jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pMarine-geophysical evidence on sea-floor morphology and shallow acoustic stratigraphy are used to examine the substrate around the location at which Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship jats:italicEndurance</jats:italic> sank in 1915 and on the continental slope-shelf sedimentary system above this site in the western Weddell Sea. Few signs of turbidity-current and mass-wasting activity are found near or upslope of the wreck site, and any such activity was probably linked to full-glacial higher-energy conditions when ice last advanced across the continental shelf. The wreck is well below the maximum depth of iceberg keels and will not have been damaged by ice-keel ploughing. The wreck has probably been draped by only a few centimetres of fine-grained sediment since it sank in 1915. Severe modern sea-ice conditions hamper access to the wreck site. Accessing and investigating the wreck of jats:italicEndurance</jats:italic> in the Weddell Sea therefore represents a significant challenge. An ice-breaking research vessel is required, and even this would not guarantee that the site could be reached. Heavy sea-ice cover at the wreck site, similar to that encountered by jats:italicAgulhus II</jats:italic> during the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019, would also make the launch and recovery of autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles deployed to investigate the jats:italicEndurance</jats:italic> wreck problematic.</jats:p>