British scientists in a race to locate the wreckage of Ernest Shackleton's lost ship

When Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance succumbed to the Antarctic pack ice on November 21, 1915, he and his crew began one of the most gruelling survival attempts in history. Since the explorer led his 27 men to safety more than a century ago, there has been no sign of the ship. But now, in an echo of the golden age of exploration, the race is on to the Antarctic once more – as two rival expeditions hunt for the lost vessel. A British-led team from Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, along with universities in South Africa and New Zealand, plans to launch autonomous underwater vehicles almost two miles under the ice. The multi-million pound expedition will set out in January 2019 in research ship SA Agulhas II, The Times reported.