This Sunday, December first members of the HMS Ajax and River Plate Veterans leave for Chile, Uruguay and Argentina to recall events of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939.
In 2014-2015, to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Falklands, Mensun Bound, a Falkland Islander himself, led an expedition to try to find Admiral Graff von Spee’s lost cruiser squadron in 1914, the whereabouts of which has become one the great mysteries of the maritime world. Now he is resuming the hunt. Mercopress began by asking how it all began.
South African icebreaker Agulhas II, 05.24 hours GMT. Ice Pilot Freddie Ligthelm over ship’s intercom: “Good Morning from the Bridge. This is to say we have reached the Endurance sinking position. Lekker Lekker Lekker [Afrikaans for “Nice, Nice, Nice”]”
Following on from Penguin News’ interview last week with Islander Mensun Bound, who was involved in the search for the Argentine submarine Ara San Juan, Mr Bound spoke of his current project, the search for Shackleton’s ship Endurance.
An Antarctic scientific expedition aiming to understand the secrets of a giant iceberg will also attempt to locate Ernest Shackleton’s stricken Endurance in the Weddell Sea, according to reports in The Guardian.
Everybody is aware of the recent hunt for the lost Argentine submarine San Juan, but what only a few know is that Falkland maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound was one of the team on board the Seabed Constructor, the ship that conducted the search.
‘The hunt for Germany’s lost battleships’ a documentary based on Mensun Bound’s search for the lost fleet from the Battle of the Falklands was shown at a premiere at the British Film Institute, London on October 16.
Last December, in a spirit of remembrance and reconciliation, and in the presence of the descendants of the fighting admirals, the Falkland Islands commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Falklands, an action that sent six ships to the bottom and claimed well over 2000 lives.
Historian and renowned Marine Archaeologist, Mensun Bound, has been researching the events surrounding the December 2014 Battle of the Falklands and has secured private funding for a once in a life time expedition.
At the invitation of Mensun Bound, some twenty-five people, including three members of the Falklands elected Legislative Council met to consider ways in which the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Falkland Islands should be marked, when it falls on December 8, 2014.