SHACKLETON FEARED FOR DOOMED SHIP

Irish polar explorer 'aware of Endurance weaknesses'

- BY STEPHEN BEECH

DESIGNS Ernest Shackleton

ERNEST Shackleton was "well aware" of "structural weaknesses" to his ship Endurance before it sank, suggests new research.

The Irish Polar explorer and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the three-masted ship in 1914.

But disaster struck when Endurance, originally named Polaris, became trapped in pack ice before sinking in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica on November 21, 1915.