[imagesource: James Blake]

South African icebreaker ship the SA Agulhas II left our shores on February 5 on the Endurance22 Expedition to unearth a sunken ship from 1915.

107 years ago, renowned polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton set out with his crew aboard the Endurance to explore Antarctica but instead, they were met with a life or death situation.

The Endurance ship became wedged between masses of sea ice for more than nine months, leaving the crew wondering if they would ever make it out alive.

But due to Shackleton’s brave leadership, the crew managed to trek to safety by foot and in boats (which took ages) as the Endurance sank some 3 000 metres below the surface.

Now that historic ship is somewhere at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, and it is the job of the SA Agulhas II and the team of 110 researchers and scientists on board to locate it.

But that is no easy feat in a region with some of Earth’s harshest conditions.

On its way to find the lost treasure, the Agulhas became trapped between the pack ice “stretching out to the horizon” on Sunday, reported The Telegraph:

Image: James Blake

As if reliving the fate of its Antarctic predecessor, the ship was also not able to get in touch with the outside world for a moment as it lost its satellite internet connection.

There were also other equipment failures, including with its winches – the mechanism used to reel and adjust the tension of rope, wire, or cable.

Fortunately, in this instance, we are in the 21st century, so the expedition crew didn’t need to rely just on patience to make it through like Shackleton and his crew had to.

The Agulhas was able to manoeuvre an escape with its 16 000 horsepower propulsion, movable ballasts, and a container full of aviation fuel.

This is how the team “blasted” their way out of the ice:

The crew includes Dan Snow, the TV historian, who described how the ship’s crew at first tried to power themselves out by putting the four massive diesel-electric engines into full reverse.

When that failed, they activated the ship’s moveable ballast system that pumped tonnes of water from side to side to make the ship rock.

To add to the effect, the ship’s company then lifted a large container filled with helicopter fuel using the ship’s crane and proceeded to swing it from side to side around the bow.

Thanks to the expertise of Captain Knowledge Bengu and his “dream team” crew, the Agulhas made a narrow escape by Tuesday.

The expedition is once again on track to survey the seabed for Shackleton’s Endurance ship.

Remember, if you so wish, you can track its movement in real-time.

[source:telegraph]