A review by pferdina
The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance by Mensun Bound
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.25
This is Menson Bound’s account of his two expeditions to locate the wreck of the Endurance, the ship Ernest Shackleton lost to the ice during the disastrous journey to cross Antarctica in 1914-1916. The first expedition in 2019 ended in failure due to bad weather and bad luck. The team lost one of the submersible robot vehicles it used to scout under the ice and returned north barely in time to avoid being trapped like Shackleton. Amazingly, most of the team returned for the 2022 expedition that ended with fantastic images and other underwater data showing the very well preserved state of the wreck.
I thought the book was a little tedious. The author is more a scientist than a writer and there were a lot of cliches and a lot of technical stuff. On the other hand, it was really cool that Bound intersperses his story with details from the diaries of Shackleton’s crew. That gives the book more depth than it would have had. Secondly, I loved that Bound ended each chapter with his position in latitude and longitude. That emphasized the extreme distances covered by both the original explorers and the modern ones.
I thought the book was a little tedious. The author is more a scientist than a writer and there were a lot of cliches and a lot of technical stuff. On the other hand, it was really cool that Bound intersperses his story with details from the diaries of Shackleton’s crew. That gives the book more depth than it would have had. Secondly, I loved that Bound ended each chapter with his position in latitude and longitude. That emphasized the extreme distances covered by both the original explorers and the modern ones.