Maria Intxaustegi

Maria Intxaustegi is an internationally awarded maritime archaeologist, naval historian, commercial diver, professional offshore sailor and expedition guide from the Basque Country. Graduated from the University of the Basque Country, her Master thesis and Ph.D. studies were at the same university and her dissertation was awarded the Iberoamerican “Cortes de Cadiz" prize.

 

She has a very unique specialty: Shipwrecks from the 15th to the 19th century and the Age of Exploration. She has been diving from pole to pole, researching all over the world different kinds of maritime history projects related to how explorers were capable of navigating in such amazing conditions.

 

When she is not diving in a shipwreck, researching or writing a book, she will probably be outdoors in nature, sailing in the ocean or hiking in the mountains. Her love for wildlife and nature inspires her to go one step further and during her Ph.D. she became a professional skipper. She already sailed around the Southern Ocean and Antarctic waters several times and in 2020 she received the award "Expedition of the Year" by the oldest exploration society of Spain for her sailing trip from Ushuaia to the Netherlands during 82 days without stops during the COVID outbreak.

Her book about stone anchors was published by the prestigious publishers British Archaeology Report, one of the world's larger publishers of academic peer-review archaeological research. In 2024, FORBES Magazine included her in the list of "50 most influential sailors of the year".