It has been more than 100 years since the expedition ship "Endurance" sank in the Southern Ocean.
Now what was actually considered a hopeless undertaking has apparently succeeded: As several media reports, the "Endurance 22" expedition team has managed to locate the wreck with the help of an underwater robot - at a depth of a good 3000 meters at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.
The ship is about four miles south of the position recorded in the captain's log at the time.
The wreck of the "Endurance" is one of the most famous in the world.
Ernest Shackleton's expedition set out in 1914 after the start of the First World War.
The goal: the British polar explorer wanted to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent.
The project failed, the "Endurance" was completely enclosed and crushed by the pack ice of the Weddell Sea in January 1915.
Nevertheless, Shackleton returned home a celebrated hero, all expedition members were saved from death.
One of the lifeboats that the crew used to save themselves can still be seen in London today.
A first search expedition was launched in 2019, but an autonomous underwater vehicle for unmanned dives was lost under the closed ice sheet.
The "Endurance 22" team was prepared for such a case, the underwater vehicle sent data to the deck in real time so that nothing was lost.
For more than two weeks, the expedition team searched within a 150 square mile radius, struggling with thick pack ice and freezing temperatures.
The enthusiasm to have found the wreck is correspondingly great - apparently in excellent condition.
"This is by far the best wooden wreck I've ever seen," the "Spiegel" quoted the expedition's research director, Mensun Bound.
The name can still be read clearly on the rear.