Endurance (1912 ship)

The trapped by ice Endurance in 1915 Photo:. Frank Hurley

• Polaris

The Endurance was one of two ships (also known as the Endurance expedition ) has " Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition " which was headed by British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton and attained despite their failure high profile in addition to the Aurora.

By Ole Aanderud Larsen (1884-1964) designed three-masted barquentine in Norwegian Sandefjord was built by the shipyard Framnäs. At her launch on 17 December 1912, she was named Polaris. She was 43.8 m long, 7.62 m wide and weighed 350 tons. In addition to square sails on the foremast and gaff sails wholesale and mizzen they had a 260 -kW steam engine (19 km / h) allowed a maximum speed of 10 knots. The ship was designed for polar conditions and constructed so that it the pressure of the ice offered minimize attack surface. With 28 cm thickness, the frames from green heart wood, a particularly stable Tropenholzart, twice as massive as designed in traditional sailing ships of this size were. The hull of the Endurance was relatively straight-sided constructed, as they should only drive in loose pack ice. Thus, it was quiet in the sea as ships with spherical body such as the Fram, but this was paid for with the disadvantage that it has not lifted much of the pressure line at ice pressure and thus was not suitable for enclosures in the pack ice.

Contracting of the construction were the Belgian polar explorer Adrien de Gerlache and the Norwegian whaling magnate Lars Christensen, they actually wanted to use for polar cruises rather tourist character. Due to financial problems, however, Christensen was glad his ship to Shackleton for 11,600 pounds sterling (about € 934,000, as of 2010) to sell - an amount that was less than the original cost of construction. According to the motto of his family " Fortitudine vincimus " ( "Through perseverance [eng. Endurance ] to victory " ) named Shackleton they Endurance in order.

The Endurance left on August 8, 1914, approximately one week after Britain's entry into the First World War, the port of Plymouth and managed the trip to Antarctica with a stopover in Buenos Aires problems.

However, before could translate the crew of the Endurance on the mainland of Antarctica, how planned to cross Antarctica, the ship was trapped in January 1915 by the pack ice of the Weddell Sea as " an almond in a piece of chocolate " - the much-used comparison. After the Endurance had withstood 281 days long the violence of the pack ice, it was then but crushed on 21 November 1915 the ice. The expedition team had previously saved to a secure ice floe. Frank Worsley, captain of the Endurance, described in his diary so terrible for the expedition team moment:

"When one knows every nook and corner of one's ship as we did, and Has helped her time and again in the fight did she made ​​so well, the actual parting what not without its pathos, quite apart from one's own desolation, and I doubt if there what one amongst us who did not feel some personal emotion When Sir Ernest, standing on top of the lookout, Said somewhat sadly and quietly, "She 's gone, boys. " " ( "If anyone, like we did, every nook and cranny of a ship knows and helped him again and again in that fight that it was so good, then is the time of separation, not without pathos, regardless of one's own bleak situation. And I doubt that there was anyone among us who was not taken, as Sir Ernest on his vantage point a bit sad and said softly. " She's gone from us, guys " ")

Thanks to a seafaring and navigational feat succeeded the team to Shackleton using three lifeboats, which could save you from the Endurance to come out without losses from this desperate situation (see Ernest Shackleton Endurance expedition ):

Initially continue with the pack ice and later on ice floes drove the castaways in their camps on the Antarctic Peninsula north along until the clods were broken into small pieces. In their lifeboats they finally reached Elephant Iceland. There, one of the boats was rebuilt and broke with 6 men on to South Georgia to get help, what actually succeeded. Months later were the remaining men who are still stuck on Elephant Iceland will be saved with a patrol boat of the Chilean Navy.

In memory of the Endurance an icebreaker of the Royal Navy named HMS Endurance today.