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.