The ship that carried Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated journey to the Antarctic a century ago has been located at the exact opposite end of the planet.

The SS Terra Nova was discovered last month off the coast of Greenland by researchers from Schmidt Ocean Institute of Palo Alto, Calif

Team members were testing equipment when they came across an unidentifiable object that measured about 57 metres long, the length of the Terra Nova, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

After sending down a camera to snap shots of the wooden wreck lying on its side, researchers were able to confirm it was indeed the ship that Scott sailed on.

The ship has been submerged in icy water for almost 70 years.

Originally built for the whaling and sealing industry in 1884, Terra Novacarried Scott and his team from Cardiff, Wales, to Antarctica in their bid to become the first crew to reach the South Pole.

When they finally arrived at the Pole in January 1912, a little over a year after leaving the United Kingdom, they found out they were 33 days too late, having been beaten by the Norwegian team lead by Roald Amundsen.

Scott and the four other men who made the trek from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole never made it back to the ship.

Those left onboard eventually returned home, and Terra Nova was afterward used in the Newfoundland seal fishery. The ship was brought into service during World War I as a supply carrier.

In 1943, it was carrying supplies to Greenland for Newfoundland Base Contractors when it got trapped in ice. The U.S. Coast Guard managed to rescue all 24 crew members, but fired into Terra Nova’s side, sinking it.

The discovery of the Terra Nova is particularly poignant this year, the 100th anniversary of Scott’s arrival at the South Pole.

Leighton Rolley, a member of the research team that located the ship, told The Telegraphthe discovery was an “exciting achievement.”

Because it is found under more than 1,000 feet of water, and also because of its condition and the cost a recovery project would incur, Rolley said it’s unlikely the Terra Nova will ever be brought back to the surface.