The Endurance, the ship carrying Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition to the icy continent, was crushed by pack ice and sank beneath the Weddell Sea in 1915. That was the end of the ship but not the expedition; the epic survival story of Shackleton and his crew is well known.

But what about their ship? In 2019 the Weddell Sea Expedition set out to find the wreck of the Endurance and investigate it with the newest underwater technology; the same technology used in the hunt for the ill-fated flight MH370. It was an ambitious plan and it came close to succeeding.

In this talk Paul Bealing, the Weddell Sea Expedition’s only Kiwi member, will relate his experiences aboard the expedition’s SA Aghulhas II. Paul’s expertise as a drone pilot helped the Aghulhas chart a course through the Weddell Sea pack ice that makes the Endurance the world’s toughest shipwreck to find.

Paul is a technician at the University of Canterbury working for the School of Earth and the Environment. He has flown drones for 10 years in various locations around the globe from mapping missions in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica to chasing whales in the Cook Islands.

This talk is free to attend but places are limited so please register on Canterbury Museum's website if you want to come along.