Brit Explorer is searching for wreckage of Ernest Shackleton’s ship the Endurance in Antarctica

The ice-ridden Weddell Sea..Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound,65, is on a expedition to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance, which sunk in 1915..See SWNS story SWBRexplorer.A British explorer on an Antarctic mission to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance claims the find would be bigger than The Titanic.Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is on an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, ploughing towards the Larsen C Ice Shelf. It is the fourth largest ice shelf in the Antarctica where only a "handful of ships" have gone and will mark the first scientific investigation of the area.Their mission is to find Sir Ernest Shackletons ship which sunk in November 1915.

A search is on to find the ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer who made his home in Eastbourne after his expedition.

Shackleton lived with his wife Emily in Milnthorpe Road in Meads from 1916 to 1922 – during which time he took part in the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition from 1914–17 when its ship Endurance became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed.

Shackleton and his crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated then launched lifeboats for a 720 nautical mile voyage to reach Elephant Island and ultimately the island of South Georgia.

The SA Aguilas II next to an ice shelf in the Weddel Sea. Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound,65, is on a expedition to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance, which sunk in 1915.See SWNS story SWBRexplorer.A British explorer on an Antarctic mission to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance claims the find would be bigger than The Titanic.Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is on an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, ploughing towards the Larsen C Ice Shelf. It is the fourth largest ice shelf in the Antarctica where only a "handful of ships" have gone and will mark the first scientific investigation of the area.Their mission is to find Sir Ernest Shackletons ship which sunk in November 1915.

Now, maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is on an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, ploughing towards the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antartica where only a “handful of ships” have gone and will mark the first scientific investigation of the area.

Their mission is to find Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship which sunk in November 1915.

The British explorer wanted to be first to cross the Antarctic but the Endurance got lodged in thick ice.

“It got trapped in the ice, floated around with the ice for a little while and ultimately was crushed and sank,” Scott Polar Research Institute’s museum curator Charlotte Connelly told ITV News.

FILE PHOTO - Ernest Shackleton's the Endurance. .Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound,65, is on a expedition to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance, which sunk in 1915..See SWNS story SWBRexplorer.A British explorer on an Antarctic mission to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance claims the find would be bigger than The Titanic.Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is on an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, ploughing towards the Larsen C Ice Shelf. It is the fourth largest ice shelf in the Antarctica where only a "handful of ships" have gone and will mark the first scientific investigation of the area.Their mission is to find Sir Ernest Shackletons ship which sunk in November 1915.

“So that left 28 men with three lifeboats, no one knew where they were, no one was going to come looking for them - they had to get themselves out of that mess.”

Somehow, six men survived but the wreckage has never been recovered.

Mr Bound fears the chances of finding the ship – sitting two miles below thick sea ice - are ‘heavily stacked against us’.

He told journalists, “There are problems, the one that worries me the most, keeps me awake at night is ice coverage.

FILE PHOTO -Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition team,1915. .Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound,65, is on a expedition to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance, which sunk in 1915..See SWNS story SWBRexplorer.A British explorer on an Antarctic mission to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance claims the find would be bigger than The Titanic.Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is on an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, ploughing towards the Larsen C Ice Shelf. It is the fourth largest ice shelf in the Antarctica where only a "handful of ships" have gone and will mark the first scientific investigation of the area.Their mission is to find Sir Ernest Shackletons ship which sunk in November 1915.

“Then we have to ask ourselves, how good is the position for the wreck? Can we find the wreck? We have Worlsey’s (the explorer who served with Shackleton) recorded co-ordinates, but how good are they? The sea is a very big place.

He continued: “The equipment we are using is absolutely the finest and most sophisticated in the world but a thousand things could go wrong.

“The question is ‘can we launch and recover the search vehicle’ and can the equipment we have perform how we want it to?

“The odds are heavily stacked against us... I’m not very confident. We’re stepping into the unknown.”

FILE PHOTO - Sir Ernest Shackleton ,1922..Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound,65, is on a expedition to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance, which sunk in 1915..See SWNS story SWBRexplorer.A British explorer on an Antarctic mission to find Ernest Shackletons ship The Endurance claims the find would be bigger than The Titanic.Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is on an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, ploughing towards the Larsen C Ice Shelf. It is the fourth largest ice shelf in the Antarctica where only a "handful of ships" have gone and will mark the first scientific investigation of the area.Their mission is to find Sir Ernest Shackletons ship which sunk in November 1915.

But the 65-year-old from Horspath, Oxfordshire, believes its discovery would be huge and lead him to retire after an impressive career in archaeology.

And voyage leader John Shears is said to be optimistic and excited to tell the pioneers’ “incredible story of survival and leadership”.

The vessel they are on is SA Aguilas II, a 13,700-tonne vessel that can break through ‘8m thick’ ice and is ‘probably the world’s most able icebreaker’.

Mr Bound said, “I have dreamed all my life of getting to the Endurance. I have a lot of experience but this is the absolute prize - finding it would be bigger than The Titanic.

“It’s the whole Shackleton cult - the story is the greatest escape there has ever been. From a historical point of view it is overwhelming.”

The ship is expecting to reach the target area this week, where they will scan the seabed with robotic submarines.

If they stumble across any signs of the wreckage, they will deploy a more specialist remote operated vehicle.

They also have the option to use the drones and satellite image technology on board.