Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton 1874-1922, British antarctic explorer, b. Ireland. The first of his voyages to Antarctica was made as a member of the expedition (1901-4) of Robert F. Scott . Shackleton was invalided home in 1903, but the experience gained on the Scott expedition aided him greatly as commander of a south polar expedition (1907-9). In the course of this expedition Mt. Erebus was ascended, the south magnetic pole was located, and the polar plateau was crossed to a point less than 100 mi (160 km) from the South Pole. The scientific results of the expedition were of vast importance. Knighted in 1909, Shackleton published that year an account of his expedition, The Heart of the Antarctic.

As commander of a transantarctic expedition, he set out in 1914, planning to enter the Weddell Sea and cross on foot over the south polar region to the Ross Sea, a distance of c.2,000 mi (3,200 km). When his ship Endurance was crushed in the ice in Oct., 1915, he led his party some 180 mi (290 km) to safety at Elephant Island; from there Shackleton with five companions in a lifeboat made a voyage of c.800 mi (1,290 km) through wild seas, then crossed rugged, glaciated South Georgia Island to reach (May, 1916) a whaling station on its north coast. Shackleton rescued his Elephant Island party and later returned to the Weddell Sea to pick up others left there earlier in the expedition. His South (1919) is an account of the whole expedition. In 1921 Shackleton sailed on the Quest to study Enderby Land but died on ship and was buried on South Georgia Island.

Bibliography: See biography by R. Huntford (1985); C. Alexander, The Endurance (1998).

Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry (1874–1922). Almost the antithesis of Scott as an explorer, Shackleton was impetuous and restless and his experience was in the merchant marine rather than the Royal Navy when he successfully applied to join Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1901–4. Sledging with Scott himself, he reached 82 degrees south in 1902. After a variety of experiences including unsuccessful parliamentary candidature, Shackleton raised enough support to take his own expedition back to the Antarctic in 1907–8 where he discovered and named the Beardmore Glacier as a route onto the 10,000-foot plateau at the centre of the continent. Shackleton himself reached 88 degrees south, only 97 miles from the Pole. Now a hero, he was later encouraged to lead an official expedition aiming to explore from the Weddell Sea and cross the continent to the Ross Sea. Ordered to go ahead despite the Great War, Shackleton lost his ship Endurance when it was crushed by ice in November 1915. With sledges and small boats, he led his men to Elephant Island by the following April, sailed in an open boat to South Georgia, returned to rescue his men, and then visited the Ross Sea. After some diplomatic service in South America and military service in Russia in 1919, he set out on a third Antarctic expedition in 1921 but died suddenly after reaching South Georgia.

Roy C. Bridges

Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry (1874–1922), British explorer, born in Kilkee, Southern Ireland. He left Dulwich College at 16 to join the merchant marine and served before the mast in various square-riggers, before becoming an officer in the Union Castle shipping line. He then served in the 1901 National Antarctic Expedition under Captain Scott as its third lieutenant, but was invalided home after an attack of scurvy. In January 1908 he led the British National Expedition which accomplished some useful scientific work and reached to within 160 kilometres (100 mls.) of the pole. For these achievements Shackleton received a knighthood.

In 1914 he again sailed for the Antarctic in command of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition on board the 350-ton Norwegian sealer Endurance, with the intention of crossing the continent of Antarctica from the Weddell to the Ross Seas. However, after a combination of adverse circumstances, the Endurance was beset by ice in the Weddell Sea, and was eventually crushed after drifting for nine months. Only Shackleton's superb natural gifts of leadership and organization enabled the expedition's members to survive. After drifting on ice floes, they eventually took to the ship's boats and reached Elephant Island in the South Shetland group, in April 1916. Leaving his second in command, Frank Wild, in charge, Shackleton sailed one of the boats, a 7-metre (23-ft) whaler which he named James Caird, to South Georgia, 480 kilometres (300 mls.) away, to seek help. After three unsuccessful attempts to rescue the Elephant Island party, they were taken off with the help of the Chilean tug Yelcho.

In 1920 Shackleton, now in charge of the Shackleton–Rowett Antarctic expedition, sailed to the Antarctic on board the Quest, but off South Georgia he died of a heart attack. The James Caird is preserved at his old school.

Bibliography

Dunnett, H. , Shackleton's Boat (1994).
Huntford, R. , Shackleton (1985).