All language subtitles for 3417953536559

Tonight, on History's Greatest
Mysteries, an in -depth look at a

recent discovery, as Ernest Shackleton's
long -lost ship, Endurance, is finally

found, more than a century after it was
trapped in polar ice and sank into the

frigid waters of the Antarctic.

And a remarkable discovery 10 ,000 feet
below the surface of Antarctica's

Waddell Sea.

Researchers have discovered the British
ship called Endurance, the vessel that

launched one of the most remarkable
stories of survival and determination.

That led to one of the most challenging
shipwreck searches in history.

Fraught with its own peril, the
discovery came after years of planning

daring mission that cost millions of
dollars.

Hey, you be in the water. Like a
torpedo.

Shackleton headed one of the most famous
expeditions of the 20th century, a

mission to cross Antarctica that became
an all -out fight for survival.

The initial expedition to find the
Endurance came tantalizingly close to

locating it.

only to nearly suffer the same fate. We
are now just stuck.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne, and tonight's
mystery, what really happened to

Shackleton's lost ship?

What secrets can the wreck hold?

And could its discovery change our
understanding of an expedition that made

legends of Shackleton and his brave
crew?

The full story of Shackleton's lost ice
ship, now.

Antarctica.

The most extreme place on Earth.

Temperatures reach 100 below.

Wind whips across it at 200 miles per
hour.

This frozen continent surrounds the
South Pole.

It's a vast land, entirely covered.

In ice.

Somewhere in these frozen seas lies the
holy grail of shipwrecks.

The Endurance.

The ship that carried legendary explorer
Sir Ernest Shackleton south in 1914.

Down here the water is so cold, the
wooden ship is likely perfectly

But it's so hard to get to that no one's
ever been able to hunt for the wreck

until now.

Flying in from across the globe is an
international team of ship hunters,

explorers, and scientists.

Two years in the planning and over $250
million of cutting -edge technology

make them think.

they can pull off a world first.

If the data that we have for the wreck
site is correct, then we'll find it.

Maritime archaeologist Menson Bound is
heading up the surf.

He's got 40 years' experience excavating
shipwrecks.

But finding the endurance is the
ultimate challenge.

Endurance is...

To my mind, the most famous wreck of all
time. She's up there with the Titanic.

If anybody can find the endurance, it's
going to be this expedition.

This is the greatest wreck hunt that
there's ever been.

This expedition will face the same risks
and dangers that Shackleton did a

century ago.

But today's team has come prepared.

The RV has the tension.

You can release it.

It's going to go under.

Steve Santamore leads one of the elite
teams of subsea explorers.

So our job will be to document the
condition of the wreck on the seaport.

Based in Maryland, his team has found
missing plane wrecks and most famously,

surveyed the Titanic.

But hunting Shackleton's wreck, is their
most challenging mission yet.

The ship has not been to the Shackleton
location, primarily due to the ice pack

and how difficult it is to get here.

This is the equivalent of going to Mars
and looking for the wreckage of a

spacecraft. It's just that remote.

To help him search.

Steve's got a secret weapon.

A purpose -built, remotely operated
vehicle, or ROV.

This $2 million bot weighs in at over 6
,000 pounds.

It's equipped with deep -sea cameras and
two articulated titanium arms.

Its mission, to dive to the seabed and
explore the wreck.

And so one of the things that we do to
prepare for the mission is go through

double -check all the connections and
tighten up hardware.

Dave O 'Hara from Northern Ireland is
Steve's pilot.

Who's there?

I'm in there.

An ex -British Navy engineer, he's been
working on robot subs for 12 years.

For me personally, it's a bucket list
job.

The shipwreck side of things, it got me
inspired to come and do this for a

living, watching guys find Titanic.

Just for the history behind it, the
story, the human aspect of it.

And I think that's the same with
endurance.

Okay, guys, just let her be. I'm going
to start the hydraulics.

Dave's confident that he can get the sub
10 ,000 feet down to the wreck.

But first they've got to find it.

Fortunately, the team has a big clue to
where it could be.

To find the exact spot to search, wreck
archaeologist Manson Bound is

investigating nautical charts and the
ship's original log, kept meticulously

Shackleton's captain, Frank Worsley.

These record Endurance's position on the
day she sank.

It gives us the coordinates, latitude
and longitude.

If we look at the chart, here we have
it.

Right here, this is where she sank.

This is X marks the spot.

Using the data, Manson calculates a
target 1 ,200 miles away, across the

treacherous Weddell Sea.

The Weddell Sea is a churning bed of sea
ice.

This sea ice breaks into pieces, and it
floats around, and it keeps running into

each other, throwing up pressure ridges,
and you never know when it's going to

turn totally solid again.

The expedition is also in a race against
time.

The Weddell Sea is full of ice year
-round.

But as winter approaches...

the ocean around the continent freezes
over impassable sea ice covering

an area one and a half times the size of
the united states

the

team has a short window to get in and
back out or they'll get stuck in the ice

anyone going into that area with a ship
is putting their ship and their crew in

jeopardy.

In 1914, two years after the sinking of
the Titanic, British explorer Sir Ernest

Shackleton heads south.

I believe it is in our nature to
explore, to reach out into the unknown.

The only cruel failure would be not to
explore at all.

It's the golden age of polar
exploration.

Shackleton is full of ambition, seeking
glory for himself and his country.

He was really driven by the fact that it
was one of the last few places on Earth

that hadn't been touched by man, and he
wanted to be one of the first persons

there.

Shackleton's aim, to make history by
crossing the entire Antarctic continent,

from coast to coast, for the first time.

100 years ago, crossing Antarctica would
be more difficult than us going to the

moon today.

I think it's the nature of man to always
see something we haven't seen before,

whether it's the moon or the South Pole.

Shackleton and his 27 men, they sailed
off what we knew of the

world.

But Shackleton will never even make
landfall.

Here, at the end of the earth,
Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, will

In a disaster that will capture the
world's attention.

Fully loaded, the Agulhas II finally
sets off, ready to take on the Weddell

So much has gone into this project, so
many years of work, so many dreams.

It feels really like my whole life has
just come down to this moment.

Now it's time to put everything to the
test.

After five days at sea, the expedition
to find the ship of legendary explorer

Sir Ernest Shackleton is making good
progress.

Now 1 ,500 miles from her starting
point, at Penguin Book Cut, the crew is

zeroing in on the wreck site.

On deck, Louisiana native and former Air
Force engineer Devin James is part of a

second elite team hunting the 100 -year
-old wreck.

It's his job to look after another
critical set of equipment, two

underwater vehicles, or AUV.

Basically a drone just like an aerial
drone, but we use it in the ocean. So

is used all over the world to...

survey the sea floor without an operator
going below the surface.

Coming to you.

Also working on the subs is Chad Bonin.

Like Devin, he's ex -military.

Forward. Roger.

We haven't dealt with ice conditions
like this before.

We were and picked to come onto this
job.

So there's a lot of pressure to complete
the task.

Despite the challenges of sending their
AUV subs under the ice,

Chad's got a good attitude.

As long as we're layered up, we're okay,
because we're from South Louisiana.

It's usually hot weather, you know.

The team knows where to head, but
getting there is tough.

The expedition's hope rests on the
Agulhas II.

Weighing in at 14 ,000 tons and costing
$170 million,

this ship is designed to smash through
ice up to three feet thick.

A double hull of extra thick steel
protects the Agulhas II.

And in the engine room.

Second engineer, Mark O 'Reilly, is
pushing her four engines to the limit.

These deliver 12 ,000 horsepower.

This is one of two prop shells, 6 ,000
horsepower available on each, and that

will give us enough power to break
through one meter of ice at seven miles

hour.

The Agalos II is built for the worst
conditions on the planet.

But even for this beast, hitting ice at
speed is bad news.

Captain Freddy Lugtelum is the ice
pilot, part of the South African crew.

15 years' experience in the Weddell Sea.

If we should hit any sea ice here at 50
knots, it could possibly cause heavy

damage to the vessel.

So we are continuously looking out.

The Titanic famously sank in 1912
because it hit an iceberg at speed.

One wrong move could bring this ship to
the same fate.

But unlike the Titanic,

the Agulhas II has an arsenal of modern
navigational tools.

This is us here, and this is our speed
vector. And you can see that this

is at a distance of 8 .8 miles.

Sometimes you could get 100 targets on a
radar at a 12 -mile range, and you

would try to then just cut as much as
you can.

To reach the wreck site, the Abellus II
has been sailing around the northern

edge of the ice pack.

She will only head into the thicker ice
when she has to.

This sea ice is what explorer Sir Ernest
Shackleton faced more than 100 years

ago.

When Shackleton took his ship into the
Weddell Sea, he knew there was a

tremendous risk that he'd never make it
out alive.

Caught on camera by photographer Frank
Hurley, the Endurance picks her way

through hundreds of miles of pack ice.

But how could the 144 -foot wooden ship
avoid the fate of the Titanic just two

years previous?

Wreck archaeologist Manson Bound is
studying the ship's plans.

This was the original design for the
Adjurant. She really was a beautiful,

beautiful vessel.

If you look at her bow, you can see it's
got four huge oaken timbers here.

That's two times more than any other
ship that I know of.

Her bow is over four feet thick.

The keel, or spine, of the ship is seven
feet of solid oak.

And to stop her being ripped apart by
ice, her hull is cloaked in a wood

green heart.

So durable and strong that it's heavier
than iron.

It is extraordinarily hard.

It's... So hard you cannot even drive a
nail into it. But this is what

Shackleton needed, because it is
resistant to the kind of wear and tear

abrasion that this hull is going to have
to withstand once it got into the

Antarctic.

Shackleton named his ship Endurance.

After his family motto, by endurance we
conquer.

And the Endurance will need all her
strength as she sails further into the

While the ice makes getting to the wreck
site a massive challenge, these frigid

waters are also the reason Shackleton's
wooden ship is likely preserved at the

bottom of the sea.

In warmer seas, marine creatures eat
wooden ships.

The most destructive, a mollusk called a
shipworm.

Shipworm can be incredibly destructive
to wooden ships.

And they are voracious. They just eat
anything and everything in no time at

They can be up to two feet long.

And they just eat, eat, eat, eat.

Recent experiments have revealed that
shipworms can't survive in the freezing

Antarctic water.

And newly discovered wrecks from
northern Canada prove that icy seas can

preserve wooden ships.

even older than the Endurance.

But even if it's well preserved, the
Endurance rests 10 ,000 feet down.

And right now, the sea there is entirely
frozen over.

The crew is now beyond the reach of
helicopter rescue.

If something goes wrong, they're on
their own.

They've reached the west side of the
Weddell Sea, as close as they can get to

the wreck site in open water.

Beyond their position is pack ice up to
16 feet thick.

Chad and Devin.

want to test their AUV subs under a
nearby ice flow.

We'll be going into sea trials where
we're actually going to launch the AUV.

We'll go ahead and release it, send it
underwater.

At the wreck site, the AUVs will dive
down and use sonar to scan the seabed

the wreck.

It may sound simple, but even testing
the AUVs like this is risky.

They've never been under Antarctic ice.

AUV team leader Channing Thomas knows
the dangers.

There is a lot of pressure.

If this works, it's going to be
extraordinary.

Two years of planning and tens of
millions of dollars rests on the AUV sub

its job right.

We're being extra cautious before we put
it in the water. Once we launch it,

there's no turning back.

All right, let's go get us a successful
launch.

All right, crank up hydraulic.

Yeah, we definitely don't see this in
the Gulf of Mexico.

Hey, you be in the water. Like a
torpedo.

All right, looking good.

All systems are go.

Stay back here and monitor.

Rod, is that ready to dive?

All right, 30 seconds till it dives.

Come on, cowboy.

Great relief to finally get it under.

We're on our first mission.

We can pull forward a little more. The
AUV is getting down to 300 meters right

now.

While the team tracks the AUV sub,

Expedition archaeologist Manson Bound
investigates how Shackleton's ship ended

up on this side of the Weddell Sea a
century ago.

Here he is coming down the coast of the
Weddell Sea and all the while working

his way south, south.

But as he's going, the ice is becoming
more and more dense and impenetrable

until eventually he gets all the way
down here.

And right here is where he becomes
beset.

Just 60 miles.

From the south coast of the Weddell Sea,
the ice pack freezes solid around

Sackleton's ship.

The Endurance is trapped.

The temperature suddenly dropped from 20
degrees above zero to 20 degrees below

it. The whole sea froze over and we
froze in with it.

Of course, we had no explosives to blast
our way out.

We just had picks and shovels.

For 40 hours, his men fight desperately,
but they can't free her from the ice.

And at that moment, Shackleton's heart
sank because he knew, because it was so

late in the season, that he was frozen
in place for winter.

And in the six -month -long Antarctic
winter,

Just staying alive is nearly impossible.

Everything is pushing against you.

It's trying to kill you.

That cold is physically painful.

Any piece of exposed skin, just a little
bit of a gap in your clothing, that's

like somebody cutting your face with a
knife.

The winds, unrelenting, and the snow
driven like needles into your

face.

I was out at the South Pole. It was so
cold. I removed my glove for just about

minute, maybe a minute and 20 seconds,
and my thumb froze solid.

And you think about Shackleton and his
men out there in wool and cotton and

things that weren't really designed for
that environment.

It just reminds me how tough those men
were.

The endurance is completely stuck, but
she's 550 miles from where she will

finally sink.

So how did she get there?

Turns out the endurance is still on the
move, because the ice is on the

move.

While it may look like a landmass, it's
floating on water.

That means whatever the water is doing,
whatever the wind is doing, that affects

that surface.

Strong currents and winds in the Weddell
Sea spin the entire ice pack in a giant

clockwise rotation.

For ten months, the endurance moves with
the ice.

This is the route that the endurance was
carried.

We can follow the route very precisely.

The crew was trapped, but they had
reason to believe they would escape.

Several years before, another ship, a
ship called the Deutschland, had also

become beset down here.

Because the Deutschland was eventually
released from the ice, people on the

endurance thought the same thing would
happen to them.

Out on deck in the early hours of the
morning, the team is waiting for their

sub to return from its test run.

But there's a problem.

Oh, what the hell's going on?

They've lost all contact with their
brand new multi -million dollar sub.

Everything started to go well. We were
gaining confidence and then

we lost it.

When we saw that it did not surface in
front of us or to either side of us,

we figured it had to be in the ice.

The team needs to move fast.

The AUV has 54 hours of battery.

If the battery dies, they'll never get
it back.

That's a multi -million dollar loss they
can't take.

We're going to search that area right
there.

The AUV has two flashers on it.

And the general idea is get the ROV down
deep, turn off all our lights, and

hopefully see those beacon.

Right now, I'm very worried.

From day one, we recognized that our
nemesis was going to be the ice pack.

know, just as it was Shackleton's, so
was it going to be ours.

And hey, what? It's proved to be just
that.

After hours of tension, AUV operator
Blake Howard finally detects a signal

the missing sub.

The sub is within a mile of the ship,
somewhere under the ice.

The first ping when it actually did come
through was a great billing for

everybody. It's extremely exciting for
her to actually talk back to us.

and it gave it the direction to head
towards.

The team continues pinging the sub to
triangulate its location.

Then they pick up a response.

It's almost definitely in the head, so
it's got to be within range.

Compared to where we were two hours ago.
Yes, sir. Exactly right.

So we're getting there.

Are we looking at three meters to seven
meters, Captain?

Yeah.

To reach the sub, the Agulhas must get
closer, penetrating a 20 -foot -thick

wall. That's well beyond what their ship
is built to break.

But they have no choice.

The Agulhas II doesn't ram the ice.

It rides up onto the ice.

And under the weight of the 14 ,000 ton
ship, the ice flow starts to break

apart.

The AUV is about here, about 200 meters
away.

Each strike releases colossal ice chunks
bigger than the size of a house.

By the time they're done, the ship
smashed away 114 football fields worth

ice.

We're going to launch the ROV.

They're going to go in and locate it,
and then basically they're going to drag

her out.

Across the ship, all eyes are glued to
the live feed.

Six and a half meters.

In under the ice. Hey, is that an AUV?

And we've got the AUV visual.

Binding the AUV is a huge relief.

But now, they need to bring it out.

You can see the end of the AUV with the
prop.

So it's definitely in a crack.

Dave has to grab the AUV with the robot
arm.

All right, so you're pretty much gonna
have to fly me into it.

Come on, Bubba.

Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow.

As soon as we started to move, the fish
dropped away below us. We've got to go

chase the fish down.

Getting back in there. Going up the
track again.

At this depth, the weight of water
pressing down on the AUV is equivalent

jumbo jets.

Pilot Dave O 'Hara is finding that
fishing at this depth is far from easy.

to hold yeah

copy you can probably get the bridge

to start moving real slowly forward now
I'm it after four days the

AUV is finally in hand and on the way up

You got to hold it? All right. Back down
a little bit.

That's cold, buddy.

After a very close call, the AUV is
safe.

All right.

Coming up easy.

We're good.

Got it, Paul.

That's it.

I'm glad to have it on board.

It's been a rough four or five days, so
it'll be nice to actually get a full

night's sleep instead of a few hours
here and there.

With the critical gear now on board, the
hunt for the wreck is back on.

The team can now press ahead.

After a near disaster, the team can move
forward again.

But they're still 230 miles from where
Shackleton's ship went down.

And in that area, the sea is still
entirely covered in ice.

Shackleton and his ship drifted into
this northwestern part of the Weddell

in October 1915.

For ten long months, they'd been locked
in the ice in a bitter struggle for

survival.

It's so damn cold.

If you don't have an elaborate safety
net of equipment, you'll die.

Shackleton's only safety net is his.

But now the mounting pressure in the ice
is breaking it apart.

They're in the ship. They can hear this
ice moving against the ship. You hear

the creaking of the ship. You hear the
pressure on the joints. You never know

the ship's just going to break apart.

The timber's beginning to crack and
groan as they're like heavy fireworks

blasting of guns.

To see the pack ice move in and just
squeeze the life out of that boat, it

must have been so trying and so
depressing.

Mother Nature overwhelmed the mighty
endurance.

Finally, Shackleton gives the order to
abandon ship.

Their only hope was to take everything
off that ship that they needed and put

on their rescue boats and then switch
into survival mode.

The 28 men and 49 dogs can only watch as
the endurance is

overwhelmed.

I can only imagine what it was like for
him when he sat there.

stood on the ice and watched it just
slowly implode.

Just a piece of his heart and soul
probably went down with that ship when

went.

The ship disappears beneath the surface.

Shackleton and his men are truly alone.

I think they're much more lonely than I
was on Apollo 13, because I had

communication with home.

Shackleton, he didn't have a radio, he
didn't have Wi -Fi, he didn't have a

phone.

He was alone.

Shackleton's dream of becoming the first
man to cross Antarctica is ultimately

crushed, along with his ship.

This is where his real battle for
survival begins.

Back on the Agulhas II, Menson searches
the records.

He believes these hold the secret to
understanding how the ship sank.

You see in this picture here, the stern
rose up 45 degrees, the bow went even

further down, and then she just slid and
was gone in minutes.

All this clutter that you see in this
picture here, all these masts and yards,

all that was still attached to the ship
when it went down, and that would have

imposed an incredible drag on the
sinking ship. That would have kept her

and would, to some extent, have slowed
her down.

As Minson Bound reviews records about
the endurance, suddenly there's another

crisis aboard the Agulhas II.

While rescuing the AUV sub, a critical
part of the underwater robot has

under the extreme pressures 10 ,000 feet
below the surface.

The robot's electronic brain is now
mangled metal.

We've had a catastrophic failure.

We don't have all the electronics to
rebuild the ROV.

I don't know what to say, really.

I just don't.

The aluminum pod was designed to
withstand pressure nearly three miles

surface.

But Steve thinks the combination of
extreme cold and a material flaw has

it to be crushed.

This is what we found. One half of the
bottle has pancaked into the other half

of the bottle. There were quite
substantial electronics, and they've

entirely crushed.

This is the first time in my career that
I've ever seen this firsthand.

This is an example of what hydraulic
pressure can do.

It's a bitter blow for expedition
archaeologist Manson Bound.

The worst possible news.

I mean, to lose our electronics like
that, there is no replacement. We can't

in spare parts.

There's nothing we can do.

This is what I was going to use to study
the wreck, really eyeball to eyeball

with the wreck.

The hunt for Shackleton's endurance is
stalled, thanks to equipment failure.

And there's a new problem.

The bridge learns their closest route to
the wreck site is now totally blocked

by ice.

Analyzing daily satellite photographs,
ice pilot Freddy Luketeller is hunting

for another way in.

We can actually approach the third site
coming right around all the ice and

approaching it from the southeast.

With a bit of luck, we can be cautiously
optimistic.

The new plan is to go the long way
around.

Skirt the pack ice and then head toward
the wreck site.

I'm excited about it. Can't beat the
smile off my face right about now, you

know. Finally getting there.

To be in the same area where he was at
and to finally locate that ship is

just...

An excitement that I really can't
explain.

Finding Shackleton's ship is the
ultimate goal of this expedition.

But 100 years ago, losing the endurance
was just the start of a journey that

would make Ernest Shackleton a legend.

Stranded on the ice, Shackleton's men
face impossible odds.

But they have blind faith in the man
they call the boss.

There's this classic quote, and to
paraphrase it, when the chips are down

all hope is gone, get down on your knees
and pray for Shackleton.

Shackleton orders his men to march for
land 200 miles across the ice.

Shackleton has these massive...

with full wooden boats on them loaded
with supplies.

You could come up to a massive pressure
ridge, blocks of ice as big as semi

-trucks that are shoved up into the air
10, 15, 20 feet. And so as you're

approaching it, it basically is a wall
of ice.

I mean, I don't like to say things are
impossible, but I don't know how they

would get over that stuff.

The men cover only nine miles of pack
ice in a week.

Shackleton realizes reaching land is
impossible.

To make matters worse, they're slowly
starving to death.

As food supplies run out, they're forced
to eat the only thing that brought them

joy in the wilderness.

Their dogs.

The companionship that the dogs provided
the team was quite significant.

That moment must have been hard on an
emotional point, but it

was also a mirror of how extended they
were and how precarious life was.

If you're shooting your dogs, you're on
the down and outs.

Ben. As the ice thereon drifts closer to
the open ocean, it starts to break

apart beneath.

And they have to rush onto their boats.
They have to throw their things on their

boats. They have to get into these boats
with everything they need to survive.

They have no choice.

but to go from relative safety to
basically certain death.

Shackleton has finally left the ice
that's trapped him for 15 months.

But now he faces a new danger, the open
Weddell Sea.

Even today, this sea is nearly
impossible to navigate.

As the crew of the Agullus II is finding
out, she's

stuck in the ice, just like Shackleton's
ship.

We're stuck. We're in a whiteout.

The ice is well over three meters thick,
possibly even as much as five, and

we're way, way below zero.

In the early hours of the morning, the
ship was brought to a standstill by

impenetrable fog.

The ice moved in around her and froze
her in.

If the temperature drops further, the
ice could trap the crew for days, and

harsh Antarctic winter is already
barreling down on them.

But Devon's got an idea.

Well, we could do like Shackleton did on
the Endurance when they got stuck in

the ice and had the whole crew run from
one side of the vessel to the other

together to rock the ship free.

Instead of using Shackleton's method,
Captain Bengu tries a different

Shifting a 40 -ton container of fuel
using his crane.

We used it.

Heavy weight to create a lever for a
ship to to heal or lift to port to

starboard

So

we're moving again You can hear the
distinct difference in the sound here.

That's definitely ice scraping alongside
the vessel as we're moving forward.

A century ago, Shackleton wasn't so
lucky.

When he and his men are forced onto
lifeboats, they have to battle freezing

winds and ice storms on the open ocean.

Shackleton sets out for a tiny island 60
miles away.

It's his final hope.

On the seventh day at sea, and barely
alive, they miraculously spot land.

And when they saw Elephant Island,

Everybody cheered, and we pulled as hard
as we could to make our landing.

It was a weird sort of euphoria because
they hadn't made it home.

They had made it onto an inhospitable
rock.

The first night there, what was left of
their tents were just shredded in the

wind.

Humans were not meant to be there. The
whalers didn't even come by there.

They are on a tiny, storm -battered
pinprick of a rock.

Of course, food was very short.

We had very little except a little seal
and penguin whenever they came up.

Shackleton knew the men could not
survive.

Conditions would only get worse. He had
to get help.

And he knew he had to go as quick as
possible.

But the only way out is across the most
dangerous ocean on the planet.

507 days after he was first trapped by
ice, Shackleton begins the perilous

journey that will make him a legend.

Taking only five men, two barrels of
water, and four weeks of food rations,

launches their largest lightboat.

There's a picture taken by Hurley with a
little brownie camera, with a little

camera he had.

That picture scares the bejesus out of
me.

This tiny...

back of a boat, them all waving bravely
at them as if to give them

encouragement.

Most of them must have felt they're
never going to make it and we're never

to be saved.

Shackleton's plan is to head to the
island of South Georgia, 800 miles

the Southern Ocean.

The Southern Ocean is probably...

One of the most treacherous bodies of
water on this planet.

It's not uncommon to have winds in the
50, 60, 70 mile an hour, swells up to

foot. The water temperature is just a
little above freezing.

It can sink a vessel in seconds.

It's like going up a hill or a mountain
and you go up and up and up and then you

reach the top and then you go down and
you skid down.

The odds are stacked against him.

But Shackleton knows if he doesn't make
it to land, all his men will perish.

He finally spots the island of South
Georgia.

They made it. They had made the toughest
crossing in the world in a vessel.

Never made that crossing before. There
was a sense of euphoria.

From his landing point at King Harkin
Bay, the closest settlement is a whaling

station 30 miles to the east.

But blocking his path now is a towering
mountain range.

The mountains were covered with snow and
ice.

And to get some sort of traction on the
snow, they took nails out of the boat

and pounded them through the bottom of
the chute.

After climbing for 36 hours, Shackleton
finally

limped into civilization.

When Shackleton told his story of what
they'd been through, no one at the

whaling station, they couldn't believe
it. It was every step of this story was

beyond belief.

But, of course, it wasn't over for
Shackleton then.

He had to go back and save the people on
Elephant Island.

This is the point where she went down.

The Agulhas II has finally broken
through to the exact coordinates of the

Endurance wreck site.

It's a major achievement.

Only a handful of trips have ever been
here.

It feels great. I was up on the bridge
till late.

I only got two hours sleep. I'm
shattered. But, you know, at the same

really happy.

But, you know, we still got to find it.

To actually be here and able to be part
of the search is very exciting.

I'm ready for it.

We're going to launch from where we're
at, all the way down to 3 ,000 meters to

the bottom.

Hopefully everything works well,
according to plan, and we'll see what

Existing scans reveal that the Agulhas
II is floating above a vast underwater

plain.

Here, the seafloor plunges down 40 times
the height of Niagara Falls to a depth

of 10 ,000 feet.

This is the deepest zone of the Weddell
Sea.

And the crew believes this plane is the
final resting ground of Shackleton's

ship.

Ten thousand feet down, somewhere in
these icy depths,

lie the remains of Shackleton's ship.

Remarkably, the water at the sea floor
is below 32 degrees.

It doesn't freeze solid because of the
vast pressures at depth.

Depth combined with the super cold
water, any bacterial activity will be

down. This is all pretty good news for
the preservation of the endurance.

All they've got to do now is launch the
AUV sub to hunt it down.

The propellers bite, and the AUV dies.

That was a successful launch for the
first mission to search for the

If all goes well on the mission plan, we
should be recovering in about 42, 43

hours.

Everything's looking good at the moment,
and we're going to keep our fingers

crossed, keep thinking positive, and
keep pushing forward.

Shackleton II pushes forward.

After battling across 800 miles of open
sea for two weeks, he finally reaches

the island of South Georgia.

But, of course, it wasn't over for
Shackleton then. He had to go back and

the people on Elephant Island.

Shackleton strives tirelessly for four
months to break back through the frozen

sea.

At last, he approaches Elephant Island.

And as he's going ashore, the men on the
island are seeing that their rescue

boat is here, and they're starting to
come out from under the shelter.

And Shackleton is counting one, two,
three, four, all the way up until he's

counted everyone.

And... He looks to Worsley and says,
they're all there, they're all alive.

And the emotion that he had at that time
had to be just overwhelming.

To bring everybody on his expedition
back home alive was probably one of the

greatest adventure achievements that we
have in our history books.

On board the Agulhas II, the crew
hunting down Shackleton's wreck has

major blow.

Thirty hours into the dive, the AUV
that's scanning the sea floor has gone

missing.

The multi -million dollar machine has
likely located the wreck, but AUV

operators Devin and Blake have lost
contact with it.

If they can't reconnect, they'll never
find out what's below.

The AUV could be anywhere.

And temperatures are dropping fast.

The ice floes are closing in.

As conditions worsen, the team makes a
difficult call.

It's tough to search for an AUV in this
kind of situation.

You know, Mother Nature, you know, at
some point puts her foot down and lets

know who's boss.

For now, the team halts their mission
and reluctantly heads home.

We were always up against the ice. That
was always the enemy for us, just as it

was for Shackleton.

And yeah,

it's beaten us also.

Three years later, undeterred by the
same freezing seas and howling winds

defeated both Shackleton and the team on
their previous attempt, The Agulhas II

returns on a new expedition.

This time, the crew realizes their
dream.

One of the most remarkable stories of
survival and determination.

10 ,000 feet below the surface of
Antarctica's Weddell Sea.

The secret the ocean has kept hidden for
over 100 years.

They find the Endurance, resting on the
sea floor, nearly two miles down.

As Manson anticipated, the ship is
largely intact, standing upright, its

wood well -preserved by the cold.

The team leaves the wreck untouched.

Endurance remains in its final resting
place, a chilling monument to the

singular courage, of Ernest Shackleton
and his men.

Whenever I'm out there in a tricky
situation, climbing or where things

be going my way, I take a bit of
Shackleton and I plug it in and I'm

Sir Ernest Shackleton, he would
persevere.

And that is the power of Shackleton's
story.

Shackleton resonates today because of
keeping his men together, keeping

morale up, doing the impossible, and
then saving them.

That's endurance.

The astonishing story of the endurance.

Its loss at sea and its recent discovery
inspires the world. Like Shackleton

himself and his men.

The team on the Agulhas II refused to
give up.

And now, after a century, we finally
know the last chapter in this mystery.

Shackleton's lost ice ship is lost no
more.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne, and thanks for
watching History's Greatest Mysteries.