Shackleton’s Polar expedition barometer up for sale after 102 years

A BAROMETER that was used by explorer Ernest Shackleton on his final expedition to the Antarctic has been rediscovered 102 years later.

The scientific instrument was fixed to the wall of his private cabin on the ship RYS Quest.

It was aboard this vessel that Shackleton died of suspected heart failure on Jan 5 1922 while in harbour in South Georgia. Dr Leonard Duncan Albert Hussey, the medic who tried to save him, later took the barometer as a keepsake.

Dr Hussey gave the device to a friend, a Major Woods, and a relative of his has now offered it for sale at auction with a guide price of £5,000-£8,000.

The Short and Mason aneroid barometer is accompanied by a signed letter which states: “This aneroid barometer was taken to the Antarctic on the Shackleton-rowett Antarctic Expedition 192122 and was screwed up in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Cabin on RYS Quest, given to me by Dr LDA Hussey.”

It will go under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Andrew Aldridge, an auctioneer at the firm, said: “Sir Ernest Shackleton has been called ‘the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth bar none’.

“This unique piece of memorabilia provides a tangible link to not only his final expedition but the last moments of this greatest of men.”

Shackleton led the Quest expedition to circumnavigate Antarctica in 1921. Just before the ship left Rio de Janeiro for South Georgia, Sir Ernest suffered a suspected heart attack but refused to be examined.

The next morning he declared himself better and fit to set sail.

During the two-week voyage it was reported he began drinking champagne each morning, “to deaden the pain”, contrary to his normal rule of not allowing liquor at sea.

Following his death, Dr Hussey, who was also the expedition’s meteorologist and assistant surgeon, wrote in a letter: “It was a terrible blow to us even though in our medical work we have had scores of people dying in our hands yet somehow his was different.

“I tried to inject some ether to stimulate his heart but in three minutes he was dead.” Dr Hussey, who had previously served with Shackleton on the Endurance expedition, accompanied his body to Uruguay where he cabled England with news of his death.

The explorer’s widow responded that he should be buried in South Georgia and Dr Hussey carried out her instructions.

He was buried on March 5 with only Dr Hussey present.

The barometer, which measures air pressure and is 4.5in wide, is being sold on April 27.