Explorers from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have created the first 3D images of the Terra Nova, the ship that carried Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his final Antarctic expedition. The wreck lies 10 nautical miles south of Greenland, where it has languished for 83 years after being deliberately sunk by the US Coast Guard in 1943.
How the 3D Images Were Made
The images were recorded using Falcon, a remotely operated vehicle, and the deep-diving submersible Alvin, which became the first crewed submersible to visit the wreck of the Titanic four decades ago. Experts used deep-imaging technology to capture every inch of the Terra Nova, allowing the ship to be examined piece-by-piece. The expedition is a race against time as the ship is slowly lost to the sea.
The Terra Nova's Historic Role
Built in Dundee in 1884, the Terra Nova was a wooden-hulled, three-masted vessel. It carried Scott and his team on the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910, which sought to become the first expedition to reach the South Pole. Scott arrived at the Pole on 17 January 1912, only to discover that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by 34 days. Scott and the four other members of his polar party died on the return journey. Diaries and papers recovered with their bodies chronicled their final struggle for survival.
The doomed expedition has entered British history, in part due to the heroism of Scott's team, including Captain Lawrence Oates' self-sacrifice in leaving their tent knowing he faced certain death in an attempt to help others survive. Terra Nova later carried news of the expedition's fate back to Britain before returning to service in the Newfoundland sealing fleet.
Discovery and Significance
John Geiger, chief executive of the RCGS and leader of the Heroic Age Expedition, was among the first people to view the wreck in person. The discovery follows the expedition's recent completion of the first comprehensive visual and scientific survey of Quest, the final ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Scott's former colleague and rival.
Geiger said: 'Seeing Terra Nova, a ship that is so tied with the tragic deaths of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his polar party, as well as to Canadian and Newfoundland history, brings these important stories to a new generation. Through cutting-edge Canadian Voyis 3D imaging technology, it is now possible to recreate the wrecks of Terra Nova and Quest before these historic ships are lost to the seabed.'
The Wreck Today
The ship finally sank on 13 September 1943 after being damaged by pack ice and then shelled by a US Coast Guard three-inch gun. Divers reported that although the ship's bow is beginning to split apart, much of the hull remains intact. From the stern they observed the rudder still standing upright, along with the propeller and sections of the engine room.
The 2026 Heroic Age Expedition
The 2026 Heroic Age Expedition includes a team of marine scientists, historians and archaeologists. It is investigating and 3D-mapping the Terra Nova and the Quest, the ship on which Shackleton died. The international team also includes shipwreck hunter David Mearns, marine archaeologist Cora Annamaiya Norling of Denmark's National Museum, benthic ecologist Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser, RCGS research director Antoine Normandin, historian and author Jan Chojecki, and Geir Kløver, director of the Fram Museum.
