Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition (1914–1917)

Origin

Despite the public acclaim that had greeted Ernest Shackleton's achievements after the Nimrod Expedition in 1907–1909, the explorer was unsettled, becoming—in the words of British skiing pioneer Sir Harry Brittain—"a bit of a floating gent". By 1912, his future Antarctic plans depended on the results of Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, which had left Cardiff in July 1910, and on the concurrent Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen. The news of Amundsen's conquest of the South Pole reached Shackleton on 11 March 1912, to which he responded: "The discovery of the South Pole will not be the end of Antarctic exploration". The next work, he said, would be "a transcontinental journey from sea to sea, crossing the pole". He was aware that others were in the field pursuing this objective.

On 11 December 1911, a German expedition under Wilhelm Filchner had sailed from South Georgia, intending to penetrate deep into the Weddell Sea and establishing a base from which he would cross the continent to the Ross Sea. In late 1912 Filchner returned to South Georgia, having failed to land and set up his base. However, his reports of possible landing sites in Vahsel Bay, at around 78° latitude, were noted by Shackleton, and incorporated into his developing expedition plans.

News of the deaths of Scott and his companions on their return from the South Pole reached London in February 1913.

Shackleton's plan

Shackleton called his new expedition the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, because he felt that "not only the people of these islands, but our kinsmen in all the lands under the Union Jack will be willing to assist towards the carrying out of the... programme of exploration." To arouse the interest of the general public, he issued a detailed programme early in 1914. The expedition was to consist of two parties and two ships. The Weddell Sea party would travel aboard Endurance and continue to the Vahsel Bay area, where 14 men would land, of whom six, under Shackleton, would form the transcontinental party. This group, with 69 dogs, two motor sledges, and equipment "embodying everything that the experience of the leader and his expert advisers can suggest", would undertake the 1,800-mile (2,900 km) journey to the Ross Sea. The remaining eight shore party members would carry out scientific work, three going to Graham Land, three to Enderby Land and two remaining at base camp.

The Ross Sea party would set up its base in McMurdo Sound, on the opposite side of the continent. After landing they would lay depots on the route of the transcontinental party as far as the Beardmore Glacier, hopefully meeting that party there and assisting it home. They would also make geological and other observations.

Finances

Shackleton estimated that he would need £50,000 (current value £4,988,000) to carry out the simplest version of his plan. He did not believe in appeals to the public: "(they) cause endless book-keeping worries". His chosen method of fundraising was to solicit contributions from wealthy backers, and he had begun this process early in 1913 with little initial success. The first significant encouragement came in December 1913, when the British government offered him £10,000, provided he could raise an equivalent amount from private sources. The Royal Geographical Society (RGS), from which he had expected nothing, gave him £1,000—according to Huntford, Shackleton, in a grand gesture, advised them that he would only need to take up half of this sum. Lord Rosebery, who had previously expressed his lack of interest in polar expeditions, gave £50.

In February 1914, The New York Times reported that playwright J. M. Barrie—a close friend of Scott, who had become Shackleton's rival late in his career—had confidentially donated $50,000 (about £10,000). With time running out, contributions were eventually secured during the first half of 1914. Dudley Docker of the Birmingham Small Arms Company gave £10,000, wealthy tobacco heiress Janet Stancomb-Wills gave a "generous" sum (the amount was not revealed), and, in June, Scottish industrialist Sir James Key Caird donated £24,000 (current value £2,390,000).

Personnel

According to legend, Shackleton posted an advertisement in a London paper, stating: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success." Searches for the original advertisement have proved unsuccessful, and the story is generally regarded as apocryphal. Shackleton received more than 5,000 applications for places on the expedition, including a letter from "three sporty girls" who suggested that if their feminine garb was inconvenient they would "just love to don masculine attire."

Eventually the crews for the two arms of the expedition were trimmed down to 28 apiece, including William Bakewell, who joined the ship in Buenos Aires; his friend Perce Blackborow, who stowed away when his application was turned down; and several last-minute appointments made to the Ross Sea party in Australia. A temporary crewman was Sir Daniel Gooch, grandson of the railway pioneer Daniel Gooch, who stepped in to help Shackleton as a dog handler at the last moment and signed up for an able seaman's pay. Gooch agreed to sail with Endurance as far as South Georgia.

As his second-in-command, Shackleton chose Frank Wild, who had been with him on both the Discovery and Nimrod expeditions, and was one of the Farthest South party in 1909. Wild had just returned from Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

Weddell Sea party

Endurance, without Shackleton (who was detained in England by expedition business), left Plymouth on 8 August 1914, heading first for Buenos Aires. Here Shackleton, who had travelled on a faster ship, rejoined the expedition.

On 22 February 1915, Endurance, still held fast, drifted to her most southerly latitude, 76° 58′S. Thereafter she began moving with the pack in a northerly direction.

With the loss of Endurance the transcontinental plans were abandoned, and the focus shifted to that of survival. Shackleton's intention now was to march the crew westward, to one or other of several possible destinations.

Elephant Island was remote, uninhabited, and rarely visited by whalers or any other ships. If the party was to return to civilisation it would be necessary to summon help.

The arrival of the James Caird at King Haakon Bay was followed by a period of rest and recuperation, while Shackleton pondered the next move. The populated whaling stations of South Georgia lay on the northern coast.

Shackleton's first task, on arriving at the Stromness station, was to arrange for his three companions at Peggotty Camp to be picked up.

After Shackleton left with the James Caird, Wild took command of the Elephant Island party, some of whom were in a low state, physically or mentally: Lewis Rickinson had suffered a suspected heart attack; Perce Blackborow was unable to walk, due to frostbitten feet; Hubert Hudson was depressed.

Ross Sea Party

Aurora left Hobart on 24 December 1914, having been delayed in Australia by financial and organizational problems. The arrival in McMurdo Sound on 15 January 1915 was later in the season than planned, but the party's commander, Aeneas Mackintosh, made immediate plans for a depot-laying journey on the Ross Ice Shelf, since he understood that Shackleton hoped to attempt the crossing during that first season. Neither the men nor the dogs were acclimatised, and the party was, as a whole, very inexperienced in ice conditions. The first journey on the ice resulted in the loss of ten of the party's 18 dogs and a frostbitten and generally demoralised shore party; a single, incomplete depot was their only achievement.

On 7 May, Aurora, anchored at the party's Cape Evans headquarters, was wrenched from her moorings during a gale and carried with drifting ice far out to sea. Unable to return to McMurdo Sound, she remained captive in the ice for nine months until on 12 February 1916, having travelled a distance of around 1,600 miles (2,600 km), she reached open water and limped to New Zealand. Aurora carried with her the greater part of the shore party's fuel, food rations, clothing and equipment, although the sledging rations for the depots had been landed ashore.

Return to civilisation, and aftermath

The rescued party, having had its last contact with civilisation in 1914, was unaware of the course of the Great War. News of Shackleton's safe arrival in the Falklands briefly eclipsed war news in the British newspapers on 2 June 1916. Yelcho had a "triumphal" welcome in Punta Arenas after its successful mission. The rescuees were then moved to the port of Valparaíso in Central Chile, where they had again a warm welcome; from there they were repatriated. The expedition returned home in piecemeal fashion, at a critical stage in the war, without the normal honours and civic receptions. When Shackleton himself finally arrived in England on 29 May 1917, after a short American lecture tour, his return was barely noticed.

Despite McNish's efforts in preparing and sailing on the James Caird voyage, his prior insubordination meant that, on Shackleton's recommendation, he was one of four men denied the Polar Medal; the others whose contributions fell short of Shackleton's expected standards were John Vincent, William Stephenson and Ernest Holness. Most of the members of the expedition returned to take up immediate active military or naval service.