundred

41:13

years to the day. But

41:15

it's more than that. We found a

41:17

reg at few minutes after

41:19

four PM. Okay? And

41:22

we are doing some research about

41:26

the girl of of Sonya

41:28

Shekelton. And we are aware

41:31

that the ceremony started at

41:33

three PM that maybe precisely

41:36

day per day or at the hour

41:39

we found the rake precisely and when

41:41

Johannes Checkathen from being built in South

41:43

Jersey. That's nuts. That's crazy.

41:46

It's it is it's So we are

41:48

pretty sure that the boss was just looking at

41:50

her son on shoulder.

41:52

Just give his permission to find her.

42:09

You've just listened to another episode of

42:11

unsung science with David Pope. Don't

42:13

forget that he entire library of shows

42:15

along with written transcripts, a wait

42:17

at unsung science dot com.

42:20

My guests today were live Sara Robinson

42:22

and Nico Van Sott from the Endurance

42:24

twenty two mission, who I thank profusely.

42:27

In this episode, Sara Erner's check Kelton

42:29

was beautifully voiced by British voice

42:31

actor Tim Redman. This

42:34

podcast is a joint venture of Simon and

42:36

Schuster and CBS Sunday Morning,

42:38

and it's produced by PRX Productions.

42:41

For Simon and Schuster, the executive producers

42:43

are Richard Rohr and Chris Lynch. The

42:45

PRX Production team is Jocelyn Gonzalez,

42:48

Morgan Flannery, Pedro Rafael

42:50

Rosado, and Morgan Church. Jesse

42:52

Nelson composed the unsung Science theme

42:54

music are 2 checker is Christina

42:57

Rebello and Olivia Noble

42:59

fix the transcripts. For more

43:01

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43:03

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43:05

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43:09

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