endurance, perfectly preserved, frozen in time, 3,000 metres beneath the ice. i thought, if there's any wood—built ship that could survive the impact of the sea bed, it will be the endurance, and she did, she held together beautifully. but i have never, ever seen a wreck anything like as beautiful and as inspiring as this one. the condition of sir ernest shackleton�*s ship is astonishing. the ship's wheel is almost pristine. bolts gleam in the woodwork. the portholes look polished. and these white circles are dinner plates, abandoned by the crew. this was the polar ice breaker that brought the team to the wreck. the conditions were challenging. the agulhas ii had to carve its way through the thick ice in the weddell sea. underwater robots were deployed and spent weeks searching