Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton (born February 15, 1874, Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland—died January 5, 1922, Grytviken, South Georgia) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who attempted to reach the South Pole.

Educated at Dulwich College (1887–90) in London, Shackleton entered the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901. He joined Capt. Robert Falcon Scott’s British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (1901–04) as third lieutenant and took part, with Scott and Edward Wilson, in the sledge journey over the Ross Ice Shelf when latitude 82°16′33″ S was reached. His health suffered, and he was removed from duty and sent home on the supply ship Morning in March 1903.

The Nimrod expedition

In January 1908 he returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition (1907–09). The expedition, prevented by ice from reaching the intended base site in Edward VII Peninsula, wintered on Ross Island, McMurdo Sound. On March 5, 1908, six of Shackleton’s crewmates, including Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, left their base camp (a hut) at Cape Royds to become the first people to summit Mount Erebus, a prominent volcanic peak some 15 miles (24 km) distant. Five of the six would climb to the crater rim by March 10. In October a sledging party of four, which was led by Shackleton, began a trek that came within 97 nautical miles (112 statute miles or 180 km) of the geographic South Pole by January 1909 before dwindling food supplies forced them to turn back. A third party, led by Australian geologist T.W. Edgeworth David, reached the area of the south magnetic pole on January 16, 1909.

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Exploration and Discovery

Shackleton’s sledging party returned to the base camp in late February 1909, but they discovered that the Nimrod had set sail some two days earlier. Shackleton and his party set fire to the camp to signal the ship, which received the signal and returned to the camp a few days later, successfully retrieving them. In addition to the aforementioned achievements, the Nimrod expedition allowed the Victoria Land plateau to be claimed by the British crown. On his return to England, Shackleton was knighted and was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

The Endurance and the rescue of its crew

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In August 1914 the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–16) left England under Shackleton’s leadership. He planned to cross Antarctica from a base on the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, but the expedition ship Endurance was trapped in ice off the Caird coast and drifted for 10 months before being crushed in the pack ice. The members of the expedition then drifted on ice floes for another five months and finally escaped in boats to Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands, where they subsisted on seal meat, penguins, and their dogs.

Shackleton and five others sailed 800 miles (1,300 km) to South Georgia in a whale boat, a 16-day journey across a stretch of dangerous ocean, before landing on the southern side of South Georgia. Shackleton and his small crew then made the first crossing of the island to seek aid. Four months later, after leading four separate relief expeditions, Shackleton succeeded in rescuing his crew from Elephant Island. Throughout the ordeal, not one of Shackleton’s crew of the Endurance died. A supporting party, the Ross Sea party led by A.E. Mackintosh, sailed in the Aurora and laid depots as far as latitude 83°30′ S for the use of the Trans-Antarctic party; three of this party died on the return journey.

Military service and death

Shackleton served in the British army during World War I and served as a military adviser in the multinational North Russia Expeditionary Force during the Russian Civil War. He attempted a fourth Antarctic expedition, called the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition, aboard the Quest in 1921, which had the goal of circumnavigating the continent. Shackleton died at Grytviken, South Georgia, however, at the outset of the journey. His exertions in raising funds to finance his expeditions and the immense strain of the expeditions themselves were believed to have worn out his strength.

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Shackleton’s publications were The Heart of the Antarctic (1909) and South (1919), the latter an account of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition.