Shackleton’s Endurance – Doomed from the Start?

October 7, 2025

Shackleton’s Endurance – Doomed from the Start?

Fascinating new insights on why the Endurance sank, with implications for Shackleton’s legacy: A broken rudder wasn’t what doomed the Endurance, new analysis suggests

Shackleton blamed the sinking of the Endurance on the destruction of its rudder; for more than a century, historians accepted this explanation. Now, an analysis suggests that structural weakness caused the Endurance to sink, and that Shackleton knew about his ship’s failings, according to Dr. Jukka Tuhkuri, a professor in the department of energy and mechanical engineering at Aalto University in Finland. Tuhkuri reported the findings Monday in the journal Polar Record.

I have been interested in Ernest Shackleton ever since reading South and The Heart of the Antarctic. While it would be unfortunate if this meant a major misjudgment on his part, Tuhkuri’s research demonstrates how new data points revealed by different kinds of analysis (in this case, structural engineering) can help inform historical narrative and add nuance to lionized figures.

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Marian

Blogger, YouTuber, reader, and scribbler. I love classic literature, tea, and rain, preferably all at once.

2 responses to “Shackleton’s Endurance – Doomed from the Start?”

Cyberkitten

October 7, 2025 at 8:24 am

The ‘Endurance’ mission IS fascinating. I have a copy of ‘South’ waiting to be read and I’ve picked up a few more along the way:

Endurance – The True Story of Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic by Alfred Lansing

Shackleton’s Heroes – The Epic Story of the Men Who Kept the Endurance Expedition Alive by Wilson McOrist

The Ship Beneath the Ice – The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance by Mensun Bound

Finding Endurance – Shackleton, My Father and a World Without End by Darrel Bristow-Bovey

I guess that I *really* need to start READING some of them! [lol] Maybe its time for another DEEP dive? [muses]

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1. Marian
  
  October 7, 2025 at 10:08 am
  
  It’s a good candidate for a deep dive, because there are so many books on it, and good ones too! Among the unread/TBR ones, I used to have the Lansing book (before I moved) … I also had the captain’s account of the expedition (Shackleton’s Boat Journey), which my brother has now 🙂 I did keep a photo book that we found among my grandpa’s collection. I think the photographer, Frank Hurley, was the toughest of all of them and insanely talented 😮
  
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About Me

Hi, I’m Marian—I talk about classics, history, and other books on this blog, as well as on YouTube.

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