SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH

The extraordinary story of how the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, was found in the most hostile sea on Earth in 2022

On 21 November 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, finally succumbed to the crushing ice. Its crew watched in silence as the stern rose twenty feet in the air and then, it was gone. The miraculous escape and survival of all 28 men on board have entered legend. And yet, the iconic ship that bore them to the brink of the Antarctic was considered forever lost.

A century later, an audacious plan to locate the ship was hatched. The Ship Beneath the Ice gives a blow-by-blow account of the two epic expeditions to find the Endurance. As with Shackleton’s own story, the voyages were filled with intense drama and teamwork under pressure. In March 2022, the Endurance was finally found to headlines all over the world.

Written by Mensun Bound, the Director of Exploration on both expeditions, this captivating narrative includes countless fascinating stories of Shackleton and his legendary ship. Complete with a selection of Frank Hurley’s photos from Shackleton’s original voyage in 1914–17, as well as from the expeditions in 2019 and 2022, The Ship Beneath the Ice is the perfect tribute to this monumental discovery.

Mensun Bound is a leading maritime archaeologist who has discovered many of the world’s most famous shipwrecks. Artefacts that he has raised can be found on permanent display in over a dozen museums worldwide. His excavations have 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 archaeology in England and from 1992 to 2013 was the Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University. 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 Ship Beneath the Ice is his first book.