As a marine archaeologist, Mensun Bound headed the 2022 Antarctic expedition that discovered the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, more than a century after the legendary ship became trapped in ice and sank.
Now he is warning that its protection cannot be guaranteed due to the combined threats of global heating and underwater robotic technology that could enable thefts from the historic site.
He fears that ocean acidification and melting ice will take their toll on Endurance, with underwater robotic systems becoming so advanced that he can envisage them being programmed from afar to travel “invisibly” beneath the ice of the Weddell Sea, where the Endurance lies at depth.
Shackleton’s vessel was discovered in March, making polar history in solving one of the great maritime mysteries. It is in such an astonishing state of preservation that details such as its bell and rudder can be seen clearly.
But Bound fears for their survival: “What if an observation class submersible had a manipulating arm tucked away beneath its bonnet? Would they be able to resist snatching the bell?”
His warnings are sounded in an interview in the latest issue of Wreckwatch magazine, which focuses this month on ice wrecks.
Bound, director of exploration on the Endurance22 project for the Falklands Maritime Heritage trust, also headed the 2019 search, which was called off after an underwater vehicle became trapped beneath the ice.
In Wreckwatch, he compares the environmental conditions on both expeditions, shocked by a dramatic deterioration: “There was very little of the old, thick, gnarled, multi-year ice and there was hardly any of the muscularity or pressure experienced in 2019. This time it was mainly thin first-year ice, and we were never under serious threat of becoming ice-bound. Was this an aberration peculiar to 2022 or part of a trend?… If the trend continues, we won’t be able to depend much longer on that hard carapace of perennial sea ice to protect the Endurance.”
He adds: “There’s always been environmental change of one kind or another, but taking place over many thousands of years. What we’re seeing now has all happened within my lifetime which, in the scheme of things, is no more than the flick of a penguin’s tail. Although it looks serene and beautiful, Antarctica is a continent in pain; it’s a continent poised for catastrophe.”
Bound describes the 2022 expedition as a “non-disturbance survey”. “We took nothing, we touched nothing … We were profoundly aware that what we had found was totemic, a ‘monument’ that has entered the very bloodstream of our nation.”
Asked about wrecks that are often pillaged once found, he adds: “Illegal incursion by rogue organisations worries me a lot. I worked through what is often described as the golden age of maritime archaeology … The recent past doesn’t always feel so golden … one long fight against vandals, a race against time to save what I could before another wreck was looted out of existence.”
Sean Kingsley, a marine archaeologist and Wreckwatch’s editor, said: “Mensun’s global warming take is very powerful and timely. If we cannot protect a national gem 3,000 metres deep on the dark side of the earth, what can we preserve? Should we leave major sites like this where they are, to fall apart and be plundered? Or be brave enough to recover select parts? After all, ice wreck after ice wreck will come to light as global warming pinches.”
The Endurance and ice wrecks are featured in Shackleton’s Legacy, an exhibition at the Shipwreck Treasure Museum in Charlestown, Cornwall.
