This weekend brings two significant archaeological finds. A team that had set out to locate Amelia Earhart's plane has found debris that could possibly be the plane of the famed missing aviatrix. On top of that, the ship of explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the S.S. Terra Nova, who sailed for the South Pole was found in the waters off the southern coast of Greenland.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute was carrying out a cruise for the R/V Falkor and testing its echo-sounding equipment.
"I'm from Cardiff so I knew about the Captain Scott story and realized that the shipwreck would be somewhere around there," said Falkor crew member Leighton Rolley to Wales Online.
"The story of Robert Ballard finding the Titanic has always made me want to discover a shipwreck for myself, so watching the underwater footage of the Terra Nova that we got out there is definitely a highlight of my career so far."
The S.S. Terra Nova began its life as a whaling ship in the late 1800's.Captain Scott took the ship out to try and become the first team to reach the South Pole. He apparently made it in January 1912, but found out that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten him by 33 days.Captain Scott and four other members of his exploration crew died on the way back to the ship.
"She went through a lot in her lengthy history and really was the pinnacle of Scottish wooden shipbuilding," Brian Kelly, who works at a museum in Scotland, where the Terra Nova was built, told the Daily Record. "It is incredible that one of the most famous ships in history has been found 100 years after the race for the pole and in the year commemorating the event."
The SS Terra Nova was then used for various purposes, including a wartime supply ship, until it hit an iceberg and sank in September 1943. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the crew, but couldn't save the ship.
Watch the S.S. Terra Nova set sail back in 1910 as Captain Scott sets out on his expedition:
VIDEO
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
