What's On - Exhibition: Endurance in 3D

Get the chance to be up close to a remarkably detailed 3D model of the Endurance shipwreck at Discovery Point, thanks to a collaboration between the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and Dundee Heritage Trust. One of the most accurate representations of a deep-ocean heritage site to ever be produced, the 3D model offers an unprecedented opportunity to explore the wreck of the Endurance up close for the very first time; revealing details down to the grain of the timbers and the scattered artefacts on the seabed.

Lost beneath Antarctic ice for more than a century, the wreck of Endurance was discovered in 2022 during the Endurance22 expedition, led by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. Located more than 3,000 metres below the surface of the Weddell Sea, the site remains one of the most remote and protected heritage locations on Earth.

Because the wreck is safeguarded under the Antarctic Treaty System and a strict Conservation Plan, it must remain undisturbed. Instead, the Endurance22 team used pioneering non-invasive archaeological techniques to record the wreck in extraordinary detail, capturing over 25,000 high-resolution images alongside laser and sonar data to create a scientifically precise digital twin of the site.

This 3D printed model of the wreck translates that data into physical form. Produced at a scale of 1:29.3 using PLA (polylactide) and requiring approximately 350 hours to print, it represents one of the most accurate physical recreations of a deep-ocean heritage site ever produced.

Information published by Leisure and Culture Dundee.