Silver Endeavour's inaugural Antarctica expedition team

The seven-day fly-cruise trip will operate round-trip King George Island and Conrad Combrink, Silversea Cruises' SVP expedition, destination and itinerary management will be along.

The ship operated the 2021/22 Antarctica season in its former life as Crystal Endeavor, but this will be its first revenue voyage under new owner Silversea.

Antarctica Bridge fly-cruise

It will be Combrink's 78th journey to the continent, and he will accompany passengers on the Silversea-chartered DAP Antarctic Airways flight directly to Antarctica, where they'll embark Silver Endeavour at King George Island. After exploring the Antarctic Peninsula, the ship intends to call at the South Shetland Islands before returning to King George Island where passengers will fly back to Punta Arenas.

Capt. Niklas Peterstam

Capt. Niklas Peterstam, who has served aboard since September 2021 and was at Crystal Endeavor's helm in Antarctica, will be in command for this inaugural season. After starting his maritime career in 1979, Peterstam moved into expedition cruising in 1991, navigating areas such as Antarctica, the Arctic and the Russian Far East, among others. He then helmed larger ships in Asia and was on hand for the construction of three mega-cruise ships in Germany. In 2018, Peterstam returned to the position of daptain full time.

Expedition leader and team

The expedition team will be led by Marieke Egan, a former speed skating medalist in the Netherlands National Championships who trekked extensively through Himalayas and Andes before migrating to Tasmania, where she became a naturalist and led tours in Australia's tropical Kimberley. Egan's expedition cruise experience ranges from Antarctica to the Seychelles, Indonesian and Pacific Islands, Greenland, the High Arctic and the Russian Far East.

Assistant expedition leaders are Jamie Watts, a marine biologist, and Alan Dominguez. Further expedition team members include wildlife/nature photographer Denis Elterman, author/historian Dmitrii Kiselev, anthropologist/historian Alexandra Hansen, expedition filmmaker Kristiyan Markov and kayak guides Carl Martin Schonning and Franka Leiterer.

Lecturer Nicholas Crane

Nicholas Crane, former president of the Royal Geographical Society, will be aboard the inaugural cruise to lecture about Ernest Shackleton and HMS Endurance, which was located in Antarctica in March after sinking in 1915. Crane is an author, geographer and cartographic expert who received the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Mungo Park Medal for outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge and the Royal Geographical Society’s Ness Award for popularizing geography and the understanding of Britain.