This Week in Shipwreck News

Ernest Shackleton led a 1914 expedition to Antarctica, but the crew didn't make it back until 1916 after their ship, the Endurance, was trapped in ice and later crushed by it. The ship hasn't been seen since, although there have been several attempts to find it. This weekend, a science crew is sailing from Cape Town to the Weddell Sea armed with robotic submarines, a helicopter, an ice drill, and other hi-tech equipment to find the remains of the Endurance. They don't know whether the shipwreck is in any way identifiable or if it is a scattering of small pieces. Read about the quest at BBC and keep up with the expedition's progress at the Endurance22 Expedition website.

Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy is most famous for leading the first European contact with Australia in 1770 and with Hawaii in 1778. Cook's ship the HMS Endeavour carried him across the Pacific several times, and was then sunk off the coast of Rhode Island in 1778, although without Cook. Fast forward to the 21st century, and a collaboration between two organizations may have found the wreckage of the Endeavour. The Australian Maritime Museum has been working with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (Rimap) to locate and identify the ship. On Thursday, Kevin Sumption, director of the Australian museum announced that a shipwreck has been identified as the Endeavour. Dr. Kathy Abbass, head of Rimap, said the announcement was premature and that there was no “indisputable data” to prove it. In addition, Rimap accused the museum of breach of contract in making the announcement. You can read about the dispute at the Guardian.

In October of 1944, 300 American warships pretty much destroyed the Japanese navy in the Battle of Leyte. At the same time, in another area off the coast of the Philippines, a smaller American force fought ferociously against a larger Japanese flotilla. In that smaller battle, the Americans lost five of their 13 ships. One that sunk was the USS Johnston. It sank into the Philippine Trench, which is so deep that the fish living at bottom didn't even bother to develop eyes or muscles. It was thought to be impossible to find the wreck of the USS Johnston until wealthy explorer Victor Vescovo became interested. He assembled a team to develop a submarine that could go that deep and be used again. The result was a sub called The Limiting Factor that found the Johnston in 2021- at a depth of 21,180 ft (6,460 m), making it the deepest shipwreck ever found. Read that story at BBC Future.