This article is a part of Crews on Cruise, a bimonthly column spotlighting the individuals who work behind the scenes of the world’s most memorable voyages—from bartenders and entertainers to ship captains and expedition leaders.
Seb Coulthard’s thirst for journey began younger. Originally from Worcestershire, England, his dad incessantly traveled for his job in the oil business. Upon returning dwelling from work journeys, he would regale Coulthard with tales of far-flung locations like the Amazonian jungle and the Sahara desert. “I grew up wanting that in my life,” Coulthard says.
While with the Royal Navy, Coulthard earned a level in aerospace engineering; it’s additionally the place he first realized about Sir Ernest Shackleton. After being promoted to Petty Officer, he was deployed to the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean, Shackleton’s remaining resting place, with a crew of 9 engineers and a single Lynx helicopter. He crossed the Southern Ocean once more in 2013, this time aboard a near-exact reproduction of Shackleton’s lifeboat, the legendary James Caird, crusing 830 nautical miles carrying period-correct clothes, surviving on hunger rations, and utilizing a sextant to navigate. The re-enactment grew to become the topic of a three-part Discovery Channel documentary titled Shackleton: Death or Glory.
After 19 years of service, Coulthard retired from the British Armed Forces and made the leap to cruising—re-training as a polar historian, wilderness medic, and expedition information for Polar Latitudes, which companions with small-ship cruise specialists similar to AdventureSmith Explorations to take vacationers to the most distant corners on earth. Some journeys, like the 10-day Antarctic Latitudes roundtrip from Ushuaia, Argentina, provide only a style of the Southern latitudes; others, like this epic 20- to 23-day expedition, enterprise deeper to the Falkland Islands and his beloved South Georgia.
A jack of all trades, Coulthard has additionally labored as a submarine operator for ultra-luxury cruise line Seabourn. “There’s more life underwater in the Antarctic than there is above water,” he says. The seven-seat submersibles can dive up to 300 meters; at that depth, friends may encounter sea slugs, sea stars, sea spiders two ft in diameter, and 15,000-year-old sponges. “It’s like being on Mars.”
The way Coulthard views it, an expedition leader’s job isn’t just to interpret the landscapes and wildlife—it’s to connect the dots for travelers so they don’t feel numb to issues like climate change. “That’s the beauty of this type of expeditionary travel,” he says. “It comes with the opportunity to enlighten, inspire, and inform people so that when they go home, they’re armed with a new world view.”
We caught up with Coulthard at his dwelling in the West Midlands final summer time to speak about penguins, making a 12-ton machine go underwater, and the challenges of sustaining relationships ashore once you’re at all times on the go.
Why did you determine to work on cruise ships?
“After years in the Royal Navy, I fancied a career change—and just happened to be part of an expedition that visited the Antarctic as part of a re-enactment of Ernest Shackleton’s journey across the Southern Ocean. After the documentary came out, Polar Latitudes invited me to come onboard as a guest speaker and that turned into a job. I was transformed.”