Endurance Model Ship

Endurance was a three-masted barquentine part of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

About the Endurance wooden scale Model Ship

This wooden scale model ship of the Endurance was custom built from the following information:

• Copies of the original ships plans of the Endurance (ex Polaris).
• Photographs of the Endurance taken by Frank Hurley during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
• The book “Seamanship in the age of Sail” by John Harland

About the construction of the Endurance wooden scale Model Ship

• The hull is built using the Double Plank-on-Bulkhead construction method
• The bulkheads and keel are cut from marine grade pine plywood
• The first layer of planking is done plank by plank using Mahogany planks
• The second layer of planking is done using Mahogany Veneer strips
• The deck is made of Anagre, a light brown timber from the Amazon
• The gunwale and stringers are made of American Walnut
• The fife rails and pin racks are made of American Walnut
• The deckhouses and gangways are made of Teak
• The masts and yards are made of Mahogany dowels
• The sails and ropes are made of linen
• The model is painted with acrylic paint
• The ornaments are cold cast in bronze and painted.

Learn more…

History of the Endurance

The Endurance was a three-masted barquentine built by Framnaes Shipyard, Sandefjord in Norway and was launched in 1912. She had a complement of 28 and was built for Antarctica expeditions.

Every detail of the Endurance’s construction had been planned to ensure maximum durability as each joint and fitting cross-braced each other for maximum strength. The Endurance was built of planks of Oak and Norwegian fir which were strong and heavy. Special attention was given to her bow where she would meet the ice head-on. These pieces had a thickness of 4 feet and 4 inches and the Endurance was one of the strongest ships ever built. She had a coal-fired steam engine combined with sails and was capable of speeds up to 10.2 knots (19km/h).

Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed on the Endurance for the Antarctic on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Atlantic Expedition. She sailed from Plymouth via Madeira to Buenos Aires under command of Captain Frank Worsley. Shackleton joined the ship later in Buenos Aires.

The Endurance entered the packed ice and got stuck within sight of the continent only sixty miles from her intended destination. The Endurance drifted for nine months and was so battered by the ice that Shackleton wrote, “she was doomed”, the crew abandoned ship and she sank in November 1915. The crew used the three boats to row and sail towards the uninhabited Elephant Island, which they reached four months later in April 1916.

Shackleton’s determination and ingenuity on the Endurance expedition earned him a place in the history of exploration.

The Endurance was the last ship of her kind.

Member of The Nautical Research Guild

Learn more about the Endurance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition