A Real-Life Indiana Jones Discovers Shackleton's Lost Ship
The apex of marine archaeologist Mensun Bound's stellar career happened a year ago this week, when the expedition he spearheaded found Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" at the bottom of an Antarctic sea. This was just the latest find in a career marked by big discoveries, including a 2,500-year-old Etruscan ship and a Roman wreck weighed down by massive stone columns looted from Athens.
Bound has a special term for that electric moment when he uncovers a piece of history and feels like he's connecting with the mind of its creator. He calls it "mind touch." Now, the expedition to find Shackleton's ship required a crew of experts, an icebreaker, two helicopters, and cutting edge submersible robots. But the real magic in this story is Bound's palpable connection through time to people whose stories have enriched our world.
Guest: Mensun Bound, Director of Exploration on the 2019 and 2022 expeditions to locate Shackleton’s Endurance; previously Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at Oxford University; author of "The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance"
Photo Credit: National Geographic/The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Bound has a special term for that electric moment when he uncovers a piece of history and feels like he's connecting with the mind of its creator. He calls it "mind touch." Now, the expedition to find Shackleton's ship required a crew of experts, an icebreaker, two helicopters, and cutting edge submersible robots. But the real magic in this story is Bound's palpable connection through time to people whose stories have enriched our world.
Guest: Mensun Bound, Director of Exploration on the 2019 and 2022 expeditions to locate Shackleton’s Endurance; previously Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at Oxford University; author of "The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance"
Photo Credit: National Geographic/The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
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