Mike Harpley, Publishing Director at Pan Macmillan, has acquired World English rights to one book by Mensun Bound from Luigi Bonomi at LBA in a pre-empt, in his first acquisition since moving from Atlantic Books.

Pan Macmillan will publish The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Hunt for Shackleton’s Endurance in Hardback, eBook and Audio in October 2022.

In March 2022, an intrepid team achieved the impossible. To headlines all over the world, they located Ernest Shackleton’s ship, over a century after its crew watched in silence as it succumbed to the crushing pressure of the surrounding ice. In The Ship Beneath the Ice, Director of Exploration Mensun Bound gives a blow-by-blow account of the two incredible expeditions to locate the ship in what Shackleton called ‘the most hostile sea on Earth’. As with Shackleton, Bound too experienced failure and despair, and at times his own ship was on the cusp of being frozen in ice, much like the Endurance.

As one of the world’s foremost experts on the Endurance, Bound includes previously untold stories of Shackleton’s epic survival and fascinating details about the iconic ship. Complete with numerous photos from the original expedition in 1914, as well as from the wreck on the seafloor, this book is the perfect gift for armchair explorers everywhere.

Mike Harpley said, ‘In a year of grim news, the discovery of the Endurance was an incredible story of human spirit and achievement. In this gripping book, Mensun Bound weaves together the story of the expeditions to locate the shipwreck with the story of Shackleton’s miraculous survival. He’s a brilliant raconteur and this book will bring Shackleton’s story to a whole new generation of readers.’

Mensun Bound is a leading marine archaeologist who has discovered many of the world’s most famous shipwrecks. He has lectured widely for the British Council and a range of museums, universities, learned societies, archaeological organizations and cruise ships. From 1994 to 2012, he was Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St Peter’s College, Oxford University. He was Director of Exploration on the 2019 and 2022 expeditions to locate Shackleton’s Endurance.

The Bookseller also announced the deal.