Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17), also known as the Endurance Expedition, is considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration defines an era which extended from the end of the 19th century to the early 1920s. During this 25-year period the Antarctic continent became the focus of an international effort which resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration, sixteen...

. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After the conquest

Amundsen's South Pole expedition

The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott...

of the South Pole

South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...

by Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....

in 1911, this crossing from sea to sea remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". The expedition failed to accomplish this objective, but became recognised instead as an epic of endurance.

Shackleton had served in the Antarctic on Captain Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...

's Discovery Expedition

Discovery Expedition

The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier...

, 1901–04, and had led the British Antarctic Expedition

Nimrod Expedition

The British Antarctic Expedition 1907–09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole...

, 1907–09. In this new expedition he proposed to sail to the Weddell Sea

Weddell Sea

The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. To the east of Cape Norvegia is...

and to land a shore party near Vahsel Bay

Vahsel Bay

Vahsel Bay is a bay about 7 miles wide in the western part of the Luitpold Coast, Antarctica.This bay receives the flow of the Schweitzer Glacier and Lerchenfeld Glacier. It was discovered by the German Antarctic Expedition of 1911–1912, led by Wilhelm Filchner...

, in preparation for a transcontinental march through the South Pole to the Ross Sea

Ross Sea

The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land.-Description:The Ross Sea was discovered by James Ross in 1841. In the west of the Ross Sea is Ross Island with the Mt. Erebus volcano, in the east Roosevelt Island. The southern part is covered...

. A supporting group, the Ross Sea party

Ross Sea Party

The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar route established by earlier Antarctic expeditions...

, would meanwhile travel to the opposite side of the continent, establish camp in McMurdo Sound

McMurdo Sound

The ice-clogged waters of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound extend about 55 km long and wide. The sound opens into the Ross Sea to the north. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 13,205 feet on the western shoreline. The nearby McMurdo Ice Shelf scribes McMurdo Sound's southern boundary...

, and from there lay a series of supply depots across the Ross Ice Shelf

Ross Ice Shelf

The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica . It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface...

to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier

Beardmore Glacier

The Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica is one of the largest glaciers in the world, with a length exceeding 160 km . The glacier is one of the main passages from the Ross Ice Shelf through the Queen Alexandra and Commonwealth ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains to the Antarctic Plateau, and was one...

. These depots would be essential for the transcontinental party's survival, as the party would not be able to carry enough provisions for the entire crossing. The expedition required two ships; Endurance

Endurance (1912 ship)

The Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition...

under Shackleton for the Weddell Sea party, and Aurora, under Captain Aeneas Mackintosh

Aeneas Mackintosh

Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer, who commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17...

, for the Ross Sea party.

Endurance became beset in the ice of the Weddell Sea before reaching Vahsel Bay, and despite efforts to free her she drifted northward, held in the pack ice, throughout the Antarctic winter of 1915. Eventually the ship was crushed and sunk, stranding her 28-man complement on the ice. After months spent in makeshift camps as the ice continued its northwards drift, the party took to the lifeboats to reach the inhospitable, uninhabited Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then made an 800-mile (1,300 km) open-boat journey in the James Caird

James Caird (boat)

The voyage of the James Caird was an open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean, a distance of...

to reach South Georgia

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands, known as the South Sandwich...

. From there, Shackleton was eventually able to mount a rescue of the men waiting on Elephant Island and bring them home without loss of life. On the other side of the continent, the Ross Sea party overcame great hardships to fulfil its mission. Aurora was blown from her moorings during a gale and was unable to return, leaving the shore party marooned without proper supplies or equipment. Nevertheless the depots were laid, but three lives were lost in the process.

Preparations

Origins

Despite the public acclaim that had greeted Shackleton's achievements during the Nimrod Expedition

Nimrod Expedition

in 1907–09, the explorer was unsettled, becoming—in the words of British skiing pioneer Sir Harry Brittain

Harry Brittain

Sir Henry Ernest Brittain, KBE was a British journalist and Conservative politician.Harry Brittain, as he was known, was born at Ranmoor, Sheffield, and was the son of W. H. Brittain...

—"a bit of a floating gent". He wanted to return to the Antarctic, but his future plans now depended on the results of Scott's Terra Nova Expedition

Terra Nova Expedition

The Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...

, which had left Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

in July 1910. The unexpected news of Amundsen's conquest of the South Pole reached Shackleton on 11 March 1912. This meant a change of focus, no matter what Scott's expedition achieved. Shackleton wrote: "The discovery of the South Pole will not be the end of Antarctic exploration". The next work, he said, would be "a transcontinental journey from sea to sea, crossing the pole". However, there were others who were in the field pursuing this objective. On 11 December 1911, a German expedition under Wilhelm Filchner

Wilhelm Filchner

Wilhelm Filchner was a German explorer.At the age of 21, he participated in his first expedition, which led him to Russia. Two years later, he travelled alone and on horseback through the Pamir Mountains, from Osh to Murgabh to the upper Wakhan to Tashkurgan and back...

had sailed from South Georgia with the purpose of penetrating deep into the Weddell Sea, establishing a southerly base, and from there attempting to cross the continent to the Ross Sea. In late 1912 Filchner returned to South Georgia, having failed to set up his base headquarters. However, his discovery of possible landing sites in Vahsel Bay

Vahsel Bay

, at around 78° latitude, was noted by Shackleton, and incorporated into his expedition plans.

Despite the news of the fate of Captain Scott and his companions on their return journey from the South Pole, Shackleton initiated preparations for his own transcontinental expedition. He solicited financial and practical support from, among others, Tryggve Gran

Tryggve Gran

Jens Tryggve Herman Gran DSC, MC was a Norwegian aviator, explorer and author. He was the first pilot to cross the North Sea.-Background:...

of Scott’s expedition, and former Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

Lord Rosebery, but received no help from either. Gran was evasive, and Rosebery blunt: "I have never been able to care one farthing about the Poles". Shackleton got support, however, from William Speirs Bruce

William Speirs Bruce

William Speirs Bruce was a London-born Scottish naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer who organised and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the South Orkney Islands and the Weddell Sea. Among other achievements, the expedition established the first permanent weather station...

, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition , 1902–04, was organised and led by William Speirs Bruce, a natural scientist and former medical student from the University of Edinburgh. Although overshadowed in prestige terms by Robert Falcon Scott's concurrent Discovery Expedition, the SNAE completed...

of 1902–04, who had harboured plans for an Antarctic crossing since 1908, but had abandoned the project for lack of funds. Bruce gladly allowed Shackleton to adopt his plans, although the eventual scheme announced by Shackleton owed little to Bruce. On 29 December 1913, having acquired his first promises of financial backing—a £10,000 grant from the British Government—Shackleton made his plans public, in a letter to newspaper The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

Shackleton's plan

Shackleton called his new expedition the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, because he felt that "not only the people of these islands, but our kinsmen in all the lands under the Union Jack will be willing to assist towards the carrying out of the ... programme of exploration." To arouse the interest of the general public, Shackleton issued a detailed programme early in 1914. The expedition was to consist of two parties and two ships. The Weddell Sea party would travel in the Endurance

Endurance (1912 ship)

The Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition...

and continue to the Vahsel Bay area, where fourteen men would land of whom six, under Shackleton, would form the Transcontinental Party. This group, with 69 dogs, two motor sledges, and equipment "embodying everything that the experience of the leader and his expert advisers can suggest", would undertake the 1,800-mile (2,900 km) journey to the Ross Sea. The remaining eight shore party members would carry out scientific work, three going to Graham Land

Graham Land

Graham Land is that portion of the Antarctic Peninsula which lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee and the US Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, in...

, three to Enderby Land

Enderby Land

Enderby Land is a projecting land mass of Antarctica, extending from Shinnan Glacier at to William Scoresby Bay at .Enderby Land was discovered in February 1831 by John Biscoe in the whaling brig Tula, and named after the Enderby Brothers of London, owners of the Tula, who encouraged their...

and two remaining at base camp.

The Ross Sea party

Ross Sea Party

was to travel in to the Ross Sea base in McMurdo Sound, on the opposite side of the continent. After landing they would lay depots on the route of the transcontinental party as far as the Beardmore Glacier, hopefully meeting that party there and assisting it home. They would also "make geological and other observations". In his programme Shackleton expresses the intention that the crossing should take place, if possible, in the first season, 1914–15. Later, he recognised the impracticality of this, but neglected to inform Mackintosh of this change of plan. According to Daily Chronicle

Daily Chronicle

The Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...

correspondent Ernest Perris, Mackintosh's instructions should have been corrected by cable, but this was never sent.

Finance

Shackleton estimated that he would need £50,000 (current value £) to carry out the simplest version of his plan. He did not believe in appeals to the public: "(they) cause endless book-keeping worries". His chosen method of fund-raising was to solicit contributions from wealthy backers, and he had begun this process early in 1913, with little initial success. The first significant encouragement came in December 1913, when the Government offered him £10,000, provided he could raise an equivalent amount from private sources. The Royal Geographical Society

Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...

, from which he had expected nothing, gave him £1,000—according to Huntford, Shackleton, in a grand gesture, advised them that he would only need to take up half of this sum. Lord Rosebery, who had previously expressed his lack of interest in polar expeditions, gave £50. In February 1914 The New York Times reported that playwright J. M. Barrie

J. M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...

– a close friend of Captain Scott – had confidentially donated $50,000 (about £10,000). With time running out, contributions were eventually secured during the spring and early summer of 1914. Dudley Docker of the Birmingham Small Arms Company

Birmingham Small Arms Company

This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....

(BSA) gave £10,000, wealthy tobacco heiress Janet Stancomb-Wills

Janet Stancomb-Wills

Dame Janet Stancomb Graham Stancomb-Wills, DBE was the eldest daughter of George Perkins Stancomb and Catherine Janet Lobb, at Aldersgate, London, and niece of the first Baron Winterstoke...

gave a "generous" sum (the amount was not revealed), and, in June, Scottish industrialist Sir James Caird

James Key Caird

Sir James Key Caird, 1st Baronet was a Scottish jute baron and mathematician. He was one of the city's most successful entrepreneurs, who used the latest technology in his Ashton and Craigie Mills. James Caird was born in Dundee, and was the son of Edward Caird who had founded the firm of Caird ...

donated £24,000 (current value £). Shackleton informed the Morning Post

Morning Post

The Morning Post, as the paper was named on its masthead, was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.- History :...

that "this magnificent gift relieves me of all anxiety".

Shackleton now had the money to proceed. He acquired, for £14,000 (current value £), a 300-ton barquentine

Barquentine

A barquentine is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts.-Modern barquentine sailing rig:...

called Polaris, which had been built for the Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache

Adrien de Gerlache

Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery was an officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897 to 1899.-His early years:...

for an expedition to Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

. This scheme had collapsed and the ship became available. Shackleton changed her name to Endurance

Endurance (1912 ship)

The Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition...

, reflecting his family motto "By endurance we conquer". For a further £3,200 (current value £), he acquired Douglas Mawson

Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson, OBE, FRS, FAA was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and Academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.-Early work:He was appointed geologist to an...

’s expedition ship Aurora

Aurora (ship)

SY Aurora was a steam yacht built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd. shipbuilders in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1876, for the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. Her primary use was whaling in the northern seas, and she was built sturdily enough to withstand the heavy weather and ice that would be...

, which was lying in Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

, Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

. This would act as the Ross Sea party's vessel.

The total amount raised by Shackleton is uncertain, since the size of the Stancomb-Wills donation is not known. However, lack of money was an ongoing problem for the expedition. As an economy measure the proportion of funding allocated to the Ross Sea party was halved, a fact which the party’s commander Aeneas Mackintosh discovered when he arrived in Australia to take up his duties. Mackintosh was forced to haggle and plead for money and supplies to make his part of the expedition viable. Lack of money would also hamper the operation to rescue the Ross Sea party when this need arose in 1916. Shackleton had, however, realised the revenue-earning potential of the expedition. He sold the exclusive newspaper rights to the Daily Chronicle

Daily Chronicle

The Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...

, and formed the Imperial Trans Antarctic Film Syndicate to take advantage of the film rights. Later, as Shackleton set out for South Georgia in the James Caird, he left instructions for Frank Wild concerning the lecture tour schedule, should Shackleton fail to return.

Personnel

Shackleton received more than 5,000 applications for places on the expedition, including a letter from "three sporty girls" who suggested that if their feminine garb was inconvenient they would "just love to don masculine attire." Shackleton turned their request down. Eventually the crews for each arm of the expedition were trimmed down to 28 apiece, including William Bakewell

William Lincoln Bakewell

William Lincoln Bakewell was the only American aboard the Endurance during the 1914–1916 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition with Sir Ernest Shackleton. William Bakewell joined the Endurance crew in Buenos Aires, Argentina along with friend Perce Blackborow. Bakewell was hired on as an Able Seaman...

, who joined the ship in Buenos Aires, his friend Perce Blackborow who stowed away when his application was turned down, and several last-minute appointments made to the Ross Sea party in Australia. A temporary crewman was Sir Daniel Gooch who stepped in to help Shackleton as a dog handler at the last moment, and who left Endurance at South Georgia.

For the expedition's second-in-command, Shackleton chose Frank Wild

Frank Wild

Commander John Robert Francis Wild CBE, RNVR, FRGS , known as Frank Wild, was an explorer...

, who had been with him on both the Discovery

Discovery Expedition

and Nimrod

Nimrod Expedition

expeditions, and had been in the Furthest South

Farthest South

Farthest South was the term used to denote the most southerly latitudes reached by explorers before the conquest of the South Pole in 1911. Significant steps on the road to the pole were the discovery of lands south of Cape Horn in 1619, Captain James Cook's crossing of the Antarctic Circle in...

party in 1909. Wild had just returned from Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition. To captain Endurance Shackleton had wanted John King Davis

John King Davis

John King Davis, CBE was an English-born Australian explorer and navigator notable for his work captaining exploration ships in Antarctic waters as well as for establishing meteorological stations on Macquarie Island in the subantarctic and on Willis Island in the Coral Sea.-Early life:Davis's...

, who had commanded Aurora during the Australian Antarctic Expedition. Davis refused, thinking the enterprise was "foredoomed", so the appointment went to Frank Worsley

Frank Worsley

Frank Arthur Worsley DSO and Bar, OBE, RD was a New Zealand sailor and explorer.After serving in the Pacific, and especially in the New Zealand Post Office's South Pacific service he joined Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of...

, who reportedly had applied to the expedition after learning of it in a dream. Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer Tom Crean, who had been awarded the Albert Medal for saving the life of Lieutenant Evans

Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans

Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, KCB, DSO , known as "Teddy" Evans, was a British naval officer and Antarctic explorer...

on the Terra Nova Expedition

Terra Nova Expedition

, took leave from the navy to sign on as Endurance's Second Officer

Second Mate

A second mate or second officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The second mate is the third in command and a watchkeeping officer, customarily the ship's navigator. Other duties vary, but the second mate is often the medical officer and in charge of maintaining...

; another experienced Antarctic hand, Alfred Cheetham

Alfred Cheetham

Alfred Cheetham was a member of several Antarctic expeditions. He served as third officer for both the Nimrod and Imperial Trans-Antarctic expeditions. He died at sea when his ship was torpedoed during World War I.-Early life:...

, became Third Officer

Third Mate

A Third Mate or Third Officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The third mate is a watchstander and customarily the ship's safety officer and fourth-in-command...

. Two Nimrod veterans were assigned to the Ross Sea party: Aeneas Mackintosh

Aeneas Mackintosh

, who commanded it, and Ernest Joyce

Ernest Joyce

Ernest Edward Mills Joyce AM was a Royal Naval seaman and explorer who participated in four Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, early in the early 20th century. He served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton...

. Shackleton had hoped that the Aurora would be staffed by a naval crew, and had asked the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

for officers and men, but was turned down. After pressing his case, Shackleton was given one officer from the Royal Marines

Royal Marines

The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

, Captain Thomas Orde-Lees, who was Superintendent of Physical Training at the Marines training depot.

The scientific staff of six accompanying Endurance comprised the two surgeons, Alexander Macklin

Alexander Macklin

Alexander Hepburne Macklin OBE MC TD was a British doctor who served as one of the two surgeons on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. In 1922 he joined Shackleton on his last expedition on the Quest.-Early life:Alexander Macklin was born in 1889 in...

and James McIlroy; geologist James Wordie

James Wordie

Sir James Mann Wordie, CBE was a Scottish polar explorer and geologist.Wordie was born at Partick, Glasgow, in the former county of Lanarkshire in Scotland. He studied at The Glasgow Academy and obtained a BSc in geology from University of Glasgow. He graduated from St John's College, Cambridge...

; biologist Robert Clark; physicist Reginald James; and meteorologist Leonard Hussey

Leonard Hussey

Leonard Duncan Albert Hussey OBE was an English meteorologist, archeologist, explorer and member of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic and Shackleton–Rowett Expeditions...

, who would eventually edit Shackleton’s expedition account South. The visual recording of the expedition was the responsibility of photographer Frank Hurley

Frank Hurley

James Francis "Frank" Hurley, OBE was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars.His artistic style produced many memorable images but he also used staged...

and artist George Marston. The final composition of the Ross Sea party was hurried. Some who left Britain for Australia to join Aurora resigned before it departed for the Ross Sea, and a full complement of crew was in doubt until the last minute. Only Mackintosh and Joyce had any previous Antarctic experience; Mackintosh had lost an eye as the result of an accident during the Nimrod expedition and had gone home early.

Voyage through the ice

Endurance, without Shackleton (who was detained in England by expedition business), left Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

on 8 August 1914, heading first for Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. Here Shackleton, who had travelled on a faster ship, rejoined the expedition. Hurley also came on board, and William Bakewell

William Lincoln Bakewell

and stowaway Perce Blackborow were added to the crew. Several others left, or were discharged. On 26 October the ship sailed for the South Atlantic, arriving in South Georgia on 5 November. After a month-long halt in the Grytviken

Grytviken

Grytviken is the principal settlement in the British territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. It was so named in 1902 by the Swedish surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson who found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a...

whaling station, Endurance departed for the Antarctic on 5 December. Two days later Shackleton was disconcerted to encounter pack ice as far north as 57°26′S, forcing the ship to manoeuvre. During the following days there were more tussles with the pack, which on 14 December was thick enough to halt the ship for 24 hours. Three days later the ship was stopped again. Shackleton commented: "I had been prepared for evil conditions in the Weddell Sea, but had hoped that the pack would be loose. What we were encountering was fairly dense pack of a very obstinate character".

Endurance's progress was frustratingly slow, until on 22 December leads opened up and the ship was able to continue steadily southward. This continued for the next two weeks, taking the party deep into the Weddell Sea. Further delays then slowed progress after the turn of the year, before a lengthy run south during 7–10 January 1915 brought them close to the 100 feet (30.5 m) ice walls which guarded the Antarctic coastal region of Coats Land

Coats Land

Coats Land is a region in Antarctica which lies westward of Queen Maud Land and forms the eastern shore of the Weddell Sea, extending in a general northeast-southwest direction between 20º00´W and 36º00´W. The northeast part was discovered from the Scotia by William S. Bruce, leader of the Scottish...

. This territory had been discovered and named by William Speirs Bruce in 1904, during the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

. On 15 January Endurance came abreast of a great glacier, the edge of which formed a bay which appeared a good landing place. However, Shackleton considered it too far north of Vahsel Bay for a landing, "except under pressure of necessity"—a decision he would later regret. On 17 January the ship reached a latitude of 76°27′S, where land was faintly discernible. Shackleton named it Caird Coast

Caird Coast

Caird Coast is that portion of the coast of Coats Land lying between the terminus of Stancomb-Wills Glacier, in 20º00´W, and the vicinity of the Hayes Glacier, in 27º54´W...

, after his principal backer. Bad weather forced the ship to shelter in the lee of a stranded iceberg.

They were now close to Luitpold Land, discovered by Filchner in 1912, at the southern end of which lay their destination, Vahsel Bay. Next day, the ship was forced westward for 14 miles (22.5 km), resuming in a generally southerly direction before being stopped altogether. The position was 76°34′S, 31°30′W. After ten days of inactivity the ship’s fires were banked, to save fuel. Strenuous efforts were made to release her; on 14 February Shackleton ordered men on to the ice with ice-chisels, prickers, saws and picks, to try and force a passage, but the labour proved futile. Shackleton did not at this stage abandon all hope of breaking free, but was now contemplating the "possibility of having to spend a winter in the inhospitable arms of the pack".

Drift of the Endurance

On 21 February 1915 Endurance, still held fast, drifted to her most southerly latitude, 76°58′S. Thereafter she began moving with the pack in a northerly direction. On 24 February Shackleton realised that they would be held in the ice throughout the winter, and ordered ship’s routine abandoned. The dogs were taken off board and housed in ice-kennels or "dogloos", and the ship’s interior was converted to suitable winter quarters for the various groups of men—officers, scientists, engineers, and seamen. A wireless apparatus was rigged, but their location was too remote to receive or transmit signals.

Shackleton was aware of the recent example of Wilhelm Filchner's ship, the Deutschland, which had become icebound in the same vicinity three years earlier. After Filchner's attempts to establish a land base at Vahsel Bay failed, his ship Deutschland was trapped on 6 March 1912, about 200 miles (321.9 km) off the coast of Coats Land. Six months later, at latitude 63°37’, the ship broke free, then sailed to South Georgia apparently none the worse for its ordeal. Shackleton thought that a similar experience might allow Endurance to make a second attempt to reach Vahsel Bay in the following Antarctic spring.

In February and March the rate of drift was very slow. At the end of March Shackleton calculated that the ship had travelled a mere 95 miles (152.9 km) since 19 January. However, as winter set in the speed of the drift increased, and the condition of the surrounding ice changed. On 14 April Shackleton recorded the nearby pack "piling and rafting against the masses of ice"—if the ship was caught in this disturbance "she would be crushed like an eggshell". In May, as the sun set for the winter months, the ship was at 75°23′S, 42°14′W, still drifting in a generally northerly direction. It would be at least four months before spring brought the chance of an opening of the ice, and there was no certainty that Endurance would break free in time to attempt a return to the Vahsel Bay area. Shackleton now considered the possibility of finding an alternative landing ground on the western shores of the Weddell Sea, if that coast could be reached. "In the meantime", he wrote, "we must wait".

In the dark winter months of May, June and July, Shackleton was concerned to maintain fitness, training and morale. Although the scope for activity was limited, the dogs were exercised (and on occasion raced competitively), men were encouraged to take moonlight walks, and aboard ship there were attempted theatricals. Special occasions such as Empire Day (24 May) were duly celebrated. The first signs of the ice breaking up occurred on 22 July. On 1 August, in a south-westerly gale with heavy snow, the ice floe began to break up all around the ship, the pressure forcing masses of ice beneath the keel and causing a heavy list to port. The position was perilous; Shackleton wrote: "The effects of the pressure around us was awe-inspiring. Mighty blocks of ice [...] rose slowly till they jumped like cherry-stones gripped between thumb and finger [...] if the ship was once gripped firmly her fate would be sealed". This danger passed, and the succeeding weeks were quiet. During this relative lull the ship drifted into the area where, in 1823, Captain Benjamin Morrell of the sealer Wasp reported seeing a coastline which he identified as "New South Greenland

New South Greenland

New South Greenland, sometimes known as Morrell's Land, was an appearance of land recorded by the American captain Benjamin Morrell of the schooner Wasp in , during a sealing and exploration voyage in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica. Morrell provided precise coordinates and a description of a...

". There was no sign of any such land; Shackleton concluded that Morrell had been deceived by the presence of large icebergs.

On 30 September the ship sustained what Shackleton described as "the worst squeeze we had experienced"' Worsley described the pressure as being "thrown to and fro like a shuttlecock a dozen times". On 24 October, the starboard side was forced against a large floe, increasing the pressure until the hull began to bend and splinter, so that water from below the ice began to pour into the ship. When the timbers broke they made noises which sailors later described as being similar to the sound of "heavy fireworks and the blasting of guns". The supplies and three lifeboats were transferred to the ice, while the crew attempted to shore up the boat's hull and pump out the incoming sea, but after a few days, on 27 October 1915, and in freezing temperatures below −15°F (−25°C), Shackleton was forced to give the order to abandon ship. The position at abandonment was recorded as 69°05′S, 51°30′W. The wreckage remained afloat, and over the following weeks the crew salvaged further supplies and materials, including Hurley's photographs and cameras that had initially been left behind. From around 550 plates Hurley chose the best 150, the maximum that could be carried, and smashed the rest.

Camping on the ice

With the loss of the ship the transcontinental plans were abandoned, and the focus shifted to that of shoes. The men were running low on shoes and they had to make new shoes out of wood from the scavenged pieces of the ship. Shackleton's intention now was to march the crew westward, to one or other of several possible destinations. His first thought was for Paulet Island

Paulet Island

Paulet Island is a circular island about in diameter, lying southeast of Dundee Island, off the northeastern end of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is composed of lava flows capped by a cinder cone with a small summit crater. Geothermal heat keeps parts of the island ice-free, and the youthful...

, where he knew there was a substantial food depot, because he had ordered it 12 years earlier while organising relief for Otto Nordenskiöld’s Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

expedition in 1902–04. Other possibilities were Snow Hill Island

Snow Hill Island

Snow Hill Island is an almost completely snowcapped island, long and wide, lying off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from James Ross Island to the northeast by Admiralty Sound...

, which had been Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, or Robertson Island

Robertson Island

Robertson Island is an ice-covered island, long in a northwest-southeast direction and wide, lying at the east end of the Seal Nunataks off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Captain Carl Anton Larsen discovered Robertson Island from the Jason on December 9, 1893...

. Shackleton believed that from one of these islands they would be able to reach and cross Graham Land

Graham Land

, and get to the whaling outposts in Wilhelmina Bay

Wilhelmina Bay

Wilhelmina Bay is a bay wide between the Reclus Peninsula and Cape Anna along the west coast of Graham Land. It was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 1897–99, under Adrien de Gerlache, and named for Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands....

. He calculated that on the day Endurance was abandoned they were 346 miles from Paulet Island. Worsley calculated the distance to Snow Hill Island to be 312 miles (502.1 km), with a further 120 miles (193.1 km) to Wilhelmina Bay. He believed the march was too risky; they should wait until the ice carried them to open water, and then escape in the boats. Shackleton overruled him.

The march started on 30 October, with two of the ship's lifeboats carried on sledges. Before it could begin, Shackleton had the unpleasant task of ordering the weakest animals to be shot, which included Mrs. Chippy

Mrs. Chippy

Mrs. Chippy was a cat who accompanied Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17, and—along with some of the sled dogs—was eventually shot after the expedition's ship, the Endurance, was destroyed when it became trapped in pack ice.- Life :Mrs...

, the carpenter Harry McNish

Harry McNish

Harry McNish was the carpenter on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917...

's cat, and a pup which had become a pet of the surgeon Macklin. Problems quickly arose, as the condition of the sea ice around them worsened. According to Hurley the surface became "a labyrinth of hummocks and ridges", in which barely a square yard was smooth. In three days the party managed to travel barely two miles (3.2 km), and on 1 November Shackleton abandoned the march; they would make camp and await the break-up of the ice. They gave the name "Ocean Camp" to the flat and solid-looking floe on which their aborted march had ended, and settled down to wait. Parties continued to revisit the Endurance wreck, which was still drifting with the ice a short distance from the camp. More of the abandoned supplies were retrieved until, on 21 November 1915, the ship finally slipped beneath the ice.

The ice was not drifting fast enough to be noticeable, although by late November the speed was up to seven miles a day. By 5 December they had passed 68°S, but the direction was turning slightly east of north. This was taking them to a position from which it would be difficult to reach Snow Hill Island, although Paulet Island, further north, remained a possibility. It was about 250 miles (402.3 km) away, and Shackleton was anxious to reduce the length of the lifeboat journey that would be necessary to reach it. Therefore, on 21 December he announced a second march, to begin on 23 December.

Conditions, however, had not improved since the earlier attempt. Temperatures had risen and it was uncomfortably warm, with men sinking to their knees in soft snow as they struggled to haul the boats through the pressure ridges. On 27 December ship’s carpenter Harry McNish rebelled and refused to work. He argued that Ship’s Articles

Admiralty law

Admiralty law is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. It is a body of both domestic law governing maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessels on the oceans...

had lapsed since Endurance’s sinking, and that he was no longer under orders. Shackleton’s firm remonstrance finally brought the carpenter to heel, but the incident was never forgotten. Despite McNish's later contribution to the salvation of the party, he was one of four men denied the Polar Medal

Polar Medal

The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.-History:...

, on Shackleton’s recommendation. Two days later, with only seven and a half miles’ (12 km) progress achieved in seven back-breaking days, Shackleton called a halt, observing: "It would take us over three hundred days to reach the land". The crew put up their tents and settled into what Shackleton called "Patience Camp", which would be their home for more than three months.

Supplies were now running low. Hurley and Macklin were sent back to Ocean Camp to recover food that had been left there to lighten the sledging teams’ burden. On 2 February 1916 Shackleton sent a larger party back, to recover the third lifeboat. Food shortages became acute as the weeks passed, and seal meat, which had added variety to their diet, now became a staple as Shackleton attempted to conserve the remaining packaged rations. In January, all but two teams of the dogs (whose overall numbers had been depleted by mishaps and illness in the preceding months) were shot on Shackleton’s orders, because the dogs' requirements for seal meat were excessive. The final two teams were shot on 2 April, by which time their meat was a welcome addition to the rations. Meanwhile, the rate of drift became erratic; after being held at around 67° for several weeks, at the end of January there was a series of rapid north-eastward movements which, by 17 March, brought Patience Camp to the latitude of Paulet Island, but 60 miles (96.6 km) to its east. "It might have been six hundred for all the chance we had of reaching it across the broken sea-ice", Shackleton recorded.

The party now had land more or less continuously in sight. The peak of Mount Haddington

Mount Haddington

Mount Haddington is a massive high shield volcano located on James Ross Island, Antarctica. It is 60 kilometers wide and has had numerous subglacial eruptions throughout its history, forming many tuyas. Some of its single eruptions are bigger in volume than a whole normal-sized volcano. Old...

on James Ross Island

James Ross Island

James Ross Island is a large island off the southeast side and near the northeastern extremity of Antarctic Peninsula, from which it is separated by Prince Gustav Channel. Rising to , it is irregularly shaped and extends in a north-south direction. It was charted in October 1903 by the Swedish...

remained in view as the party drifted slowly by. They were now too far north for Snow Hill or Paulet Island to be accessible; Shackleton wrote that all hopes were fixed on two remaining small islands at the northern extremity of Graham Land. These were Clarence Island

Clarence Island (South Shetland Islands)

Clarence Island is long and the easternmost of the South Shetland Islands of the British Antarctic Territory. The name dates back to at least 1821 and is now established in international usage. Ernest Shackleton saw Clarence Island on his famous boat voyage but landed on Elephant Island...

and Elephant Island, around 100 miles (160.9 km) due north of their position on 25 March. He then had further thoughts and decided that Deception Island might be a better target destination. This lay far to the west, towards the end of a chain which formed the South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

, but Shackleton thought it might be attainable by island-hopping. Its advantage was that it was sometimes visited by whalers and might contain provisions. All of these destinations would require a perilous journey in the lifeboats, once the floe upon which they were drifting finally broke up. Earlier, the lifeboats had been named after the expedition’s three chief financial sponsors: James Caird, Dudley Docker and Stancomb Wills.

Lifeboat journey to Elephant Island

The end of Patience Camp was signalled on the evening of 8 April, when the floe suddenly split. The camp now found itself on a small triangular raft of ice; a break-up of this would mean disaster, so Shackleton readied the lifeboats for the party’s enforced departure. He had now decided they would try, if possible, to reach the distant Deception Island because a small wooden church had been reportedly erected for the benefit of whalers. This could provide a source of timber that might enable them to construct a seaworthy boat. At 1 pm on 9 April the Dudley Docker was launched, and an hour later all three boats were away. Shackleton himself commanded the James Caird, Worsley the Dudley Docker, and navigating officer Hubert Hudson was nominally in charge of the Stancomb Wills, though because of his precarious mental state the effective commander was Tom Crean.

The boats were surrounded by ice, dependent upon leads of water opening up, and progress was perilous and erratic. Frequently the boats were tied to floes, or dragged up on to them, while the men camped and waited for conditions to improve. Shackleton was wavering again between several potential destinations, and on 12 April rejected the various island options and decided on Hope Bay

Hope Bay

Hope Bay on Trinity Peninsula, is long and wide, indenting the tip of Antarctic Peninsula and opening on Antarctic Sound....

, at the very tip of Graham Land. However, conditions in the boats, in temperatures sometimes as low as −20°F (−30°C), with little food and regular soakings in icy seawater, were wearing the men down, physically and mentally. Shackleton therefore decided that Elephant Island, the nearest of the possible refuges, was now the only practical option.

On 14 April the boats lay off the south-east coast of Elephant Island, but could not land here, since the shore consisted of perpendicular cliffs and glaciers. Next day the James Caird rounded the eastern point of the island, to reach the northern lee shore, and discovered a narrow shingle beach. Soon afterwards, the three boats, which had been separated during the previous night, were reunited at this landing place. However, it was apparent from high tide markings that this beach would not serve as a long-term camp. The next day Wild and a crew set off in the Stancomb Wills to explore the coast for a safer site. They returned with news of a long spit of land, seven miles (11 km) to the west. With minimum delay the men returned to the boats and transferred to this new location, which they later christened Point Wild.

Voyage of the James Caird

Elephant Island was remote, uninhabited, and rarely visited by whalers or any other ships. If the party was to return to civilisation it would be necessary to summon help. The only realistic way this could be done was to adapt one of the lifeboats for an 800-mile (1,300 km) voyage across the Southern Ocean, to South Georgia. Shackleton had abandoned thoughts of taking the party on the less dangerous journey to Deception Island, because of the poor physical condition of many of his party. Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

was closer than South Georgia, but could not be reached, as this would require sailing against the strong prevailing winds.

Shackleton selected the boat party: himself, Worsley

Frank Worsley

as navigator, Crean, McNish, John Vincent

John Vincent (sailor)

John Vincent was an English seaman and member of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He was one of the five men who accompanied Shackleton on his epic crossing from Elephant Island to South Georgia and was one of only four of the crew of Endurance not to receive the Polar...

and Timothy McCarthy. On instructions from Shackleton, McNish immediately set about adapting the James Caird, improvising tools and materials. Frank Wild was to be left in charge of the Elephant Island party, with instructions to make for Deception Island the following spring, should Shackleton not return. Shackleton took supplies for only four weeks, knowing that if land had not been reached within that time the boat would be lost.

The 22.5-foot (6.85 m) James Caird was launched on 24 April 1916. The success of the voyage depended on the pin-point accuracy of Worsley's navigation, using observations that would have to be made in the most unfavourable of conditions. The prevailing wind was helpfully north-west, but the heavy sea conditions quickly soaked everything in icy water. Soon ice settled thickly on the boat, making her ride sluggishly. On 5 May a north-westerly gale almost caused the boat's destruction as it faced what Shackleton described as the largest waves he had seen in twenty-six years at sea. On 8 May South Georgia was sighted, after a 14-day battle with the elements that had driven the boat party to their physical limits. Two days later, after a prolonged struggle with heavy seas and hurricane-force winds to the south of the island, the party struggled ashore at King Haakon Bay

King Haakon Bay

King Haakon Bay, or King Haakon Sound, is an inlet on the southern coast of the island of South Georgia. The inlet is approximately long and wide.The inlet was named for King Haakon VII of Norway by Carl Anton Larsen the founder of Grytviken...

South Georgia crossing

The arrival of the James Caird at King Haakon Bay was followed by a period of rest and recuperation, while Shackleton pondered the next move. The populated whaling stations of South Georgia lay on the northern coast. To reach them would mean either another boat journey around the island, or a land crossing through its unexplored interior. The condition of the James Caird, and the physical state of the party, particularly Vincent and McNish, meant that the crossing was the only realistic option.

After five days the party took the boat a short distance eastwards, to the head of a deep bay which would be the starting point for the crossing. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean would undertake the land journey, the others remaining at what they christened "Peggotty Camp

Peggotty Bluff

Peggotty Bluff or Peggotty Camp, is a bluff on the north side and near the head of King Haakon Bay, South Georgia.-History:In 1916, Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition party from Elephant Island established a camp, using the upturned James Caird near the head of King Haakon Bay...

", to be picked up later after help had been obtained from the whaling stations. A storm on 18 May delayed their start, but by two o'clock the following morning the weather was clear and calm, and an hour later the crossing party set out.

Without a map, the route they chose was largely conjectural. By dawn they had ascended to 3000 feet (914.4 m) and could see the northern coast. They were above Possession Bay

Possession Bay

Possession Bay is a bay wide which recedes southwest for , entered southeast of Black Head on the north coast of South Georgia, an island in the southern Atlantic Ocean.-Cook's Second Voyage:...

, which meant they would need to move eastward to reach their intended destination of Stromness. This meant the first of several backtrackings that would extend the journey and frustrate the men. At the close of that first day, needing to descend to the valley below them before nightfall, they risked everything by sliding down a mountainside on a makeshift rope sledge. There was no question of rest—they travelled on by moonlight, moving upwards towards a gap in the next mountainous ridge. Early next morning, 21 May, seeing Husvik Harbour below them, they knew that they were on the right path. At seven o'clock in the morning they heard the steam whistle sound from Stromness, "the first sound created by an outside human agency that had come to our ears since we left Stromness Bay in December 1914". After a difficult descent, which involved passage down through a freezing waterfall, they at last reached safety.

Shackleton wrote afterwards: "I have no doubt that Providence

Divine Providence

In Christian theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's activity in the world. " Providence" is also used as a title of God exercising His providence, and then the word are usually capitalized...

guided us...I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers it seemed to me often that we were four, not three". This image of a fourth traveller—echoed in the accounts of Worsley and Crean—was taken up by T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

in his poem The Waste Land

The Waste Land

The Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...

Rescue

Shackleton's first task, on arriving at the Stromness station, was to arrange for his three companions at Peggoty Camp to be picked up. A whaler was sent round the coast, with Worsley aboard to show the way, and by the evening of 21 May all six of the James Caird party were safe.

It took four attempts before Shackleton was able to return to Elephant Island to rescue the party stranded there. He first left South Georgia a mere three days after he had arrived in Stromness

Stromness (South Georgia)

Stromness is a former whaling station on the northern coast of South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic. Its historical significance is that it represents the destination of Ernest Shackleton's epic rescue journey in 1916. See also Stromness Bay...

, after securing the use of a large whaler, The Southern Sky, which was laid up in Husvik Harbour. Shackleton assembled a volunteer crew, which had it ready to sail by the morning of 22 May. As the vessel approached Elephant Island they saw that an impenetrable barrier of pack ice had formed, some 70 miles (112.7 km) from the island. The Southern Sky was not built for ice breaking, and retreated to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

.

On reaching Port Stanley, Shackleton informed London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

by cable of his whereabouts, and requested that a suitable vessel be sent south for the rescue operation. He was informed by the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

that nothing was available before October, which in his view was too late. Then, with the help of the British Minister in Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

, Shackleton obtained from the Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

an government the loan of a tough trawler, Instituto de Pesca No. 1, which started south on 10 June. Again the pack thwarted them. In search of another ship, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean travelled to Punta Arenas, in Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, where they met Allan MacDonald, the British owner of the schooner Emma. McDonald equipped this vessel for a further rescue attempt, which left on 12 July, but with the same negative result—the pack defeated them yet again. Shackleton later named a glacier after McDonald on the Brunt Ice Shelf

Brunt Ice Shelf

The Brunt Ice Shelf borders the Antarctic coast of Coats Land between Dawson-Lambton Glacier and Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue. It was the location of the base of the Royal Society Expedition, 1955–59 which was taken over as the British Halley Research Station...

in the Weddell Sea. After problems arose in identifying this glacier, a nearby ice rise

Ice rise

An ice rise is a clearly defined elevation of the otherwise totally flat ice shelf, typically dome-shaped and rising 100 to 200 meters above the surrounding ice shelf. An ice rise forms where the ice shelf touches the rocky seabed because of an elevation in the seabed that remains below sea level...

was renamed the McDonald Ice Rumples

McDonald Ice Rumples

The McDonald Ice Rumples constitute an ice rise on the Brunt Ice Shelf bordering the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. It covers an area of 3 by 2 miles....

.

By now it was mid-August, more than three months since Shackleton had left Elephant Island. Shackleton begged the Chilean Government to lend him Yelcho, a small steam tug that had assisted Emma during the previous attempt. The Government agreed, and on 25 August Yelcho, captained by Luis Pardo

Luis Pardo

Luis Pardo Villalón was the captain of the Chilean steam tug Yelcho which rescued the 22 stranded crewmen of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance from Elephant Island, Antarctica, in August 1916...

, set out for Elephant Island. This time, as Shackleton records, Providence favoured them. The seas were open, and the ship was able to approach close to the island, in thick fog. At 11:40 am on 30 August the fog lifted, the camp was spotted and, within an hour, all the Elephant Island party were safely aboard, bound for Punta Arenas.

On Elephant Island

After Shackleton left with the James Caird, Frank Wild took command of the Elephant Island party, some of whom were in a low state, physically or mentally: Lewis Rickinson had suffered a suspected heart attack; Blackborow was unable to walk, due to frostbitten feet; Hudson was mentally depressed. The priority for the party was a permanent shelter against the rapidly approaching southern winter. On the suggestion of Marston and Lionel Greenstreet

Lionel Greenstreet

Lionel Greenstreet was the first officer of the Endurance and a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal...

, a hut (nicknamed the "Snuggery") was improvised by upturning the two boats and placing them on low stone walls, to provide around five feet of headroom. By means of canvas and other materials the structure was made into a crude but effective shelter.

Wild initially estimated that they would have to wait one month for rescue, and refused to allow long-term stockpiling of seal and penguin meat because this, in his view, was defeatist. This policy led to sharp disagreements with Thomas Orde-Lees

Thomas Orde-Lees

Thomas Orde-Lees was a member of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917, a pioneer in the field of parachuting, and was one of the first non-Japanese-born men known to have climbed Mount Fuji during the winter.-Early life:Thomas Hans Orde-Lees was born on 23...

. Orde-Lees was not a popular man, and his presence apparently did little to improve the morale of his companions, unless it was by way of being the butt of their jokes.

As the weeks extended well beyond his initial optimistic forecast, Wild established and maintained routines and activities to relieve the tedium. A permanent lookout was kept for the arrival of the rescue ship, cooking and housekeeping rotas were established, and there were hunting trips for seal and penguin. Concerts were held on Saturdays, and anniversaries celebrated, but there were growing feelings of despondency as time passed with no sign of the ship. The toes on Blackborow's left foot became gangrenous from frostbite, and on 15 June had to be amputated by the surgeons Macklin and James McIlroy in the candle-lit hut. Using the very last of the chloroform that had survived in the medical supplies, the whole procedure took 55 minutes, and was a complete success.

By 23 August, it seemed that Wild’s no-stockpiling policy had failed. The surrounding sea was dense with pack ice that would halt any rescue ship, food supplies were running out and no penguins were coming ashore. Orde-Lees wrote: "We shall have to eat the one who dies first [...] there’s many a true word said in jest". Wild’s thoughts were now turning seriously to the possibility of a boat trip to Deception Island—he planned to set out on 5 October, in the hoping of meeting a whaling ship— when, on 30 August 1916, the ordeal ended suddenly with the appearance of Shackleton and Yelcho.

Ross Sea Party

Aurora left Hobart

Hobart

on 24 December 1914, having been delayed in Australia by financial and organizational problems. The arrival in McMurdo Sound on 15 January 1915 was later in the season than planned, but the party’s commander Aeneas Mackintosh made immediate plans for a depot-laying journey on the Ross Ice Shelf, believing that Shackleton might attempt a crossing from the Weddell Sea during that first season. Neither the men nor the dogs were acclimatised, and the party was, as a whole, very inexperienced in ice conditions. This first, hurried journey on the ice resulted in the loss of ten of the party’s 18 dogs, a single incomplete depot, and a frost-bitten and generally demoralised shore party.

On 7 May Aurora, anchored at the party's Cape Evans

Cape Evans

Cape Evans is a rocky cape on the west side of Ross Island, forming the north side of the entrance to Erebus Bay.The cape was discovered by the Discovery expedition under Robert Falcon Scott, who named it the Skuary. Scott's second expedition, the British Antarctic Expedition , built its...

headquarters, was wrenched from her moorings during a gale and prevented from returning by the drift of the ice which carried her far out to sea. She remained captive in the ice until 12 February 1916, having travelled a distance of around 1600 miles (2,574.9 km) before escaping and limping to New Zealand. She carried with her the greater part of the shore party’s fuel, food rations, clothing and equipment, although the sledging rations for the depots had been landed ashore. To continue with its mission the stranded shore party had to re-supply and re-equip itself from the leftovers from earlier expeditions, notably Captain Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition

Terra Nova Expedition

which had been based at Cape Evans a few years earlier. Due to the party's improvisations the second season’s depot-laying began on schedule, in September 1915.

In the following months the required depots were laid, at one-degree intervals across the Ross Ice Shelf to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. On the return journey from the glacier the party was attacked by scurvy; Arnold Spencer-Smith

Arnold Spencer-Smith

Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith was a British clergyman and amateur photographer who joined Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17, as Chaplain and photographer on the Ross Sea party. The hardship of the expedition resulted in Spencer-Smith's death...

, the expedition’s chaplain and photographer, collapsed and died on the ice. The remainder of the party reached the temporary shelter of Hut Point and recovered there. On 8 May 1916 Mackintosh and Victor Hayward

Victor Hayward

Victor George Hayward AM was a London-born accounts clerk whose taste for adventure took him to Antarctica as a member of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17...

decided to walk across the unstable sea ice to Cape Evans

Cape Evans

, were caught in a blizzard, and were not seen again. The seven survivors had to wait in tough conditions for eight further months, until on 10 January 1917 the repaired and refitted Aurora arrived to transport them back to civilisation.
Shackleton accompanied the Aurora as a supernumerary officer, having been denied command by the governments of New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain, who had jointly organised the Ross Sea party's relief.

Return to civilisation

The rescued party, having had its last contact with civilisation in 1914, was unaware of the course of the World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. News of Shackleton's safe arrival in the Falklands briefly eclipsed war news in the British newspapers on 2 June 1916. The expedition returned home in piecemeal fashion, at a critical stage in the war, without the normal honours and civic receptions. When Shackleton himself finally arrived in England on 29 May 1917, after a short American lecture tour, his return was barely noticed.

Most of the members of the expedition returned to take up immediate active military or naval service. Before the war ended two—Tim McCarthy of the open boat journey and the veteran Antarctic sailor Alfred Cheetham—had been killed in action, and Ernest Wild

Ernest Wild

Henry Ernest Wild AM , known as Ernest Wild, was a British Royal Naval seaman and Antarctic explorer, a younger brother of Frank Wild...

of the Ross Sea party had died of typhoid while serving in the Mediterranean. Several others were severely wounded, and many received decorations for gallantry. Following a propaganda mission in Buenos Aires, Shackleton was employed during the last weeks of the war on special service in Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

, with the Army rank of Major

Major

Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

. This occupied him until March 1919. He thereafter organised one final Antarctic expedition, the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition on Quest

Quest (ship)

The Quest, a low-powered, schooner-rigged steamship that sailed from 1917 until sinking in 1962, is best known as the polar exploration vessel of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition of 1921-1922. It was aboard this vessel that Sir Ernest Shackleton died on 5 January 1922 while the vessel was in...

, which left London on 17 September 1921. Shackleton died of a heart attack on 5 January 1922, while Quest was anchored at South Georgia.

Wild, Worsley, Macklin, McIlroy, Hussey, Alexander Kerr, Thomas McLeod and cook Charles Green, from Endurance, all sailed with Quest. After Shackleton’s death the original programme, which had included an exploration of Enderby Land, was abandoned. Wild led a brief cruise which brought them into sight of Elephant Island. They anchored off Cape Wild, and were able to see the old landmarks, but sea conditions made it impossible for them to land.

It would be more than 40 years before the first crossing of Antarctica was achieved, by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole...

, 1955–58. This expedition set out from Vahsel Bay, following a route which avoided the Beardmore Glacier altogether, and bypassed much of the Ross Ice Shelf, reaching McMurdo Sound via a descent of the Skelton Glacier

Skelton Glacier

Skelton Glacier is a large glacier flowing from the polar plateau into the Ross Ice Shelf at Skelton Inlet on the Hillary Coast, south of Victoria Land, Antarctica.-Discovery and naming:...

. The entire journey took 98 days.

Films

South. (1919). Frank Hurley's original documentary film of the Endurance voyage
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition. 2000 film directed by George Butler; a retelling of the story.
Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure Reconstruction, filmed in 1999 and 2000
Great Adventurers: Ernest Shackleton – To The End Of The Earth Documentary film from 1999
Shackleton (TV film) Two-part television film from 2001 starring Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...

as Ernest Shackleton

External links

by Sir Ernest Shackleton

South! – Audiobook from LibriVox
LibriVox
LibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers and is probably, since 2007, the world's most prolific audiobook publisher...
Google Earth KML file of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Biography of each of the crew members of the crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Crew member biographies, including sizeable entries on some of the least well-known, at Coolantarctica.com.
The Endurance Obituauries, The story of the men of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship S.Y. Endurance, at Enduranceobituaries.co.uk.
Kodak feature on expedition photographer Frank Hurley and the voyage of the Endurance
James Caird Society remembers the man that rescued the Endurance crew
Ernest Shackleton on wax cylinder.
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Centenary Expedition 2014.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Preparations

Origins

Shackleton's plan

Finance

Personnel

Voyage through the ice

Drift of the Endurance

Camping on the ice

Lifeboat journey to Elephant Island

Voyage of the James Caird

South Georgia crossing

Rescue

On Elephant Island

Ross Sea Party

Return to civilisation

Further reading

Films

External links