Antarctic vessel entombed on ocean floor
was where the legendary Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton drew his last breath, aged 47. He suffered a massive heart attack and died aboard his sail and steam-powered ship Quest in Grytviken harbour after a night chatting with old friends ashore.
He had scribbled a final few lines in his diary: “It is a strange and curious place… a wonderful evening. In the darkening twilight, I saw a lone star hover gem-like above the bay.”
Shackleton, who was on a mission to explore the uncharted coasts of Antarctica, died in the one place where he was truly happy.
His long-suffering wife Emily insisted he be buried in Grytviken rather than back in the UK. She knew that in desolate and freezing South Georgia, Shackleton WAS at home.
His obsession almost killed him and his men on dozens of occasions, left him indebted and his family neglected. But those adventures have seared him into the imagination of posterity.
In 1902, Shackleton was in his late 20s and dreamed of fame, wealth and respect. After winning a place on Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition, he sailed to Antarctica in Discovery, which still sits proudly in Dundee, where she was built.
They got further south than any other human but almost died of scurvy, starvation and exposure.
It only whetted the appetite.
Shackleton borrowed enough money to launch his own expedition in
1907, on which he endured snow blindness and frostbite to set a new record and get within 100 miles of the South Pole. After Norwegian Roald Amundsen finally made it there in 1911, Shackleton declared the Pole was fine, but the greatest laurels would go to the first team to cross the continent, passing the Pole on the way. Somehow, he scraped together the funds and set sail in August 1914, just as war was declared.
What followed is one of history’s greatest epics.
His ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice off the coast of Antarctica and the crew spent the dark winter entombed.
In October 1915, Endurance was crushed by the ice. Her crew camped on the ice floe and watched her sink. A
After arriving in South Georgia, Shackleton and two others embarked upon a final act of gritty heroism. They made the first-ever trip across the glacier-strewn interior to reach Stromness and get help, arriving on May 20, 1916.
A Norwegian whaler told Shackleton war was still being fought, millions were being killed – and “the world is mad”.
But all that could wait. Shackleton found vessels to reach those he’d left behind. Their rescue was completed in August 1916 and all returned home.
This year I am lucky enough to join an expedition to find the Endurance.
The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust is launching a major effort to locate the ship while also investigating changing weather, ice and sea life patterns.
We set sail next month. New technology can search a wide area below the ice sheet. And with state-of-theart camera equipment, I will provide a blow-by-blow account, via satellite.
On the centenary of Shackleton’s death, it feels like he would approve of our journey to one of the most remote places on Earth to engage the world with the polar regions, science, adventure and the memory of one of history’s greatest explorers.
Some things don’t change, though. The top priority for the research ship? Not to get trapped in the ice.