Search begins for Ernest Shackleton’s wrecked ship off Antarctica

South African icebreaker has departed for Weddell Sea in search of Endurance, crushed by pack ice in 1915

A South African icebreaker has departed in search of Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance, which sank off the coast of Antarctica in 1915 after being slowly crushed by pack ice.

As part of the renowned polar explorer's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition between 1914 and 1917, Shackleton's team were trying to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.