MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mensun Bound will lecture on the discovery of “Endurance” onboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2

Falklands born Mensun will host an exclusive talk and Q&A on board the vessel as it makes a transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York

Mensun Bound, who as Director of Exploration of the team that on March 5 discovered Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sunken ship Endurance in the Weddell Sea, will deliver talks onboard Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 in 2022 and 2023.

The Falkland Islands born maritime archaeologist will host an exclusive talk and Q&A on board the vessel as it makes a transatlantic crossing on June 24 from Southampton, arriving in New York July 2. It will be the first time he has spoken publicly since returning from the expedition and will discuss his career and how his team penetrated the ice to find the wreck upright and in a superb state of preservation.

Next year, Bound will deliver talks onboard Queen Mary 2 as it makes a 13-night voyage from Alaska to San Francisco. ”It is a huge honor to welcome Mensun Bound on board Queen Mary 2 so soon after his historical expedition captured the world’s attention,’ said Sture Myrmell, president of Carnival UK. ‘I know our guests will be enamored by his first-hand account of his Endurance 22 expedition but also his extraordinary career that has spanned decades.’

As trustee of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, Bound was director of exploration for the team of deep-ocean robotic technologists who discovered Shackleton’s ill-fated Endurance 3km beneath the perennial sea ice of Antarctica.

Crushed by pack ice, the ship sank in 1915 at the heart of what Shackleton himself called ‘the worst portion of the worst sea on earth.’

Said Bound, ‘It’s been the most extraordinary few months with my feet yet to touch the ground since the Endurance 22 Expedition concluded.

‘To find a vessel of such historical significance is something that is hard to truly capture in a few words. However, I am very much looking forward to joining Queen Mary 2 and sharing my excitement and experiences for the first time with Cunard’s guests.’

Born in the Falkland Islands, partly educated in Uruguay, Bound was the Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St Peter’s College, Oxford and the director of the first academic unit for underwater archaeology in England. He has conducted wreck surveys and excavations all over the world in a career spanning 40 years.

In December 2019, Mensun achieved another major feat as the leader of the mission which discovered the flagship of Admiral Graf von Spee’s squadron at the Battle of the Falklands, a decisive naval action at the start of the Great War of 1914. The mighty SMS Sharnhorst was discovered, “lawnmowing” the bottom of the sea as well as the many years he has been after this feat. The flagship was found some 100 miles southeast of Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands, at a depth of 1,600 meters. The search was also sponsored by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.