 Second edition, December 1919 | |
| Author | Ernest Shackleton |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | William Heinemann |
Publication date | 1919 |
| Text | South at Wikisource |
South is a book by Ernest Shackleton describing the second expedition to Antarctica led by him, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 to 1917. It was published in London by William Heinemann in 1919. [1]
The book of Shackleton's earlier Nimrod Expedition of 1907–1909 was written, based on Shackleton's dictation, by Edward Saunders, a reporter on the Lyttelton Times in Christchurch, New Zealand. Saunders was recommended to Shackleton by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir Joseph Ward; he accompanied Shackleton to Britain to work on The Heart of the Antarctic, which appeared in November 1909. [2] Saunders was again involved in South, Shackleton working with Saunders in New Zealand and Australia early in 1917. [3] Saunders later wrote, "If I said that any chapter was entirely mine, I should be telling an untruth. My work was complementary to his. I could say that Shackleton had a remarkable gift of literary suggestion...." [2]
Leonard Hussey, a member of the expedition, was with Shackleton during the north Russian campaign, and did the final editing without payment. [3]
The rights of the book were assigned to the heirs of Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth, a benefactor of the expedition, who died in 1915. Shackleton was unable to repay money borrowed for the expedition. Lucas-Tooth's heirs required repayment of the loan; other benefactors had written off their loans. [4]
The book is dedicated to "my comrades who fell in the White Warfare of the South and on the red fields of France and Flanders".
In the preface, Shackleton wrote "... I think that though failure in the actual accomplishment must be recorded, there are chapters in this book of high adventure, strenuous days, lonely nights, unique experiences, and above all, records of unflinching determination, supreme loyalty and generous self-sacrifice on the part of my men which ... still will be of interest to readers who now turn gladly from the red horror of war ... to read ... the tale of the White Warfare of the South."
The preface includes the programme published before the expedition. The Endurance would take the Transcontinental party to the Weddell Sea; the Transcontinental party would cross the Antarctic continent, about 1,800 miles (2,900 km), from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Pole. It would be the first such journey; it was hoped it would be completed in about five months. On the other side of the pole, the Aurora would take out the Ross Sea party, which would lay down depots on the route of the Transcontinental party and go south to assist that party. The Transcontinental party would take magnetic and meteorological observations during the journey. Other parties of the expedition would be engaged in scientific work, studying the geology and meteorological conditions; the ships would be equipped for hydrographic work.
The book describes the progress of the Endurance through pack ice in the Weddell Sea; the ship was eventually held in pack ice and drifted with it. The ship was crushed and sank. The party camped on the ice which drifted north; when the ice no longer supported them they took to the three boats from the ship and made for Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others, in one of the boats, the James Caird , made the sea journey to South Georgia, where Shackleton and two others crossed the mountainous interior of the island to reach the whaling station and summon help. The men still on Elephant Island were rescued by Captain Luis Pardo, commanding the Chilean Navy's Yelcho , a small steamer lent to Shackleton by the Chilean government.
The experiences of the Ross Sea party are then described. Ernest Joyce's diary is quoted for the description of laying depots, during which Arnold Spencer-Smith died from exhaustion; after depot-laying was done, Aeneas Mackintosh and Victor Hayward died, falling through ice attempting to walk to their base at Cape Evans. The log of Joseph Stenhouse, first officer of the Aurora, is quoted for the description of the drift of the ship for several months in pack ice, unable to manoeuvre, after it broke away from moorings at Cape Evans.
The last chapter describes the subsequent involvement of the expedition members in the First World War; three were killed and five wounded.
Appendix I, "Scientific Work", consists of articles by members of the expedition who were scientists: "Sea-ice nomenclature" by James Wordie, "Meteorology" by Leonard Hussey, "Physics" by Reginald W. James and "South Atlantic Whales and Whaling" by Robert Selbie Clark. Appendix II, "The expedition huts at McMurdo Sound", by Shackleton, describes the huts known to him, for the benefit of future Antarctic explorers: (1) The National Antarctic Expedition's hut at Hut Point; (2) Cape Royds Hut; (3) Cape Evans Hut; (4) Depots south of Hut Point.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
The voyage of the James Caird was a journey of 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands through the Southern Ocean to South Georgia, undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions to obtain rescue for the main body of the stranded Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. Many historians regard the voyage of the crew in a 22.5-foot (6.9 m) ship's boat through the "Furious Fifties" as the greatest small-boat journey ever completed.
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South Pole overland for 46 years, preceded only by Amundsen's expedition and Scott's expedition in 1911 and 1912.
Thomas Crean was an Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer who was awarded the Albert Medal for Lifesaving (AM).
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition in 1911, this crossing remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". Shackleton's expedition failed to accomplish this objective but became recognized instead as an epic feat of endurance.
Endurance was the three-masted barquentine in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The ship, originally named Polaris, was built at Framnæs shipyard and launched in 1912 from Sandefjord in Norway. When one of her commissioners, the Belgian Gerlache, went bankrupt, the remaining one sold the ship for less than the shipyard had charged - but as Lars Christensen was the owner of Framnæs, there was no hardship involved. The ship was bought by Shackleton in January 1914 for the expedition, which would be her first voyage. A year later, she became trapped in pack ice and finally sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica on 21 November 1915. All of the crew survived her sinking and were eventually rescued in 1916 after using the ship's boats to travel to Elephant Island and Shackleton, the ship's captain Frank Worsley, and four others made a voyage to seek help.
Frank Arthur Worsley was a New Zealand sailor and explorer who served on Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, as captain of Endurance. He also served in the Royal Navy Reserve during the First World War.
SY Aurora was a 580-ton barque-rigged steam yacht built by Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd. in Dundee, Scotland, in 1876, for the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. It was 165 feet (50 m) long with a 30-foot (9.1 m) beam. The hull was made of oak, sheathed with greenheart and lined with fir. The bow was a mass of solid wood reinforced with steel-plate armour. The heavy side frames were braced by two levels of horizontal oak beams. Its primary use was whaling in the northern seas, and it was built sturdily enough to withstand the heavy weather and ice that would be encountered there. That strength proved useful for Antarctic exploration as well and between 1911 and 1917 it made five trips to the continent, both for exploration and rescue missions.
The NimrodExpedition of 1907–1909, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton and his second time to the Continent. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to reach the South Pole. This was not attained, but the expedition's southern march reached a Farthest South latitude of 88° 23' S, just 97.5 nautical miles from the pole. This was by far the longest southern polar journey to that date and a record convergence on either Pole. A separate group led by Welsh Australian geology professor Edgeworth David reached the estimated location of the South Magnetic Pole, and the expedition also achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's second highest volcano.
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar route established by earlier Antarctic expeditions. The expedition's main party, under Shackleton, was to land near Vahsel Bay on the Weddell Sea on the opposite coast of Antarctica, and to march across the continent via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. As the main party would be unable to carry sufficient fuel and supplies for the whole distance, their survival depended on the Ross Sea party setting up supply depots, which would cover the final quarter of their journey.
The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition (1921–22) was Sir Ernest Shackleton's last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
The Terra NovaExpedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objectives. Scott wished to continue the scientific work that he had begun when leading the Discovery Expedition from 1901 to 1904, and wanted to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole.
Perce Blackborow (1896–1949) was a Welsh sailor and a stowaway on Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917.
Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer who commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. The Ross Sea party's mission was to support Shackleton's proposed transcontinental march by laying supply depots along the latter stages of the march's intended route. In the face of persistent setbacks and practical difficulties, Mackintosh's party fulfilled its task, although he and two others died in the course of their duties. Mackintosh's first Antarctic experience was as second officer on Shackleton's Nimrod expedition, 1907–1909. Shortly after his arrival in the Antarctic, a shipboard accident destroyed his right eye, and he was sent back to New Zealand. He returned in 1909 to participate in the later stages of the expedition; his will and determination in adversity impressed Shackleton, and led to his Ross Sea party appointment in 1914.
Ernest Edward Mills Joyce AM was a Royal Naval seaman and explorer who participated in four Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the early 20th century. He served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. As a member of the Ross Sea party in Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Joyce earned an Albert Medal for his actions in bringing the stricken party to safety, after a traumatic journey on the Great Ice Barrier. He was awarded the Polar Medal with four bars, one of only two men to be so honoured, the other being his contemporary, Frank Wild.
Henry Ernest Wild AM, known as Ernest Wild, was a British Royal Naval seaman and Antarctic explorer, a younger brother of Frank Wild. Unlike his more renowned brother, who went south on five occasions, Ernest Wild made only a single trip to the Antarctic, as a member of the Ross Sea party in support of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17. He was one of the group of ten who were stranded ashore when the expedition's ship was blown from its moorings in a gale and were forced to improvise in order to survive. He played a full part in the party's main depot-laying journey, 1915–16, and in recognition of his efforts to save the lives of two comrades on that journey, he was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal. Having survived the expedition, he died while on active service with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea on 10 March 1918 in what was then Bighi naval hospital, Kalkara, Malta and is buried at the British Naval Cemetery close by.
The drift of the Antarctic exploration vessel SY Aurora was an ordeal which lasted 312 days, affecting the Ross Sea party of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. It began when the ship broke loose from its anchorage in McMurdo Sound in May 1915, during a gale. Caught in heavy pack ice and unable to manoeuvre, Aurora, with eighteen men aboard, was carried into the open waters of the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean, leaving ten men stranded ashore with meagre provisions.
Commander Joseph Russell Stenhouse, DSO, OBE, DSC, RD, RNR (1887–1941) was a Scottish-born seaman, Royal Navy Officer and Antarctic navigator, who commanded the expedition vessel SY Aurora during her 283-day drift in the ice while on service with the Ross Sea Party component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914–17. After Aurora's escape from the ice he brought her safely to New Zealand, but was thereafter replaced as the vessel's commander. He later served with distinction in the Royal Navy during both World Wars.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was an attempt to cross the Antarctic continent led by Ernest Shackleton. The personnel were divided into two groups: the Weddell Sea party consisting of the men who would attempt the crossing and their support, and the Ross Sea party whose job it was to lay stores on the far side of the Pole for the members of the Weddell Sea party who would make the crossing. Both arms of the expedition had a final complement of 28 men. The Weddell Sea party's ship Endurance was crushed in pack ice and the crossing attempt was never made. All the Weddell Sea party were rescued, but several members of the Ross Sea party perished after their support ship Aurora broke free from its mooring post and drifted away, leaving the shore party stranded.
Leonard Duncan Albert Hussey, OBE was an English meteorologist, archaeologist, explorer, medical doctor and member of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic and Shackleton–Rowett Expeditions. During the latter, he was with Shackleton at his death, and transported the body part-way back to England.
The full text of South: the story of Shackleton's last expedition, 1914-1917 at Wikisource
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