South Street Seaport Museum to Present Free Lecture on Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance
Join British marine archaeologist Mensun Bound for a fascinating discussion on the recent discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton's lost ship.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Sep. 20, 2023
The South Street Seaport Museum and The National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) are co-hosting a lecture by British marine archaeologist Mensun Bound, the "Indiana Jones of the Deep," on September 26, 2023, at 7pm, aboard the 1885 tall ship Wavertree. Get your free ticket today to hear Bound discuss his most recent expedition that discovered Sir Ernest Shackleton's (1874-1922) lost ship Endurance in an excellent state of preservation. Bound will offer a firsthand account of this historic rediscovery of the vessel beneath the ice of the Weddell Sea, near the Antarctic Peninsula. seaportmuseum.org/ship-beneath-ice
The program will be moderated by Captain Jonathan Boulware, President & CEO of South Street Seaport Museum.
Beyond the tale of the Endurance, Bound will address how the shifting climate and escalating global heating pose an imminent threat to the safeguarding of historic shipwreck sites. This presentation promises to be an enlightening exploration of the past and a timely reflection on our planet's future.
Mensun Bound's book, The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance, will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
This exciting lecture is offered to you free, but advance registration is required.
A reception with Mensun Bound will precede the lecture, for an additional ticket at $150, which supports NMHS.
About Endurance
Endurance, a three-masted barquentine, was last seen in 1915 when Irish-British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 27 men watched in dismay as the ship, crushed by ice, sank into the icy depths. Miraculously, the entire crew survived and Mensun Bound sums up Shackleton's management of the 1916 rescue as "arguably, the greatest story of human survival in recorded history." The crew's mission, as members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was a daring plan to reach the South Pole by traveling over the then-unmapped terrain of the East Antarctic.
National Geographic is working with Oscar winners Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and BAFTA-nominated director Natalie Hewit to produce a documentary that will share the tale of discovering the Endurance.
About the Speaker
Mensun 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. Known as the "Indiana Jones of the Deep," Bound has conducted wreck surveys and excavations all over the world in a career that spanned 40 years. His book The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance is a best seller in the United Kingdom.
Bound has a unique connection to the Seaport Museum and National Maritime Historical Society. He served on the World Ship Trust with Seaport Museum founder and then-NMHS president Peter Stanford (1927-2016). Additionally, Bound's great-grandfather William Biggs was a shipwright and a carpenter in Port Stanley who, in 1910-1911, likely surveyed the damage to the Seaport Museum's 1885 tall ship Wavertree after her dismasting while attempting to round Cape Horn. Decades later, Wavertree was rediscovered in Argentina, and brought to New York City to become the flagship of the South Street Seaport Museum's fleet of historic vessels.
About The National Maritime Historical Society
Since its beginnings in 1963, The National Maritime Historical Society has been celebrating the sea and raising awareness of maritime heritage and the role seafaring has played in shaping civilization. seahistory.org
About the South Street Seaport Museum
The South Street Seaport Museum, located in the heart of the historic seaport district in New York City, preserves and interprets the history of New York as a great port city. Founded in 1967, the Museum houses an extensive collection of works of art and artifacts, a maritime reference library, exhibition galleries and education spaces, working 19th century print shops, and an active fleet of historic vessels that all work to tell the story of "Where New York Begins." seaportmuseum.org
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