why did ernest shackleton go to antarctica

After the race to the South Pole ended in December 1911, with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole. The expedition's other main accomplishments included the first ascent of Mount Erebus, and the discovery of the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole, reached on 16 January 1909, by Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay. Shackleton and. [a][30] The journey was marred by the poor performance of the dogs, whose food had become tainted, and who rapidly fell sick. Dying heavily in debt, Shackleton's small estate consisted of personal effects to the value of 556 2s. Of later independent fame was the photographer Frank Hurley, known on this mission for his perilous shots. The "Great Southern Journey",[54] as Frank Wild called it, began on 29 October 1908. For the next two years, he kept his crew of 27 men . What is Ernest Shackleton best known for? Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson, took them to a latitude of 8217S, about 530 miles (850 km) from the pole. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was buried on the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean. Scott's . When did Neil Scott first go to Antarctica? Omissions? [50] In accordance with Shackleton's promise to Scott, the ship headed for the eastern sector of the Great Ice Barrier, arriving there on 21 January 1908. Scott wrote: "He ought not to risk further hardship in his present state of health. This march was not a serious attempt on the Pole, although the attainment of a high latitude was of great importance to Scott, and the inclusion of Shackleton indicated a high degree of personal trust. He joined Capt. and I said 'Yes darling, as far as I am concerned'". Sir Ernest Shackleton Following the news that Roald Amudsen had become the first man to reach the South Pole, there was one great expedition left in Antarctica, to cross the continent on foot. [110] The Yelcho took the crew first to Punta Arenas and after some days to Valparaiso in Chile where crowds warmly welcomed them back to civilisation. Shackleton's first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition of 19011904, from which he was sent home early on health grounds, after he and his companions Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82S. [107], The next successful crossing of South Georgia was in October 1955, by the British explorer Duncan Carse, who travelled much of the same route as Shackleton's party. In 1914, Shackleton set out from England to cross Antarctica on foot. [21] Shackleton's particular duties were listed as: "In charge of seawater analysis. The fate of Scott's expedition was not then known. 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. [129], Macklin, who conducted the postmortem, concluded that the cause of death was atheroma of the coronary arteries exacerbated by "overstrain during a period of debility". John King Davis was one of the most renowned captains in Antarctic exploration. [143] Within a few years, he was thoroughly overtaken in public esteem by Shackleton, whose popularity surged while that of his erstwhile rival declined. It's probably fair to say that adventurer Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross the 2,000-mile Antarctic continent in 1914 was a successful failure. While Shackleton led the expedition, Captain F. Worsley commanded the Endurance and Lieutenant J. Stenhouse the Aurora. [11], Shackleton's restlessness at school was such that he was allowed to leave at 16 and go to sea. [15], Shackleton used his acquaintance with the son to obtain an interview with Longstaff senior, with a view to obtaining a place on the expedition. [149] In Boston, a "Shackleton School" was set up on "Outward Bound" principles, with the motto "The Journey is Everything". A little Ernest Shackleton background. [149] Shackleton has also been cited as a model leader by the US Navy, and in a textbook on Congressional leadership, Peter L Steinke calls Shackleton the archetype of the "nonanxious leader" whose "calm, reflective demeanor becomes the antibiotic warning of the toxicity of reactive behaviour". Ernest Shackleton, however, would not have been surprised: he edited his 1914-17 journal into the book, South!, which was published three years after he had returned from Antarctica. In 2002, Shackleton was voted eleventh in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Alternate titles: Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. [101] The strongest of the tiny 20-foot (6.1m) lifeboats, christened James Caird after the expedition's chief sponsor, was chosen for the trip. [7], In 1880, when Ernest was six, Henry Shackleton gave up his life as a landowner to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), moving his family to the city. Shackleton then worked hard to persuade others of his wealthy friends and acquaintances to contribute, including Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst, who subscribed 2,000 (approximately equivalent to 212,000 in 2019) to secure a place on the expedition;[46] author Campbell Mackellar; and Guinness baron Lord Iveagh, whose contribution was secured less than two weeks before the departure of the expedition ship Nimrod. [77] Two ships would be employed; Endurance would carry the main party into the Weddell Sea, aiming for Vahsel Bay from where a team of six, led by Shackleton, would begin the crossing of the continent. But he is best known for his heroic leadership after his ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice at the start of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17. The Shackletons came originally from Yorkshire. A revival of the vintageand since lostformula for the particular brands found has been offered for sale with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust which discovered the lost spirits. Shackleton made his own discoveries about Antarctica, but he was not the first to explore the continent. For other uses, see, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 19141917, Modern calculations, based on Shackleton's photograph and Wilson's drawing, place the furthest point reached at 8211'. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The meteorologist was Captain L. Hussey, also an able banjo player. There was a (male) cat named Mrs Chippy that belonged to the carpenter Harry McNish. To this end, he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 19141917. Appointment to a military expedition to Murmansk obliged him to return home again, before departing for northern Russia. Shackleton and his men have been the subject of much media fervor throughout the last century, and this latest flurry of Shackleton media comes more than two decades after the tale experienced. Event and key to map Time since leaving England Date 8 Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean reach Stromness whaling station 21 months, 12 days May 20th 1916. [48], On 1 January 1908, the Nimrod set off on the British Antarctic Expedition from Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand. He later denied Scott's claim in The Voyage of the Discovery, that he had been carried on the sledge. Shackleton's original plans had envisaged using the old Discovery base in McMurdo Sound to launch his attempts on the South Pole and South Magnetic Pole. As the ship moved southward navigating in ice, first-year ice was encountered, which slowed progress. Instead, he is a hero, the leader who saved his men on one of the most horrific voyages of exploration of the 20th century. In a Christie's auction in London in 2011, a biscuit that Shackleton gave "a starving fellow traveller" on the 19071909 Nimrod expedition sold for 1250. The attempt this week to find Sir Ernest Shackleton's missing ship, the Endurance, has ended - without success. [97] This was the first time they had stood on solid ground for 497days. [124] The goals of the venture were imprecise, but a circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent and investigation of some "lost" sub-Antarctic islands, such as Tuanaki, were mentioned as objectives.[126]. Sir Ernest Shackleton, the intrepid explorer, is best remembered for embarking on a fateful voyage aboard the Endurance in a bid to cross the Antarctic. [96], After five harrowing days at sea, the exhausted men landed their three lifeboats at Elephant Island, 346 miles (557km) from where the Endurance sank. In his 1956 address to the British Science Association, Sir Raymond Priestley, one of his contemporaries, said "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton", paraphrasing what Apsley Cherry-Garrard had written in a preface to his 1922 memoir The Worst Journey in the World. [88], On 24 February, realising that she would be trapped until the following spring, Shackleton ordered the abandonment of ship's routine and her conversion to a winter station. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He joined the merchant navy when he was 16 and worked on many different ships. In 1912 Sir Ernest Shackleton began plans to organise the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition to achieve this challenge. "[8] In his final term at the school he was still able to achieve fifth place in his class of thirty-one. Unfortunately, it was designed for breaking through sea ice, not for being trapped in ice. [2][3], Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In 1905, Shackleton became a shareholder in a speculative company that aimed to make a fortune transporting Russian troops home from the Far East. After a period of rest and recuperation, rather than risk putting to sea again to reach the whaling stations on the northern coast, Shackleton decided to attempt a land crossing of the island. Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition was the remarkable final chapter in the Heroic Age of Exploration. The inscription on the rough-hewn granite block set to mark the spot reads: "Frank Wild 18731939, Shackleton's right-hand man. [143] This negative picture of Scott became accepted as the popular truth[144] as the kind of heroism that Scott represented fell victim to the cultural shifts of the late twentieth century. Unlike the Arctic ice, which is frozen over the Arctic ocean, Antarctica is also a. Shackleton served in the British army during World War I and served as a military advisor in the multinational North Russia Expeditionary Force during the Russian Civil War. It was named after Shackleton'sfamily motto: "Fortitudine vincimus" (By endurance we conquer). The party was in high spirits, despite the difficult conditions; Shackleton's ability to communicate with each man kept the party happy and focused.[53]. Nevertheless, in February 1907, Shackleton presented to the Royal Geographical Society his plans for an Antarctic expedition, the details of which, under the name British Antarctic Expedition, were published in the Royal Geographical Society's newsletter, Geographical Journal. Partly this was in search of better professional prospects for the newly qualified doctor, but another factor may have been unease about their Anglo-Irish ancestry, following the assassination by Irish nationalists of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the British Chief Secretary for Ireland, in 1882. [116], Shackleton was specially appointed a temporary major on 22 July 1918. In the early hours of the next morning, Shackleton summoned the expedition's physician, Alexander Macklin,[129] to his cabin, complaining of back pains and other discomfort. In January 2013, a joint British-Australian team set out to duplicate Shackleton's 1916 trip across the Southern Ocean. He appealed to the Chilean government, which offered the use of the Yelcho, a small seagoing tug from its navy. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Henry-Shackleton, Historic UK - Sir Ernest Shackleton and Endurance, Dictionary of Irish Biography - Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, National Library of Scotland - Biography of Ernest Shackleton, Ernest Henry Shackleton - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Ernest Shackleton - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Ernest Shackleton's South Pole expedition, British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Although the expedition failed, it would be remembered by generations as the greatest feat of survival in the history of exploration. [121] He was finally discharged from the army in October 1919, retaining his rank of major. In response to his posted ad, Shackleton was supposedly flooded with 5000 responses, men clamoring to take their chances on the icy southern continent. [123] In 1920, tired of the lecture circuit, Shackleton began to consider the possibility of a last expedition. 2 min read. Although he'd been sent home from the trip due to ill health, Shackleton vowed to return to the Antarctic and prove himself as a polar . Endurance did not have that hull shape. [13] In August 1894, he passed his examination for second mate and accepted a post as third officer on a tramp steamer of the Welsh Shire Line. He was sent home early due to bad health. ", Study of diaries kept by Eric Marshall, medical officer to the 190709 expedition, suggests that Shackleton suffered from an atrial septal defect ("hole in the heart"), a congenital heart defect, which may have been a cause of his health problems.[134]. Despite his efforts, it required government action, in the form of a grant of 20,000 (2008: 1.5million) to clear the most pressing obligations. What did Lord Davis do in the Antarctic? This book, as well as being a tribute to the explorer, was a practical effort to assist his family; Shackleton died some 40,000 in debt (equivalent to 2,323,748 in 2021[135])[138] A further initiative was the establishment of a Shackleton Memorial Fund, which was used to assist the education of his children and the support of his mother. [59], In 1910, Shackleton made a series of three recordings describing the expedition using an Edison phonograph. What did Ernest Shackleton accomplish on his expedition to Antarctica? [101] McNish had clashed with Shackleton during the time when the party was stranded on the ice, but, while Shackleton did not forget the carpenter's earlier insubordination, Shackleton recognised his value for this particular job. On 27 November 2011, the ashes of Frank Wild were interred on the right-hand side of Shackleton's gravesite in Grytviken. [169], "Shackleton" redirects here. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. February 5, 2010, 10:09 AM. He was, as a shipmate recorded, "a departure from our usual type of young officer", content with his own company though not aloof, "spouting lines from Keats [and] Browning", a mixture of sensitivity and aggression but, withal, sympathetic. Although he'd been sent home from the trip due to ill health, Shackleton vowed to return to the Antarctic and prove himself as a polar explorer. Details. [11] The aim was the conquest of both the geographical South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole. Go on a trip C. Get an assistant 15 1.5 22.5 . Born on February 15, 1874 - Sir Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer who led a total of three voyages to Antarctica. In January 1908 he returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition (190709). [33], After a period of convalescence in New Zealand, Shackleton returned to England via San Francisco and New York. Sir Ernest Shackleton had been counting on Endurance to help him make it ashore . On the Endurance, the second in command was the experienced explorer Frank Wild. What did Shackleton feed his dogs? Disaster struck when his ship, the Endurance, was crushed by ice. He still harboured thoughts of returning south, even though in September 1910, having recently moved with his family to Sheringham in Norfolk, he wrote to Emily: "I am never again going South and I have thought it all out and my place is at home now". Born in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton and his Anglo-Irish family[1] moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten. Consequently, Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the 720-nautical-mile-distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available. (, Beardmore's help took the form of guaranteeing a loan at Clydesdale Bank, for 7,000 (2008 equivalent approx. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton attended Dulwich College from 1887 until 1890. Beardmore was sufficiently impressed with Shackleton to offer financial support,[c][45] but other donations proved hard to come by. [113][114] In October 1917, he was sent to Buenos Aires to boost British propaganda in South America. 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. In his search for rapid pathways to wealth and security, he launched business ventures which failed to prosper, and he died heavily in debt. They found that the Barrier Inlet had expanded to form a large bay, in which were hundreds of whales, which led to the immediate christening of the area as the Bay of Whales. He started from England on the Endurance.In Antarctica, the ship got stuck in sea ice on January 24th.They tried their best to save the ship. [124][125], The plan changed; the destination became the Antarctic, and the project was defined by Shackleton as an "oceanographic and sub-antarctic expedition". Edgeworth David, reached the area of the south magnetic pole. Ernest Henry Shackleton was born at Kilkea House, County Kildare, on February 15, 1874. Devoted to creating a legacy, he led the Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The printed word saw much more attention given to Scotta forty-page booklet on Shackleton, published in 1943 by OUP as part of a "Great Exploits" series, is described by cultural historian Stephanie Barczewski as "a lone example of a popular literary treatment of Shackleton in a sea of similar treatments of Scott". Scottish jute magnate Sir James Caird gave 24,000, Midlands industrialist Frank Dudley Docker gave 10,000, and tobacco heiress Janet Stancomb-Wills gave an undisclosed but reportedly "generous" sum. There is a legend that Shackleton posted an advertisement which emphasised the hardship and danger of the voyage, so that he could better narrow down and select candidates for his expedition, but no record of any such advertisement has survived and its existence is considered doubtful. [42] He also ventured into politics, unsuccessfully standing in the 1906 General Election as the Liberal Unionist Party's candidate for Dundee constituency in opposition to Irish Home Rule. The astonishing challenge - to cross Antarctica from one coast to the other - didn't exactly go to plan and actually resulted in . Shackleton led the expedition, Captain F. Worsley commanded the Endurance, was crushed by ice restlessness school! 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