AN Oxford explorer leading an outlandish Antarctic mission to find Shackleton’s ship The Endurance says the discovery would be ‘bigger than The Titanic’.

UPDATE: Mensun Bound and team make it to last known site

Maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound is currently onboard an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea, where Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship was lost in November 1915.

Mr Bound, 65, believes the odds of finding the vessel, which sunk to a depth of two miles and now lies beneath thick sea ice, are 'heavily stacked against us'.

But, the Horspath local believes its discovery would makes waves worldwide and lead to him retire, after a glittering career in archaeology.

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His team are currently breaking through 75 miles of sea ice in an effort to get to a search area of 'around 15 by six or seven nautical miles'.

He told the Oxford Mail: "To start with, we've got to get there. This is huge, multi-layer ice (the thickest, most complicated) - it is going to be tough.

"(And) in my experience, the wrecks are not where they say they are.

"I have never known a challenge like this in my life."

Mr Bound is on the SA Aguilas II, a 13,700-tonne ship that he believes can can break through '8m thick' ice and is 'probably the world's most able icebreaker.'

He continued: "I have dreamed all my life of getting to The Endurance.

"I have a lot of experience (but) this is the absolute prize - finding it would be bigger than The Titanic.

"It's the whole Shackleton cult - the story is the greatest escape there has ever been. From a historical point of view it is overwhelming."

Born in the Falklands, Mr Bound has family connections to the famous mission.

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Explaining that a picture of Captain Frank Worsley hung in his childhood home, he adds: "When Shackleton was in the Falklands, he actually stayed with my family."

His long-time interest in The Endurance means that this might be the crowning jewel in his career.

He said: "I think after this I might just retire. Where do we go from here?"

The team hope to arrive at the site later this week, where they will send robotic submarines to scan the seabed for the ship.

If they find any wreckage, it will then be inspected with a better-equipped remote operated vehicle (ROV).

Drones and satellite image technology are also on board.

The first stage of the mission, which has now ended, was for scientific research, before the search began.

Mr Bound, who is seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity's director of exploration, added: "The equipment we are using is absolutely the finest and most sophisticated in the world but a thousand things could go wrong.

"The question is 'can we launch and recover the search vehicle' (and) can the equipment we have perform how we want it to?"

"The odds are heavily stacked against us... I'm not very confident. We're stepping into the unknown."