Shackleton's 'Endurance' revealed in 3D splendour

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship Endurance has been seen in spectacular 3D detail in new images released more than a century after it sunk. The vessel was hidden at a depth of 3,000 metres at the bottom of the icy Weddell Sea in Antarctica after sinking in 1915 – before it was discovered two years ago, beautifully preserved by the ice.

- TARA COBHAM

The newly revealed digital scan – which was taken when the ship was found but has just been released in the new documentary Endurance – shows the ship as if the murky water has been drained away for the first time.

The scan, which was produced from 25,000 high-resolution pictures, was scoured by the documentary team to reveal the stories of the vessel.

In one, the plates used by crew are seen scattered across the deck, while another shows a boot that could have belonged to Shackleton’s second-in-command Frank Wild.

A particular highlight is a flare gun, discussed in the crew’s journals, which the expedition’s photographer Frank Hurley fired when their ship was lost to the ice.

Dr John Shears, who led the expedition that discovered Endurance, explained to the BBC: “Hurley gets this flare gun, and he fires the flare gun into the air with a massive detonator as a tribute to the ship.

"And then in the diary, he talks about putting it down on the deck. And there we are. We come back over 100 years later, and there's that flare gun, incredible.”