南極沖でエンデュアランス号発見　１９１５年に沈んだ英探検隊の船

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】１００年以上前に南極のウェッデル海に沈没した英国人探検家アーネスト・シャクルトン率いる探検隊の船「エンデュアランス号」が、同域の海底に沈没しているのが見つかった。調査隊を組織したフォークランド海洋遺産財団が９日発表した。（写真は南極のウェッデル海で撮影された、英国人探検家アーネスト・シャクルトン率いる探検隊の船「エンデュアランス号」。フォークランド海洋遺産財団提供）
　エンデュアランス号は１９１５年、叢氷（そうひょう）にゆっくり押しつぶされながらウェッデル海に沈没した。発見されたのは、水深３００８メートルの海底で、沈没した海域から約６キロ離れていた。
　調査隊の責任者メンスン・バウンド氏は「われわれは場所を突き止め、エンデュアランス号の画像を撮影できた幸運に圧倒されている」とコメントした。
　沈没船は、海底で垂直を保っており、保存状態も極めて良好だという。バウンド氏は「木造の沈没船としては今までに見た中で最も状態が良い」と指摘した。
　激しい渦流で知られ、最新の砕氷船すら脅かす海氷が漂う過酷なウェッデル海で、調査隊は水中ドローンを投入した。
　水中ドローンは、鮮明な画像を撮影。かじは１００年以上も経過しているにもかかわらず原状を維持しており、まるでつい最近、探検隊が船を後にしたかのように船尾には装備が積み重なっていた。
　国際法により、この沈没船は水中文化遺産として保護される。調査隊に認められるのは撮影やスキャンだけで、船体に触れたり、海上に引き揚げたりすることはできない。
　１９１４～１７年に計画された初の南極大陸横断を目指したシャクルトンの探検だったが、過酷な海況で知られるウェッデル海の餌食となった。エンデュアランス号は、海氷の中で動けなくなってから１０か月後に氷に押しつぶされて沈没した。
　この難破劇は、探検隊が徒歩やボートを使って生還したことから伝説として語られてきた。探検隊は、海氷の上で野営し、救命艇でエレファント島を経由してサウスジョージア島にたどり着き、全員生還した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/03/10-09:49）

One of the world's most storied shipwrecks, Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica more than a century after its sinking, explorers announced Wednesday.
Endurance was discovered at a depth of 3,008 metres (9,869 feet) in the Weddell Sea, about six kilometres (four miles) from where it was slowly crushed by pack ice in 1915.
We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance, said Mensun Bound, the expedition's director of exploration.
This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see 'Endurance' arced across the stern, he said in a statement.
The expedition, organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, left Cape Town on February 5 with a South African icebreaker, hoping to find the Endurance before the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer.
As part of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition between 1914 and 1917, Endurance was meant to make the first land crossing of Antarctica, but it fell victim to the tumultuous Weddell Sea.
Just east of the Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic peninsula, it became ensnared in sea-ice for over 10 months before being crushed and sinking.
- 'Worst sea in the world' -
The voyage became legendary due to the miraculous escape Shackleton and his crew made on foot and in boats.
The crew managed to escape by camping on the sea ice until it ruptured.
They then launched lifeboats to Elephant Island and then South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory that lies around 1,400 kilometres east of the Falkland Islands.
Despite the hardships, all of the crew survived.
The explorers used underwater drones to find and film the shipwreck in the merciless Weddell Sea, which has a swirling current that sustains a mass of thick sea ice that can challenge even modern ice breakers.
Shackleton himself described the site of the sink as the worst portion of the worst sea in the world.
The region remains one of the most difficult parts of the ocean to navigate.
This has been the most complex subsea project ever undertaken, said Nico Vincent, the mission's subsea project manager.
The underwater drones produced stunningly clear images of the 144-foot-long ship. Amazingly, the helm has remained intact after more than a century underwater, with gear piled against the taffrail as if Shackleton's crew had only recently left it.
The ship's wooden timbers, while damaged from the crush of ice that sank in, still hold together. Sea anemones, sponges and other small ocean life made homes on the wreckage, but did not appear to have damaged it.
Photographs of the expedition showed South Africa's Agulhas II icebreaker surrounded by ice, with crew lifted by crane over the frozen sea.
Under international law, the wreck is protected as a historic site. Explorers were allowed to film and scan the ship, but not to touch it at all -- meaning no artefacts may be returned to the surface.
The team used underwater search drones known as Sabertooths, built by Saab, which dove beneath the ice into the farthest depths of the Weddell Sea.
During the mission, they also researched climate change, documenting ice drifts and weather patterns.
The team is now returning to port in Cape Town.