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>Home >Travel Destinations >Library Articles >The Shackleton Expedition: Trivia |
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The Shackleton Expedition: Trivia |
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The idea of mounting an expedition to cross the Antarctic continent was given to Shackleton by William Spiers Bruce, who had surveyed and named Coats Land in 1902 but couldn't raise sufficient funds for such an expedition.
---------------------------- The Endurance was formerly christened the Polaris. She had been constructed for, though never actually served as, a tourist vessel in Arctic waters. ---------------------------- Alexander (Alec) Macklin's interview with Shackleton in 1914 for a berth on his upcoming expedition consisted of one question from the Boss: Shackleton: "Why do you wear spectacles?" Alec: "Many a wise face may look stupid without them." Shackleton: "I'll take you." ---------------------------- Frank Worsley designed the 22 and 1/2 foot James Caird in July of 1914, using Baltic pine for planking, American elm for the keel and timbers, and English oak for the stem and sternpost. ---------------------------- On October 30, 1915, prior to the establishment of Ocean Camp and with the Endurance slowly being crushed, Shackleton ordered his men to limit their personal belongings to 2 pounds per man. The Boss chose to keep the inscribed flyleaf and a page from the book of Job from the Bible presented to the ship by Queen Alexandra. He discarded this Bible on the ice, where he thought it to remain. Without Shackleton's knowledge, however, Tom McLeod picked it up, believing that to discard it would bring bad luck. After being rescued, McLeod spent some time with a family in Punta Arenas and thanked them for their kindness with a gift of the expedition's Bible. Years later this Chilean family made arrangements for the Bible to be returned to the Shackleton family at a Royal Geographic Society gathering. ---------------------------- Shackleton recommended all but four of his men for the Polar Medal - McNeish, Vincent, Stephenson, and Holness were excluded from this honor for not meeting Shackleton's standards of exceptional service. ---------------------------- The Ross Sea party of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition suffered its own set of difficulties and disasters - their ship, the Aurora, broke her winter moorings and drifted away, one man died of scurvy and complications on a torturous depot supply trek (for the Endurance's overland party), the remaining, scurvy-ridden depot party had to survive at Hut Pointfor 5 months on little but seal meat, and 2 of this forementioned party died on the sea ice in an attempt to reach the other men at Cape Evans. ---------------------------- Although Shackleton died on January 5, 1922, he was not laid to rest for two more months. His body, accompanied by Hussey, was being shipped home to England but in Montevideo, Uruguay, Hussey received new instructions from Emily, Shackleton's wife. She wished him to be buried at South Georgia, so Hussey turned back and the Boss was buried on March 5 among the whalers he knew so well. ---------------------------- Shackleton once said, "I go exploring because I like it and because it's my job. One goes once and then one gets the fever and can't stop going." |
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