In 1912, an icebreaker was built at the Framnæs shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway, originally intended to carry small groups of wealthy tourists or for polar bear hunting expeditions in the Arctic. The vessel’s name was “Polaris” but, eventually, the builders’ financial problems led to the ship being sold to the Anglo-Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton for £11,600. The first thing Shackleton did was to change the name of the ship to “Endurance”, a name related to the family motto Fortitudine vincimus (Resisting we shall overcome).
Shackleton’s intention was to undertake the “Imperial Transantarctic Expedition”. The ship sailed from Plymouth on August 9, 1914, bound for Buenos Aires. Shortly thereafter, and before reaching its destination, the Endurance became trapped in the ice in Vahsel Bay. The blocks of ice that imprisoned the ship finally crushed it and the members of the expedition were forced to make an epic journey by sledge across the frozen Weddell Sea and later arrived in a boat at Elephant Island, in the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands.
The Endurance, trapped in the Antarctic ice in 1914. The pressure exerted by the ice sheets ended up destroying and engulfing the 40-meter-long ship.
Once there, they rebuilt one of their small boats and Shackleton along with 5 other men and a small sextant as their only orientation tool, sailed through the dangerous storms of the South Atlantic and across the Drake Passage to South Georgia Island in search of help. Once there, they crossed the mountain range that ran along the island in just 36 hours to reach the whaling base at Grytviken, where they got help.
The twenty-two men who had remained on Elephant Island were rescued by a Chilean navy ship on August 30, 1916. The entire crew of the Endurance survived this unique mission in the history of polar exploration.
More than a century after the disappearance of the Endurance, in early March 2022, the wreck of the Endurance was discovered by an expedition aboard the ship S. A. Agulhas II. The hull of the ship was in a good state of preservation, at a depth of approximately 3,000 meters and about 7.5 kilometers from the position where Captain Frank Worsley recorded its sinking, in the Weddell Sea.
From Endurance to Magellan Explorer
More than a century after Ernest Shackleton’s incredible feat, Antarctica continues to exert the same magical power of attraction on explorers, naturalists and travelers who, on the so-called seventh continent, can live an experience and discover unique landscapes, different from anything they have visited before in any other part of the world.
Advances in the means of transportation make it possible that, nowadays, we can enjoy the white continent in an air-cruise. It consists of leaving by plane from Punta Arenas, in the Chilean Patagonia, flying over Cape Horn and the stormy and feared Drake Sea to land in Antarctica in a comfortable and convenient way. This is a private flight of two hours that will save us the discomfort of two days navigating the Drake Sea.
In Antarctica we will discover the best of the Southern ice aboard the expedition yacht “Magellan Explorer”, smaller than conventional cruise ships, which will allow us to reach more corners of the white continent in an agile and efficient way.
Antarctica is a remote and magical place with colossal iceberg bays, deep fjords and immense glaciers. In the austral summer, large numbers of penguins, whales, seals and sea birds congregate along the Antarctic Peninsula to feed and breed.
We can explore the container aboard small boats, kayaking through some of its fjords or trekking routes following in the footsteps of the first explorers who set foot on Antarctic soil, always accompanied by polar guides.
Featured Magellan
The vessel was built with the ability to go long periods without calling and includes features such as large fuel capacity, comfortable crew cabins, ample storage capabilities for provisions and a well-equipped maintenance shop. To reduce its carbon footprint, the Magellan Explorer is equipped with highly efficient engines and emission control systems that enable it to meet the highest environmental standards. The 90.7-meter vessel (twice the length of the Endurance) can accommodate 100 passengers and 60 crew.
An exclusive and unique experience in the footsteps of Shackleton’s Endurance
