MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“The ship beneath the Sea”, Shackleton's Endurance

Bound achieved the crowning of an accomplishment for “a boy from the South Atlantic” who will ever have his name very close to that of the explorer Shackleton.

“Well, what about the Endurance,” was the seed of the challenge suggested by a good friend of maritime archeologist Mensun Bound when they met in south Kensington at Caffe Nero, for a coffee in the summer of August 2012.

This was the starting point for the captivating book “The Ship Beneath the Sea”, The discovery of Shacketon's Endurance, the flagship of the mighty Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which at the time of the great explorers in early nineteen hundreds, had the purpose of achieving the first crossing of the White Continent from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea.

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As it was well publicized the proud Endurance never made it: over a century ago, in November 1915 it was trapped by floes, crushed and sent 3,000 meters deep under the permanent ice pack. But with the loss of the Endurance were born the legend of Shackleton's resilience, determination and leadership in rescuing all the members of his crew stranded for months in Antarctica, and a big question, if with the advances of modern technology, will the ship ever unveil its secrets under such extreme circumstances

Back in 2012, Mensun downplayed the Endurance suggestion from his friend, pointing out that the Endurance was under the permanent ice pack, and there was limited maritime rescue technology. However Mensun was not entirely convinced of his reply because it had rekindled an ever present wish, intention, almost obsession, since he was a child who grew up in the South Atlantic, on the Falkland Islands.

“Everyone in my generation was a Shackleton enthusiast. Shackleton had travelled three times to the Falklands, and even stayed at an inn managed by my great, great uncle, and the guestbook bearing his signature still survives”. Mensun's father introduced him to the history of the great explorer and at the age of seven he was given as a prize for attendance to Sunday School, Webster's Smith's book “Sir Ernest Shackleton”, which he still has and accompanied him during the Endurance 22 expedition.

The book which is to be officially launched this week, has been meticulously researched, blending in the narrative Mensun's participation, with his renowned maritime archeologist expertise, in the two expeditions, 2019 and 2022, with the dairies of Shackleton and several of his crew members who managed to salvage much material before the Endurance was crushed.

Shackleton's 1914 expedition had in effect an ample coverage of written experiences from crew members, plus the brilliant photographic archives of Australian Frank Hurley who recorded the slow death of Endurance, and the rigorous precision of Captain Frank Worsley, which facilitated the search area.

Finally when on 5 March 2022, state of the art Sabertooth lit the stern and name of the majestic ship, hidden under the ice pack, the team of the South African icebreaker Agulhas II realized that an obsession had turned into reality, “we have found the Endurance, we are now the Lords of the Deep”, a member of the crew said in that moment, Mensun told MercoPress. Also, Bound achieved the crowning of an accomplishment for “a boy from the South Atlantic” who will ever have his name very close to that of the explorer Shackleton.

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Mensun Bound has featured in many documentaries and were the subject of a four part series by the Discovery Channel entitled, Lost Ships. He founded the first academic unit for maritime archeology in England and from at St. Peter's, University of Oxford. He is a trustee of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and was director of exploration on the 2019 and 2022 expeditions to locate Shackleton's Endurance.

The book will be presented in London at Daunt Books library on Wednesday, 26 from 6:30pm.