Little Dot Studios And History Hit Search For Endurance

January 5, 2022: History Hit, the SVOD and content platform co-founded by historian Dan Snow, and award-winning digital content agency and media network Little Dot Studios (an All3Media company) have announced their exclusive media partnership with a new expedition to find, film, and document one of the last great lost shipwrecks of history - Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance. Today’s announcement is being made on the centenary of Sir Ernest’s death. 

The expedition to locate the shipwreck, which has for over a century remained inaccessible and undiscovered under the ice of the Weddell Sea, is setting off from Cape Town next month on a voyage to the Weddell Sea, off the coast of Antarctica where the Endurance lies at a depth of approximately 3500m in ice-cold seas. On board the South African icebreaker Agulhas II will be a crew of scientists and archaeologists alongside a team of highly experienced extreme environment film makers, led by Dan Snow, who will document events in real time. The expedition has been organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.

This will be the most ambitious broadcasting project ever undertaken from the ice of the Weddell Sea. History Hit and Little Dot Studios will produce a range of content covering the setting up of the expedition, the voyage and search itself, as well as the history, science, and other themes that connect to the wider mission. Short-form content will be distributed to millions of subscribers across History Hit TV, HistoryHit.com, and History Hit's podcast network and social channels, together with Little Dot Studios’ network of owned and operated digital and social media accounts including Timeline World History, Spark and Real Stories. The team will also be filming for a long-form documentary chronicling this incredible expedition.

Endurance left South Georgia for Antarctica on December 5, 1914, carrying 27 men with the goal of reaching the South Pole and ultimately crossing the continent. However, when nearing Antarctica the ship became trapped in pack ice and the crew were forced to spend the winter in the frozen landscape. Following the ship’s sinking, the crew were forced to make their way by sea to uninhabited Elephant Island, before Shackleton and five men set off in a lifeboat on an epic journey to seek help from a whaling station in South Georgia, more than 800 miles away. After several attempts, Shackleton eventually made it back to Elephant Island to rescue his crew and miraculously, all of those men under his command in the Weddell Sea survived two years in the wilds of Antarctica, making it one of history’s great stories of human survival. Shackleton himself died of a heart attack on January 5, 1922, aged 47. 

Dan Snow, co-Founder and Creative Director of History Hit, said: "From the day I started History Hit, I knew this day would come. The hunt for Shackleton’s wreck will be the biggest story in the world of history in 2022. As the partner broadcaster we will be able to reach tens of millions of history fans all over the world, in real time. We are able to deploy some of the world’s biggest history podcasts, YouTube channels, Facebook pages and TikTok accounts to reach a massive number of history lovers. We are going to tell the story of Shackleton, and this expedition to find his lost ship, like never before. Live streaming and podcasting from ice camps, recording a vast amount of content that will live online and be accessible for generations to come. It’s a dream come true.”

Alex Hryniewicz, Director of Content, Little Dot Studios, said: "We are thrilled to be partnering with History Hit on this expedition to locate the Endurance. Dan is the perfect, expert host to convey the excitement and the complexity of searching for a 100-year-old wreck several kilometres deep in icy seas. The range of content we produce for different channels will provide an incredible amount of context - and we hope new insights - to a legendary story.”

Little Dot Studios is represented for television by CAA and is working with veteran documentary producers and impact executives from Consequential LLC on long form production.