Colour-corrected images of the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance have been published by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and underwater imaging specialists Voyis.
The images depict Endurance in her true colours, providing insight into how she looked prior to becoming trapped in Antarctic pack ice in December 1914, where she would remain – with her crew still on board – to be slowly crushed before eventually sinking in November 1915.
Shackleton and his crew lived up to her name, having survived 18 months stranded in the Antarctic before being rescued in August 1916.
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The wreck was found by the Endurance22 mission in 2022, lying at a depth of more than 3km in the Weddell Sea. Pictures captured at the time showed the ship to be well preserved and in remarkably good condition for a wooden vessel that had spent more than a century underwater.
Images taken at the time of the discovery were shot using the standard camera systems typically installed in deep-sea exploration vehicles. As such, they were prone to the blue colouring caused by the rapid absorption of red light most divers will be familiar with.
The new images were captured using the Voyis Observer Imaging System, which uses machine learning to train a colour correction model that can remove the effects of light absorption and restore the true colours of an object as it would have looked in air.
Voyis says its ‘survey-grade imaging solution’ will enable explorers to see underwater artefacts as they would have looked on land, which will allow them to uncover details that standard camera technology might fail to capture.
‘This new image is a testament to the evolution of underwater exploration technology,’ said Elena Lewendon, COO at the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. ‘The level of detail we can now see allows us to deepen our understanding of Endurance’s condition and better appreciate the remarkable state of preservation of this legendary vessel.’
