Mensun Bound, the expedition director, gave the first public description of what the cameras had found: the ship was upright. Its stern was intact. The taffrail and ship’s wheel were still on the aft well deck. The starboard bow was visible. The ship’s name was legible on the stern. The cold, dark, high-pressure environment of the Weddell Sea floor had preserved the wooden hull in conditions that Bound described as extraordinary.
“It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation,” Bound said. He called it “by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen.”
Dr. John Shears, the expedition leader, described the moment the cameras first captured the ship’s name: it was, he said, jaw-dropping.
The wreck is protected as a Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty, meaning it cannot be disturbed. No artifacts can be removed. The survey and filming are the record; the ship itself will remain where it came to rest in November 1915, on the floor of the sea that crushed it.
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## The Crew List Complete
The 28 men of the Weddell Sea party are, by name:
Ernest Shackleton, expedition leader. Frank Wild, second in command. Frank Worsley, captain and navigator. Lionel Greenstreet, first officer, who joined 24 hours before departure and outlived all the others. Hubert Hudson, navigator. Tom Crean, second officer. Alfred Cheetham, third officer, an Antarctic veteran. Lewis Rickinson, first engineer. Alexander Kerr, second engineer, who had been the youngest crew member until the stowaway was discovered. Dr. Alexander Macklin, surgeon, who drove sled dogs and later amputated Blackborow’s toes. Dr. James McIlroy, second surgeon.