TITLE: THE DEATH OF ERNEST SHACKLETON
1997 20 X 20 INCHES
Ernest Shackleton
1874-1922, British explorer.
After the experience and humiliation of being sent
home, (1901-3) in Scott's
first expedition, Shackleton organized an Antarctic expedition of his
own.
During that journey, (1907-9) the volcano Mt. Erebus
was climbed, the South
Magnetic Pole was located, and the Antarctic Plateau was crossed to within
100
miles of the South Pole.
Commanding the Transantarctic Expedition (1915), he
led his party 180 miles
to safety on the ice floes and then by open boat to Elephant Island, after
ice
crushed his ship the Endurance. From there he and four others sailed 800
miles in an open boat, on the high seas in freezing temperatures and gale
force
winds, to South Georgia Island. Landing on the unpopulated side of the
island,
Shackleton with Worsley and Crean crossed the mountains of So. Georgia,
(some
at altitudes of 3000 feet), to a whaling station at Grytvicken. He
subsequently gathered reenforcements and rescued the stranded main party
and others,
with out the loss of life.
He died at the start of a fourth voyage to the Antarctic
and was buried, at
the request of his wife Emily, on the island of South Georgia.
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