Mensun Bound, who was director of exploration when the Discovery was discovered in the Antarctic, returns to the Shackleton Autumn School next month.

“The Endurance: conception, construction, destruction and reconstruction” is the title of Bound’s talk on October 22nd.

He will draw on research conducted on Endurance before and after its rediscovery in March 2022 by the Endurance22 expedition for the theme.

Bound will discuss the ship, its strengths, and areas of vulnerability.

He will also focus on how conditions combined to take down what was reputed to be one of the strongest wooden ships ever built.

The weekend Shackleton Autumn School programme will include an exhibition entitled “Retraced – The Worst Journey in the World”.

This will include “never before displayed items” relating to Apsley Cherry Garrard.

This year marks the 101st anniversary of the publication of the ‘The Worst Journey in the World’, which recounts a journey that was a tumultuous “coming of age” for its author and the heroic era of polar exploration, the school notes.

Day tickets for the 23rd Shackleton Autumn School are available now for €95 (Saturday) and €65 (Sunday).

The Shackleton Museum can be contacted by email ([email protected]) to purchase tickets.

The full programme is here

Marine Archaeologist Mensun Bound, named by National Geographic as ’the Indiana Jones of the Deep’, will thrill Ireland's Atlantic Youth Trust organisation with the story of how the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, was found in the most hostile sea on earth in 2022.

As previously reported by Afloat with podcast interview here, Bound will tell the RDS audience about the extraordinary expedition which found Shackleton"s Endurance - 100 years later under the ice.

Grace O'Malley update

The Atlantic Youth Trust (AYT) team will also provide an update on the Lady Ellen, aka Grace O’Malley Ship and plans for 2023.

Marine Archaeologist Mensun Bound, named by National Geographic as ’the Indiana Jones of the Deep’, was Director of Exploration of Endurance22 expedition on the sea ice of Weddell Sea, in the Antarctic Photo: Esther Horvath

AYT's Enda O'Coineen, is now snug for the winter at Harland and Wolf Shipyard following her Tour of Ireland this summer.

The event is on Thursday, 1 December 2022, 17:00 – 19:00. More details here

Marine archaeologist Mensun Bound has witnessed great works of art lying on the seabed and chests overflowing with treasure, but says, “nothing compares with finding the Endurance....”

Speaking at the recent Shackleton Autumn School in Athy, Co Kildare, Bound described how he could still recall that “hairs-rising-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling” when he first observed the images of the Endurance, filmed at a depth of 3,008 metres, in early March 2022.

Bound, who was born in the Falkland Islands, has discovered many of the world’s most famous shipwrecks. From 1994 to 2013, he was Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Latterly, he was director of exploration on the two expeditions to locate the Endurance in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, and is a trustee of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, which organised the ambitious project.

The Ship Beneath The Ice, is a compelling account of the two dramatic expeditions to find the Endurance

His new book, The Ship Beneath The Ice, is a compelling account of the two dramatic expeditions to find the vessel in what Shackleton called “the most hostile sea on Earth”.

As with Shackleton, Bound experienced failure and despair, and at times his own ship was on the cusp of being frozen in ice, much like the Endurance. 

He spoke to Wavelengths in Athy, recalling how it all started with a cup of coffee, describing the influence of the Falkland islands on his career in maritime archaeology, the technology used to locate the Endurance, and what he would really have liked to have seen on the wreck.

You can listen to the interview below

The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance, published by Macmillan in both hardback and paperback, is available in all good bookshops.

Marine archaeologist Mensun Bound has witnessed great works of art lying on the seabed and chests overflowing with treasure but says, “nothing compares with finding the Endurance....”

In an interview with The Irish Examiner, Bound says he can still recall that “hairs-rising-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling” when he observed the video of Ernest Shackleton’s most famous ship, filmed at a depth of 3,008 metres in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea.

“My first view was of the stern of the ship, and then there was the rudder which had given them so many problems, lying in the mud innocently, but we could clearly see the damage it had sustained,” Bound told newspaper, recalling the first submersible images from three miles down on March 5th, 2022.

Ernest Shackleton’s most famous ship, Endurance filmed at a depth of 3,008 metres in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea

The Falklands-born archaeologist, who is due to speak at the Shackleton Autumn School in Athy, Co Kildare on Saturday (Oct 29), described seeing “the ship’s name arching over the stern, and the camera rose higher to capture the ship’s wheel, and higher again to film the portholes of Shackleton’s cabin....it was quite surreal”.

Just a fortnight before, he and an international team on board the South African icebreaking polar supply and research ship SA Agulhas II has fallen into a collective depression over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We may have been thousands of miles away and off the charts, but we weren’t immune to world news. And then, all of a sudden there was this very positive thing, where the clouds seemed to peel back and the sun came out for a brief time, and Dan Snow, our historian on board, was speaking to millions of people around the world...”

A fifth generation Falkland islander who grew up, as he says, “bringing peat in for fires on a horse and cart”, Bound has discovered many of the world’s best known shipwrecks.

Many artefacts he recovered are on exhibition in over a dozen museums around the world. The Discovery Channel, which nicknamed him the “Indiana Jones of the Deep”, commissioned a four-part series on his work, entitled Lost Ships.

He began his career in underwater archaeology in Turkey with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. He founded the first academic unit for maritime archaeology in England, and from 1992 to 2013 was the Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Among his expeditions have been location of the Campese Bay wreck off Giglio in Italy, which filled vital knowledge gaps on the Etruscan trade around 600 BC; and recovery of intact porcelain from the Hoi An ship, which was wrecked in the South China Sea in the mid 15th century.

He has surveyed Lord Nelson’s ship, Agamemnon, he located the first world war German wreck of the Scharnhorst off the Falkland islands; and he was involved in several expeditions to the battle cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, a symbol of German might, which was scuttled off Uruguay in 1939.

Coming from the Falklands, he had been a Shackleton enthusiast from a very young age. “The Boss” had been to the Falklands several times. On at least one visit, Shackleton, Tom Crean, and the captain of the Endurance, Frank Worsley, had stayed at a boarding house run by Bound’s great-great-uncle, Vincent Biggs and left their signatures in its guest book.

However, when the idea of an expedition to search for the Endurance was mentioned over a coffee in London’s South Kensington just over a decade ago, Bound wasn’t too keen.

Read more in The Irish Examiner HERE

The Ship Beneath the Ice: the Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance by Mensun Bound is published by Macmillan on October 27th

Bound is speaking at the Shackleton Autumn School in Athy, Co Kildare on Saturday, October 29th. Further details are on www.shackletonmuseum.com