In the control room aboard the vessel S.A. Agulhas II, Chad Bonin and a team of scientists stared intently at a screen. They were watching data pour in from the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that scanned the depths of the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica. The underwater drone had been running day and night for nearly two weeks. It was searching for what many thought would be too difficult to locate—the Endurance. This lost ship had been captained by the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton. It had been crushed by shifting ice floes over a century ago, after getting trapped in the Weddell Sea. Remarkably, Shackleton and his crew all managed to escape.
Now, after battling blizzards, drifting sea ice, and below-freezing temperatures, the Endurance22 Expedition was nearly out of time. In a few days, they had to return
