Bids for Shackleton’s barometer
A barometer used by Sir Ernest Shackleton on his final Antarctic expedition 102 years ago is being auctioned.
At the time of going to press, a live auction was scheduled for 27 April by Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers, based in Devizes, Wiltshire. However online bidding had already started at £5,000 and was at £8,000 when PBO went to print.
The scientific instrument was fixed to the wall of Sir Ernest’s private cabin on RYS Quest, the ship on which he died of suspected heart failure in South Georgia Harbour.
Dr Leonard Hussey, the medic who tried to save Sir Ernest, later took the barometer as a keepsake. Dr Hussey gave the device to a friend, a Major Woods, in the 1930s and a descendant of his has now offered it for sale. The Short & Mason device is accompanied by a signed letter which states: “This aneroid barometer was taken to the Antarctic on the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition 1921–22 and was screwed up in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s cabin on RYS Quest, given to me by Dr LDA Hussey.”
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “This unique piece of memorabilia provides a tangible link to not only Sir Ernest’s final expedition but the last moments of this greatest of men.”
The current owner is now in his 60s. The barometer has “been in a drawer for the last 20 years.”
■ www.pbo.co.uk/barometer