A review by redhairedashreads
The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance by Mensun Bound

3.0

 
TW: Graphic excerpts from Endurance’s crews journals that discuss animal deaths, death of their dogs and a cat, threat of starvation, bullying, harsh living conditions and the expectation of dying. 

After reading Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage a few years ago, I was very excited when it was announced that they had found the ship in the Antarctic Ocean. The footage from the discovery was beautiful because of how well preserved the ship was, especially the name on the stern. 

This memoir of Mensun Bound's journey to discover the ship was very interesting and along with his personal daily updates, he provides information about the Endurance’s voyage and what the crew was doing on certain days. This book is split into two parts covering the two expeditions that lead to this discovery. The first expedition in 2019 was a failure due to the loss of their submersible and weather and ice concerns, but the second expedition in 2022 finally led to the discovery of the ship. 

This was an interesting look at modern expeditions for searching for sunken ships and all the techniques and manpower that is needed, especially in the Antarctic ocean. While it was very interesting, there are times when it gets very technical and uses a lot of acronyms so it's a bit hard to understand what things mean. I still enjoyed this book overall, but wish Bound had been a little less technical to make it easier for the non-sailor and scientist to understand. 

 
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