Dan Snow's History Hit - ENDURANCE22: Arrival in Antarctica

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

Icebergs, albatrosses and growlers- the team have crossed the Antarctic circle! In the first of our episodes recorded from Antarctica, Dan takes you on a tour of the ship and brings you updates with expedition lead John Shears and marine archaeologist Mensun Bound. Hear how the crew are passing the time and the rumours floating around the ship about Dan...Dan Snow's History Hit podcast is the place to follow the expedition in real-time.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History. I'm on the deck of the Agulhas 2, an Antarctic research vessel based in South Africa heading down into the Antarctic. I'm recording this podcast because we have arrived at the ice. Just a little bit earlier I was staring out over the bows, I saw a line of discoloured white and grey on the horizon and we've arrived at the pack ice. We're about 67 degrees south, we are in the Western Weddell Sea. This is probably one of the most southerly podcasts ever recorded. History hit coming to you from inside the Antarctic Circle. In this episode I'm going to be walking around the ship talking to a couple of people about the expedition

letting you know how it's going, telling you about the ship itself. As we prepare to reach the Endurance wreck site, put down the autonomous underwater vehicles and start searching for Shackleton's Endurance, which was crushed in these waters in 1915 and sank at the end of that year. If you wish to watch videos of what's going on please head to the History Hit TikTok, my Instagram page at the History Guys Instagram page and if you want to watch our long-form documentary we're producing about Shackleton, about his epic journey before and after the Endurance sank then you get a History Hit TV. It's our digital history channel on Netflix for history. You just follow the link in the description of this podcast.

You click on that, you get two weeks free if you sign up today. But in the meantime, folks, here's my first podcast from the Agulhas in the Weddell Sea. Enjoy. So I'm just standing on what they call the monkey deck, high up in the ship's superstructure. I'm looking out and I can see a big tabula iceberg there, what Shackleton call a tabula iceberg. Probably three miles away.

It's enormous. I mean it's as big as a small island off the coast of Scotland. You could happily live on there. We've also got these little growlers they're called, these tiny little icebergs, little fragments of icebergs. Some are bigger than a football, some as big as a car and bigger of course. These were the ones that they lie low in the water, you almost can't see them above the wave tops and they were capable of puncturing the wooden hull of Shackleton's ship. He was always very worried about these

growlers. Now we found that these icebergs, we've reached the ice a lot further south than Shackleton experienced when he arrived here in late 1914. The ice was very far north for him. It was a very big ice year for Shackleton and that's one of the reasons he never made it to the Antarctic. He got trapped in the ice in the Weddell Sea. The ice enclosed his ship. If you go back and listen to last week's mini-series, you can hear the story of Shackleton. I'll assume you've done that. So as you'll know, he was encased in the ice here. It was a big ice here. Less ice this year, although still hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of ice lie just to our south and west now. So I'm just going to go down. I'm going down the companion. I'm going

down the stairs here. I'm going to have a look at this stern deck. going to go down, I'm going down the companion, I'm going down the stairs here. Going to have a look at the stern deck. On the stern, I'll give you a little guided tour here. We've got the heli deck, got a big old lifeboat, which I'm looking at now, it's going to come in use. If we end up in there, we'll be in trouble.

But hopefully we won't. It's a gigantic steel icebreaker. I'm going down to the heli deck now, gigantic H painted on the back of the ship. On board the ship we've got two helicopters. We've got a Bell which is a passenger carrying helicopter. We've got a heavy lift helicopter. Both of those are to move the underwater drones to ice camp. Should we need to deploy from ice rather than from the back of the ship we can do so using those helicopters. It's a heck of an operation here. I'm coming to the stern now,

and they're practising the launch and retrieval of the drones. The gantry at the back is down, the hydraulic rams are pushed out, so we've got this structure leaning over the stern now, and they're hanging things off it. The undersea team are hanging things off it. They're practising running their cables through... It's a bit like canal fishing. There's a float, so they're running a umbilical a fiber optic umbilical 25 kilometers long through a float down to the drone beneath the surface so the drone and the umbilical doesn't get sort of

snarled up with the uh with the ship and with the propellers at the back anyway i'll come let's come forward here we're just chugging along very slowly through the ice. So we get to slow down because these obviously icebergs and growlers aren't great for the hulls to smash into them. So it's impossible to avoid. They're so thick on the surface here. Coming to the bowels of the ship. And it's just a sea of ice.

It's a sea of, it's very calm. It's an oily surface. It's almost freezing. Sea ice forms at minus 1.8 degrees centigrade, so I imagine the surface of the water is about that temperature. It's a mixture of ice and just slightly open bits of water, and we're just slowly pushing through it now,

and we're almost at the wreck site. It's very, very exciting indeed. I'm gonna go and enter the ship itself through these watertight doors oh there we go tell you what it's very cold though it's about minus five a little bit of wind oh it's nice coming inside let's get this closed right so it's closed and now i'm gonna make my way up to the bridge. It's about five stories above. So here we go.

And we'll have a look at some of the charts. And see what's going on there. Here we go. Right, that's it. Level 10. Here we're up at the bridge. Up in the big old safety door. There we go.

Right. I love it up here. Come to look at the charts and the radar. because we've entered the Weddell Sea. Visibility isn't great, but we can see big icebergs now. I just read a very interesting fact that I want to share about the Weddell Sea. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany have discovered that the Weddell Sea,

which I am sailing across now, has the clearest water of any sea on planet Earth. They were able to conduct an experiment where they were able to see clearly 80 meters 80 meters through the water that's wild this was on in october 1986 they performed this experiment and therefore they've worked out that the water here in the middle sea this water i'm looking at now has got the same clarity as distilled water, water that's been through a distillation process. So that's where we are, folks.

It's not like anywhere else on Earth. Next up, let's have a quick check-in with John Shears, who is the head of this expedition. So, John Shears, I'm sitting in your cabin. You've got a forward- uh window porthole there so we're looking at the slightly strengthening southerly breeze now hitting us as we enter the weddell sea how many times this now as we head to head into antarctica what what uh what number is this for you i think this is my 25th expedition to antarctica i've lost count. Why do you keep coming back here? I love it.

The environment here is just so, so different to anywhere else on Earth. Such a challenge getting here. And also the people that you meet. Once you've done it once, then you keep on having this urge to come back again. As an Antarctic hand, the history seems to mean something. Whether it's Shackleton, Scott, seems to mean something, you know, whether it's Shackleton, Scott, Bellingshausen, Filchner, and then more recently, Ranulf Fies. It's a place where you guys really, the history seems to matter to you. Yes, yeah, yeah, you are following in the

footsteps of polar greats. And when you read the incredible story of survival of Shackleton and his men on the Endurance expedition, it still fascinates me now. Each time you read it, you think, how on earth did they survive? It's difficult enough now, over 100 years later with our modern technology that we have. But in a small wooden sailing ship, no communication with home,

they had to rely just on what they had. And then they lost the ship. So to get out of that alive is just an incredible story of survival. What do you think is the key to that? Were they just tougher and hardier than we were? Did they get used to it? What are some of the secrets to their survival? Well there's a phrase that's sometimes used about Shackleton and his men and the times that they're in that when the ships were made of wood and the men were made of steel so I think there was definitely that element that there were certain characters they certainly had this inner determination and strength and courage for what they wanted to do so they had that but I'm not sure that they were that much different

to us now I think there's a lot of that in the expedition team that I but I'm not sure that they were that much different to us now. I think there's a lot of that in the expedition team that I can see now, that where people would be prepared to put up with a lot of hardship. Well, they already are, but in a slightly different way. We've had to face things like COVID, for example, just to get here. So people have made lots of sacrifices just to get on this expedition. People don't have that way of dealing with the environment uh that they had then but don't forget that these these men were all professional seamen so they would have been at sea for you know since they were young boys so they

were used to some of the elements shakaton his leadership is the thing that people talk about we all mess about having a great old time doing our selfies but do you have do you have the weight of that leadership on your shoulders is it lonely up here in this cabin when you're responsible for the lives and the and the health and the well-being of so many people under your command no i know i don't feel lonely i know i've got a very good team around me i know that this whole expedition is in very very good hands as well as mine as the expedition leader so i'm very comfortable with with what we're trying to do and because of that support i don't i don't feel lonely sometimes you've got to make some difficult decisions but that's what you're

paid to do as the expedition leader um personally i think i probably have a different management style to shackleton and um i don't see myself in any way like him he was an incredible character but I'm not I'm not Shackleton I'm John Cheers you don't you don't encourage everyone to have a bit of a sing-song every night well I'm very happy for people to play games we've tried to do a whole range of different events on board i'm still looking forward to you dressing up dan as rose from titanic on the bow when we get into the um into the ice so that would be a good thing for all the crew to watch i'm sure there'll be lots of cameras

out for that so yeah um i think you've got to allow people to express themselves, to allow them to have a good time. They've got to remember this not just for the adventure, but for the people they've met and what they've experienced together. And part of that is enjoying yourself whilst you're here. And if that includes a sing-song, then yes, I'm happy for a sing-song. And, by the way, I've found out that there are some very talented musicians on this um mike one of the k-max engineers is a very good guitarist so there could be could be sing songs when we're in the ice all right i look forward to that enormously what are you looking forward to in

the next phase well finding the wreck that's number one. Finding the wreck would be incredible because this is probably the world's most difficult shipwreck to reach. Shackleton called this part of the Western Weddell Sea the most evil part of the most evil sea in the world. So that would be number one for me. Number two is to see a ross seal i've never in 25 expeditions i've never seen a ross seal uh they're very rare they live

deep in the pack ice we know that they they live in the weddell sea uh so i'd be delighted to see see that and uh the third thing that uh you know after I've done those two, would be to have a game of football on the ice. I'm looking forward to that. And I'll try not to get injured this time. Yeah, last time, wasn't there a bit of a pilot? You threw yourself selflessly on the ball to defend your goal and everyone jumped on you. That's right, yes. I was a goalkeeper.

And it's the expedition team against the South African crew. And the South African crew don't show much mercy. So I got trampled on in goal. So you've got unfinished business. Yes, yes, yes. I want to keep a clean sheet in the next football game against the South African crew. Thanks, John. Hope I'll talk to you again before the trip is out. Thank you very much, Dan. Pleasure. Have you listened to Dan Snow's history.

I'm in Antarctica. More coming up after this. I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Alan Orjanaga. To be continued... who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions, and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit, wherever you get this close. Right, so now I'm going to go down. I'm going to go to the sixth floor, level six. I'm going to have a chat with Menson Bound. You'll have heard him before on this podcast.

He's the lead maritime archaeologist on the project, the genius who thinks he's worked out where Endurance is, and who's demarked the search box for us to try and survey. He's left a boot in the door. Coming in. coming in so Manson we're in your cabin now we're looking out the windows and we're seeing little growlers come past

little tiny icebergs it would have been fatal for an old wooden ship but we don't have to well a big steel iceberg we should be okay it seems like a while ago since we were chatting in the UK about this wreck finding expedition how are you feeling at the moment as we approach the ice hi dan yeah how do i feel uh on the one hand exhilaration how could i

not feel exhilarated i have to be made of stone not to feel excited about what's ahead of us in the next couple of days but on the other hand there's there's this huge build-up of of uh anxiety you know uh last night was the first night I really wasn't able to sleep, you know, tossing and turning. And I got up and started to read Shackleton South as I do. And yeah, no, I'm worried.

But just think, what was it, six weeks ago? We were in London together and we were talking and how great this is going to be and stuff. And you were speculating upon our success. I mean, you were very positive and I think I was perhaps not so positive. I'm a 60% guy, you were sort of like 95%. And what is keeping you up?

Is it the fact that you're the guy who's brought us to this little X on the chart? Yeah, I still feel a little roar about what happened in 2019. We just went charging into the pack like we were Renaissance conduciere or something like that. We were so arrogant and so full of ourselves. We came out like we'd been thoroughly horse whipped, which we had been. The pack beat us. And then I had to sort of stagger

back to England. And you let everybody down from the people in the trust, the people who backed us and all that kind of thing. And somebody had to the can and you know it was kind of really me sort of thing so so i i just don't want to go through that again once those underwater vehicles are dropped beneath the surface is it just a matter of waiting for you or is there something you can do from the ship remotely to to change the outcome no once they down, that's pretty much it. I mean, there's huge excitement. I love the bit when they dive, and then you have their, you sort of follow their descent profile, and I love that. This takes a while for them to get to the seabed, but once they're down there at 70 meters, you know, they're on their way. Then, you know, there is that great

moment where maybe, just just maybe out of all the darkness and gloom suddenly there will loom the endurance i mean that my god you know that just sends shivers up my spine to think about i was thinking the other night you know as you know laying there thinking about these things you know what would i like to see kind of thing one of the things is is we got on the stern of the ship the star, the five-pointed star. Remember she was originally called Polaris, the North Star? Well, that star is still there

and the words endurance are above it. So if we sort of came up under the stern, wouldn't that be brilliant? Just think about it. I think the stern will be proud. Just under the counter, we look up and there it all is. Endurance. Pol will be proud. Just under the counter, we look up and, like, there it all is. Endurance. Polaris. You know, whoa.

This is the thing that's been bugging me recently, because obviously I think it's the most exciting thing I've ever undertaken. Some people occasionally during interviews say to me, what's the point of it all? I go, well, if you're asking that, you're not going to get the point of it all. What do you say when people ask you that? Why do you put your life's work and your effort and all this money and time into finding this shipwreck yeah i mean normally in maritime archaeology i'm chasing information particularly

new information that's what science archaeology is all about but i cannot pretend that there's going to be a lot of that on the endurance but you know the whole thing you know exploration in this broader sense you know it's all about uh man's boundless urge to be always pushing at his frontiers expanding his boundaries that's what this is about and if ever we as a species lose that then we become a very petty thing i find myself saying it matters because it just does matter so many people around the world so many people are in find this story so engaging and remarkable and inspiring that they are just fascinated by it and that's that's the end of it it's okay to find it fascinating like that yeah yes i mean of course there's the

shackled inside of it and you're right there's a whole world of Shackleton enthusiasts out there. And he was this inspirational leader figure, this great man of the snows. And, you know, this is the embodiment of his story. This is his ship, you know. And it will be great. I think if we do find it, I think there will be a sort of rush to sort of re-evaluate Shackleton. And I think a new profile of him will emerge, which is going to be absolutely fascinating. We were caught in a big iceberg just out the window now. Waves crashing on it. You'd have called that a tabula form, wouldn't you? You see, that's what I love about down here. I mean, that is what it's poetry in motion. It's brilliant.

And just before you came into my cabin, I was standing at the window and all of a sudden this very old wandering albatross suddenly just glided by. You know, it's the first one I've seen on this trip. And I mean, that is absolutely magical. And, you know, the wanderers, they are the great ship followers of Antarctica. So he's going to be circling around us and he'll come back again in probably a few more minutes. You know, it's just wonderful. And the iceberg out there, look at that. I mean, you're looking at ice there, Dan, which could be, I don't know, 3,000 years old.

I mean, we're really reaching back in history with that berg. I mean, that was formed right up on the hard earth of Antarctica. And then it sort of gradually ground its way down towards the sea, and then it went out over the sea as a great lip of ice, and eventually it broke off, and now it's melted down to what it is there. Wow, just look at that. And I bet if we were closer, we could see some penguins on it too. Oh, really? Still penguins living on it?

Yeah, I mean, it's quite high-sided isn't it but i'm betting around the other side there's probably a lower patch there and yeah the penguins will be up on like up on that like a shot um i came so we both came through this big storm a couple of days ago it was gusting force 10 big seas on the starboard quarter stop i know what you're gonna say you're gonna say shackledleton and the James Caird, right? Yes. Yeah, right. It just left me thinking. I was on deck.

I was cold and I was wearing all sorts of clothes and I'd just been on deck for about 30 seconds. I thought, I don't get it. I have no idea how they did it. Yeah, 14 days,

you know, in a boat like that, 22 foot long, in seas like this. These are the worst seas in the world, Dan. These are Cape Horn seas. Everything passes under Cape Horn is here several days later. That's what they're up against. And those monster

waves at that time when Shackleton looked up and saw the great wave coming down upon him. I've been in that situation myself in a fishing boat. We were actually knocked on our beam ends by a monster wave. I didn't actually see it. I was on the bridge, but I was sitting at the chart table, and all I heard was the mate yelling out, hold on, and the next thing I knew, we were just absolutely fired right across the bridge, and there was the mate, there was me, and there was a bosun who was at the wheel,

who was from Honduras, and he was praying in Spanish, and we were just waiting for the next wave to come along, and, you know, we just knew it was going to happen, and the next one would just roll us over, over we'd go, down we'd go, and that would be it. But the next wave to come along. And, you know, we just knew it was going to happen. The next one would just roll us over, over we'd go, down we'd go, and that'd be it. But the next wave never came. You know, but that was what happened to Shackleton, that monster wave.

And you do get them. It was every one wave in every 800 or something like that is a monster wave. But you see, the thing is, everything is coming at us from all around the world. You know, the circumpolar current, and it goes all the way around antarctica so you know those great cape horn gray beards that we saw a couple of days ago they have what

we call a lot of fetch you know they go back a long way there's a lot of energy in those things and yeah it was boisterous we took a biffing didn't we so yeah did you get seasick come on be honest no i was lucky i didn't get seasick I was too excited watching the great waves crashing over the stern deck and hoping that the scientific equipment was going to be okay. But I did just come away thinking, well, that's absurd. How do you self that? Yeah, no, I struggle with that one too. We're coming into the Western Weddell Sea now.

How many ships have visited this where we're at now? So how many ships have visited this part of the world where we're at now? Let me just think. Well, it starts in 1823 with Weddell himself in the James and the Balfour. He got down to about 74 degrees, which actually is pretty good when you think of those old ships. And then

you get to the 1840s. And then Ross, of course, in the Erebus and Terror was in the Weddell Sea. And then you jump ahead. Anton Larson, the great whaler, who was down there in the 1890s. The great Scots explorer, Bruce, he was there, what was it, around about 1902. And then along came Shackleton. But that's about it. The Weddell Sea wasn't mapped at all.

It really was Terra Incognita. The Weddell Sea wasn't mapped at all. It really was terra incognita. And as you and I were saying the other day when we were looking at the map on my cabin wall, there's that great expanse of what? Of nothing where we're heading. It's uncharted territory. There are no lines there because they don't know what the lines are doing. It's remarkable what we're heading into.

Yes, so since Shackleton, there hasn't been a huge amount of survey work and traffic down here, I guess. Yeah, well, there have been a lot of scientists, especially since the 1940s, since after World War II. One by one, they've sort of been solving the mysteries. But this is the ultimate place for us to be heading.

In terms of modern day science, in terms of understanding what's happening to our planet, you know, there is no better laboratory in the world than Antarctica, and especially this area we're heading into now. Well, you remember the gap in the ozone layer a few years ago? That was discovered more or less where we are, the Weddell Sea. The British scientists discovered that. And, you know, there are major things happening right within these waters,

right outside our window right here, Dan, that you and I can't see. But everything is in transition. And none of it, I'm afraid, is very good. Let's change the subject. Talk of something better. I've got a question to put to you. There's a rumor going around. Not me.

Nothing to do with me, of course. I wouldn't, you know. But there are people, people on the ship who are saying, why aren't you growing a beard, Dan Snow? I mean, some of us are. Look at me. I mean, and not me, but there are people on the ship who are saying, is the reason why Dan is not growing a beard? Is it because he perhaps cannot grow a beard? What do you say to that?

I mean, I'm secretly, I'm like one of those 18th century women who joined the Marines. And Hannah Snell was her name. And they're fighting in Bengal. I'm actually a woman in disguise. Yeah, good question. I just I've been shaving every morning. I don't know, Menson. Should I be going? Is this the Antarctic? Am I not looking warry enough in the Antarctic? Well, I mean, of course, one difference is you have these great chiseled jaws that the rest of us don't have. But, you know, we kind of think that not me, not me, others, that maybe what you can cultivate is a bit of peach fuzz and not much more.

Well, I'm going to go away and grow my beard now. Now that there's a rumour afoot. Thank you very much, Menson. Next time I talk to you, we'll be actually looking for that shipwreck. Wow. Yes, indeed. Will we find it? Stay with us, folks. Thank you.