Captain Scott’s historic polar shipwreck reveals stunning details

Captain Robert Falcon Scott's famous polar ship Terra Nova has been extensively filmed for the first time, revealing remarkable preservation 170 meters deep off Greenland's coast.

The vessel that carried Scott's doomed 1910-1912 South Pole expedition now serves as an artificial reef teeming with marine life, though key features including the wheel, winch and mast remain clearly visible.

Discovered in 2012 but only now comprehensively documented, the wreck shows the 57-meter wooden ship that endured six decades of service before sinking in 1943 while supplying World War II bases.

Leighton Rolley, science systems manager at REV Ocean expressed: "To be able to see these significant parts of the wreck was truly awe inspiring."

"The wheel sat there perfectly intact amongst the debris. If that ship's wheel could talk, it could tell an amazing history," Rolley further added.

The wreck shows significant damage at the stern and bow. It's full of fish, it's got corals growing on it, it's become one with the ocean though.

The Terra Nova carried Scott's team on their tragic attempt to become the first humans to reach the South Pole. They achieved the pole in January 1912, they discovered Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them by five weeks.

All five members perished during their return journey amid brutal conditions, with Captain Lawrence Oates famously sacrificing himself with the words, 'I am just going outside and may be some time.'

The watercraft continued service after the expedition until its wartime sinking, becoming both a historical monument and thriving ecosystem.

The Terra Nova's legacy continues through artifacts preserved at Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute, where Amundsen's black flag that greeted Scott at the pole remains displayed.