Polar expedition ship found off Greenland

2012-08-19 21:18

Mast of the SS Terra Nova

Stockholm - A US-based oceanographic institute says it has found the wreckage of a ship that was manned by a crew of doomed Antarctic explorers more than a century ago.

The Schmidt Ocean Institute says that in July its researchers discovered the SS Terra Nova using echo sounders off the southern coast of Greenland, where the ship sank in 1943 after being damaged by ice.

Built in the late 19th century, the SS Terra Nova gained fame by taking the explorer Robert Scott and a crew to the Antarctic in 1910 in an effort to become the first to reach the South Pole.

Scott and several of his men froze to death in 1912 during their march to the earth's southernmost point.

- AP