Antarctic ship Endurance had structural deficiencies

Endurance, which sank in Antarctica in 1915, wasn't as well built for a polar voyage as previously thought, and its owner was likely aware of its shortcomings.

- SKYLER WARE

Explorer Ernest Shackleton sailed Endurance to Antarctica in 1914 as part of a failed British expedition to cross the continent on foot. The ship became trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea, where it remained for ten months before it sank, supposedly when its rudder was torn off by the ice. But there's more to the story. “Endurance clearly had several structural deficiencies compared with other early Antarctic ships,” said Jukka Tuhkuri, a professor at Aalto University in Finland. “Not only does this challenge the romantic narrative that it was the strongest polar ship of its time, but it also belies the simplistic idea that the rudder was the ship's Achilles' heel.”