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Endurance

C

Chad Owens

Joined
Aug 26, 2025
Messages
7
Points
3

Hello, thank you for having me. I just joined the community. I'm a designer of scenery for theater, opera, movies and tv, living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've built detailed models from scratch for my whole career, over 30 years so far, but almost exclusively of sets and theaters. Now I am engaged to work on a show about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica. We need to design and construct several rather full size aspects of the Endurance, and also the James Caird. I've been looking for accurate drawings of both vessels. I've seen that OcCre sells a kit of the Endurance, and I'm considering getting my feet wet with that one, so to speak, but I'm hoping someone here may be able to help me find detailed technical drawings. I've reached out to the Royal Museum Greenwich, which apparently has some information, but no luck yet. I did find this drawing online, but it's not very high resolution, and no scale information, however it's better than nothing at this point.
Any help much appreciated.
Thank you
Chad

Screenshot 2025-08-25 at 6.54.53 PM.png
 
Chad,
Welcome to SOS! You may gain a lot of insight be searching the many Endurance build logs on the site. Good luck! Sounds like an interesting project.
 
Namabiiru said:
Chad,
Welcome to SOS! You may gain a lot of insight be searching the many Endurance build logs on the site. Good luck! Sounds like an interesting project.
Click to expand...
Thanks Namabiiru, yes I am experiencing awe and amazement now as I review the many Endurance builds posted here, as well as getting a very enjoyable education in the tools and techniques of model ship building. I have a son living near Nagoya, greetings from the USA.
 
The Endurance is my current build (link below). Wish you well in setting up sets. Would be great to see some pictures when you have sets built.
 
Welcome to SoS Chad
If accuracy is important I would not rely on the kit you mention without proper research. There are blueprints of the vessel at RMG https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/l...iKxU7L_dt5I3-cW28zr0zbXAeMYFTItyApnKjxSolZ8vF Keep in mind the vessel was originally name Polaris, so your search should include the original name if you are looking building plans.

I assume you have checked out the Shacketon museum in Ireland for help as well.

1756871288613.png

prints.rmg.co.uk

Midships section plan of 'Endurance' (1912), as 'Polaris'

Scale 1:24Plan no. 14009Date: 1914Original dimensions: 585 mm x 735 mm
prints.rmg.co.uk prints.rmg.co.uk

1756871497265.png

A side note, one of the most prominent ship model builders and authors is a retired set designer!!

Good luck in your project.
Allan
 
AllanKP69 said:
Welcome to SoS Chad
If accuracy is important I would not rely on the kit you mention without proper research. There are blueprints of the vessel at RMG https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/l...iKxU7L_dt5I3-cW28zr0zbXAeMYFTItyApnKjxSolZ8vF Keep in mind the vessel was originally name Polaris, so your search should include the original name if you are looking building plans.

I assume you have checked out the Shacketon museum in Ireland for help as well.

View attachment 541861

prints.rmg.co.uk

Midships section plan of 'Endurance' (1912), as 'Polaris'

Scale 1:24Plan no. 14009Date: 1914Original dimensions: 585 mm x 735 mm
prints.rmg.co.uk prints.rmg.co.uk

View attachment 541862

A side note, one of the most prominent ship model builders and authors is a retired set designer!!

Good luck in your project.
Allan
Click to expand...
Allan! Thank you so much! This is just what I was looking for. I had searched RMG's website for Endurance, but not Polaris, thanks for reminding me about the ship's original name. It's odd though, because the drawings you linked are listed at RMG's site as drawings of "Endurance, as Polaris" so you'd think a search for Endurance would have turned them up, but they didn't ping. At any rate, I am grateful to have the links now and will probably order these reproductions.

I am aware of the Shackleton Museum in Kildare, and apparently the original technical drawings of the Endurance are held by the National Library of Scotland, which I plan to reach out to as well. Thanks for the warning about the model kit from OcCre not being accurate. I've been looking through builds here on SOS, and it's so interesting to see how some have made adjustments to correct inaccuracies, particularly STGCS. So many build threads left to read!

Right now I'm focused on how to recreate rather large sections of these vessels onstage, but I have to say in the course of my research I've developed a serious itch to take up model ship building. Frankly in the past several years, it's less and less common to build physical set models any more, as our industry relies more and more on virtual 3D computer models, driven by cost concerns, time and money. Recently I dusted off my old tools and built a detailed set model for a project of my own, and it was such a pleasure to revisit some old skills. I certainly have to use magnifying glasses more than I used to!

Looking forward to having something to share here soon. Thanks again for your kindness and generosity.

Chad
 
Chad Owens said:
Hello, thank you for having me. I just joined the community. I'm a designer of scenery for theater, opera, movies and tv, living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've built detailed models from scratch for my whole career, over 30 years so far, but almost exclusively of sets and theaters. Now I am engaged to work on a show about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica. We need to design and construct several rather full size aspects of the Endurance, and also the James Caird. I've been looking for accurate drawings of both vessels. I've seen that OcCre sells a kit of the Endurance, and I'm considering getting my feet wet with that one, so to speak, but I'm hoping someone here may be able to help me find detailed technical drawings. I've reached out to the Royal Museum Greenwich, which apparently has some information, but no luck yet. I did find this drawing online, but it's not very high resolution, and no scale information, however it's better than nothing at this point.
Any help much appreciated.
Thank you
Click to expand...
For Endurance, you’re definitely looking in the right direction with Royal Museums Greenwich. You might also try the Scott Polar Research Institute — they hold Shackleton expedition material and sometimes have more technical references than what’s easily searchable online.
The drawing you found is a good visual reference, but as you said, it’s more illustrative than technical. If you can track down a proper lines plan (body plan, sheer, half-breadth), that will make life much easier, especially if you’re scaling up for scenic construction.
Given your background in theatre scenery and detailed builds, you’re probably better prepared for this than most of us here. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses — sounds like a fantastic project.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome, I am presently building the Endurance from the kit by Ocre. I (along with others) have done SOME research and as a result modified what we are building in the kit. However you are obviousely going to do a more detailed research than I am capable off so I will be following this issue with grait interest. I say again _ WELCOME
 
Omega said:
However you are obviousely going to do a more detailed research than I am capable off
Click to expand...
As you have the internet, research is very easy compared to 25 or 30 years ago. Much of what you need if you are interested in seeing if there are differences with the OcCre version and the real version is readily available with a couple clicks. :) The RMG Collections site given above and the Scott site (https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/)
Allan
 
Sadly the Information available from the above is limited. They do say that a lot of the Endurance info went down with the ship & I can find very little about the Polaris. One thing that is clear is that the steering mechanism on the Endurance was different from the kit. Rigging details are difficult to find and there seems to be limited photos of the forward mast area
 
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