NavList:

Frank,

Thanks for your comments and clarifications. Both our posts are long enough that it can be difficult to see the wood for the trees. Let me then just reiterate the key point that I wanted to get across and had hoped the NatGeo documentary might provide some insight into. As I noted in https://navlist.net/Endurance-documentary-premiere-Stuart-nov-2024-g56500

The inescapable conclusion here is that it has been well-known for a long time that the position of the wreck would be south of the position Worsley recorded in the logbook by up to 5.5NM.

The leaders of the Endurance22 expedition were definitely aware of this but nevertheless for reasons still unknown chose to expend a great deal of time and effort searching around the so-called "Endurance Memorial Position" and even to the north of it. The wreck of Endurance was only found when in the last few days of their extended search permit they swept the area where an analysis of the logbooks indicated it should be.

On further thing - you wrote:

The Endurance position, listed by Worsley, precise to some seconds of arc, shouldn't have been taken seriously either.

I have to disagree with you on this. The Endurance position should be taken completely seriously but with an understanding of how it was obtained. The position given is 69°39'30"S 52°26'30"W. The 30" should be read as ½ minute. Looking through the logbook Worsley's sextant sights are recorded to the arc minute or ½ arc minute. Arc seconds when quoted are in generally 15", 30" or 45". There are cases where single arc second values are given but these come from the Nautical Almanac tables and he just didn't bother rounding the final result.

Regards,
Robin