Hampshire business has central role in finding Shackleton's ship 'The Endurance'

A Hampshire business has played a central role in the discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance.

The famous ship was rediscovered this week after laying on the Antarctic floor for more than 100 years.

After many previous unsuccessful searches, it was located by Sabertooth submersible research robots developed with Saab Seaeye in Segensworth Business Park, Whiteley and Fareham.

The Endurance was the ship used by Sir Ernest Shackleton as he attempted the first land crossing of Antarctica. The ship and crew were trapped in an ice floe in January 1915.

The Endurance sank in November 1915 but public and scientific interest in her has persisted to this day.

The underwater robots were lowered from an ice cutting vessel and recorded remarkable footage of the sunken vessel some 10,000 feet below the surface.

The pioneering search, launched in February this year, saw the Endurance22 team deploy Saab Seaeye Sabertooth hybrid autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) from the icebreaking polar supply and research ship S.A. Agulhas II.

During their hunt of the seabed, close to where the 1914-1917 expedition came to its end, these underwater robots used Sonardyne’s SPRINT-Nav hybrid acoustic-inertial navigation system (INS) technology to navigate. They also used Sonardyne’s AvTrak 6 tracking and telemetry transceiver, to send commands and position updates from a Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system, also from Sonardyne, onboard the S.A. Agulhas II. 

“It is amazing what the team have achieved, given the extreme depths and under ice conditions they were working in,” says Geraint West, Head of Science at Sonardyne, who has himself been involved in hunting for wrecks in the Antarctic. “The stunning condition of the Endurance as it rests on the seabed, like it’s been frozen in time, really is astounding and beyond our wildest hopes."

Peter Erkers, sales director at Saab, said: “The Sabertooth was chosen as the world’s only autonomous underwater vehicle that can hover and remain stable so scientists can clearly see what’s happening in real time and accurately record images.”

“Two Saab engineers are aboard the research vessel with the Sabertooths ready to fully support their operation, with reporting of the overall enterprise coming from the expedition team.”