‘UFO’ spotted in Antarctica on Google Maps
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SA Agulhas II, a ship that is currently searching for Ernest Shackleton’s famous lost ship Endurance, got stuck at the same patch of ice as the original as temperatures plummeted. The vessel was part of the Endurance 22 expedition and was sailing through the area where Shackleton and his crew were forced to abandon ship when they became trapped in ice.
As temperatures dropped to 10 degrees below freezing point overnight, the crew onboard the South African icebreaker realised that they stuck.
Speaking to the Times, historian Dan Snow, who is on board the Agulhas said: “Clever people did say to me on the way, ‘How do you know you’re not going to get iced in like Shackleton?’
“I said, ‘Don’t worry about that. We’ve got all the technology.’ But we are now iced in.”
Fortunately, modern technology prevailed where Mr Shackleton had no other option.
Thanks, to powerful engines, mechanical cranes, and even aviation fuel to burn on the ice, Agulhas was freed in after a few hours.
The ship’s crew used a lot of creative thinking to free the vessel.
At one point Mr Snow said: “We’ve got the engines at full stern, several thousand horsepower.
“We are shifting movable ballast about the ship.
“We’re doing everything we can to escape and carry on with the search.”
However, when that technique failed, they used the ship’s crane to lift a large container of aviation fuel for a helicopter over the side and oscillated it back and forth to try to wriggle the ship free.
Mr Snow shared a video on TikTok of the crew using a crane to swing a shipping container back and forth “to try and create some movement.”
Even as the Agulhas was trapped in ice, research work continued.
The researchers on board used this crisis as an opportunity to study the harsh environments in Antarctica.
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Mensun Bound, the director of exploration, jokingly said: “Archaeology was never meant to be like this.
“We’re stuck and I’m cold and I want to get home. This is not good stuff.”
After freeing the ship, the crew returned to their quest to find Shackleton’s famous vessel.
The horrifying scenario that the Endurance 22 team faced was only a taste of what Ernest Shackleton and his crew had to go through, as they were forced to abandon ship as the Endurance was stuck in sea ice for about 10 months.
The crew of the Agulhas are racing against the clock as summer in the southern hemisphere gradually ends and temperatures begin to fall, making the expedition even more difficult.
Mr Bound said: “In a few weeks, it all starts freezing up.
“In a few days, [the ice] will start to expand and by then we have got to have our tails out of here.”
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