MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Mensun Bound received a lifetime achievement award in Montecarlo

Mensun Bound receiving a lifetime achievement award in Montecarlo

Falklands marine archaeologist, Mensun Bound, received a lifetime achievement award on September 14 on behalf of the Atlantic Youth Trust. The award was presented by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, at a gala dinner in Montecarlo. 2022 marks the 40th year since Mensun began directing underwater archaeological excavations.

His first project was a ship from 600 BC off the Tuscan Island of Giglio that went down in 50 m of water with a cargo of Greek painted pottery.

The artifacts from this wreck now fill the top floor of the National Underwater Archaeological Museum at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy.

After the Giglio ship, Mensun went on to excavate wrecks all over the world. This included East Indiamen in the Straits of Malacca, a wreck carrying Ming Porcelain and gold off East Africa and the recovery of a cannon from Lord Nelson’s ship Agamemnon at the bay of Maldonado in Uruguay, that is the only gun which can be proven to have been fired at the battle of Trafalgar.

Another artillery piece, now on show at the Naval museum of Montevideo, was raised from the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee which was scuttled off the coast of Uruguay after the Battle of the River Plate in 1939.

In the South China Sea Mensun directed the deepest excavation there has ever been using saturation diving techniques.

More recently, working with former Governor Donald Lamont, Chairman of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, Mensun led a team which found the WW1 German Navy flagship Scharnhorst and, this year, he was Director of Exploration for the team that, under the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, discovered Shackleton’s Endurance, three kilometers beneath the ice of the Weddell Sea.

With Mensun in Monte Carlo was The Hon. Alexandra Shackleton, Sir Ernest’s granddaughter and a long time friend of the Falklands.