140-754: 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. Shackleton had served in
280-654: 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
420-484: A better target destination. This lay far to the west, toward the South Shetland Islands , but Shackleton thought it might be attainable by island-hopping. Its advantage was that it was sometimes visited by whalers and might contain provisions, whereas Clarence Island and Elephant Island were desolate and unvisited. To reach any of these destinations would require a perilous journey in the lifeboats once
560-544: A biologist, Robert Clark ; a physicist, Reginald W. James ; and Leonard Hussey , a meteorologist who would eventually edit Shackleton's expedition account South . The visual record of the expedition was the responsibility of its photographer Frank Hurley and its artist George Marston . The final composition of the Ross Sea party was hurried. Some who left Britain for Australia to join Aurora resigned before it departed for
700-507: A coincident decrease in the number of orcas. The report recommended a full moratorium on fishing over the Ross shelf. In October 2012, Philippa Ross, James Ross' great, great, great granddaughter, voiced her opposition to fishing in the area. In the southern winter of 2017 New Zealand scientists discovered the breeding ground of the Antarctic toothfish in the northern Ross Sea seamounts for
840-656: A dream. Tom Crean , who had been awarded the Albert Medal for saving the life of Lieutenant Edward Evans on the Terra Nova Expedition, took leave from the Royal Navy to sign on as Endurance ' s second officer; another experienced Antarctic hand, Alfred Cheetham , became third officer. Two Nimrod veterans were assigned to the Ross Sea party: Mackintosh, who commanded it, and Ernest Joyce . Shackleton had hoped that Aurora would be staffed by
980-673: A fact which the party's commander Aeneas Mackintosh only discovered when he arrived in Australia to take up his duties. Mackintosh was forced to haggle and plead for money and supplies to make his part of the expedition viable. Shackleton had, however, realised the revenue-earning potential of the expedition. He sold the exclusive newspaper rights to the Daily Chronicle , and formed the Imperial Trans Antarctic Film Syndicate to take advantage of
1120-528: A faster ship, rejoined the expedition. Hurley also came on board, together with Bakewell and the stowaway, Blackborow, while several others left the ship or were discharged. On 26 October, the ship sailed for the South Atlantic, arriving in South Georgia on 5 November. Shackleton's original intention was that the crossing would take place in the first season, 1914–1915. Although he soon recognised
1260-457: A further 120 miles (190 km) to Wilhelmina Bay. He believed the march was too risky; they should wait until the ice carried them to open water, and then escape in the boats. Shackleton over-ruled him. Before the march could begin, Shackleton ordered the weakest animals to be shot, including the carpenter Harry McNish 's cat, Mrs Chippy , and a pup which had become a pet of the surgeon Macklin. The company set out on 30 October 1915, with two of
1400-497: A general resolution calling on scientific societies throughout the world to promote the cause of Antarctic exploration "in whatever ways seem to them most effective". Such work, the resolution argued, would "bring additions to almost every branch of science". The Congress was addressed by the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink , who had just returned from a whaling expedition during which he had become one of
1540-865: A glacier after McDonald on the Brunt Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea. After problems arose in identifying this glacier, a nearby ice rise was renamed the McDonald Ice Rumples . By now it was mid-August, more than three months since Shackleton had left Elephant Island. Shackleton begged the Chilean Navy to lend him Yelcho , a small steam tug that had assisted Emma during the previous attempt. They agreed; on 25 August, Yelcho —captained by captain of Chilean Navy Luis Pardo —set out for Elephant Island. This time, as Shackleton recorded, providence favoured them. The seas were open, and
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#17327724851521680-460: 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
1820-421: A halt, observing: "It would take us over three hundred days to reach the land". The crew put up their tents and settled into what Shackleton called "Patience Camp", which would be their home for more than three months. Supplies were now running low. Hurley and Macklin were sent back to Ocean Camp to recover food that had been left there to lighten the sledging teams’ burden. On 2 February 1916, Shackleton sent
1960-416: A larger party back to recover the third lifeboat. Food shortages became acute as the weeks passed, and seal meat , which had added variety to their diet, now became a staple as Shackleton attempted to conserve the remaining packaged rations. In January, all but two teams of the dogs (whose overall numbers had been depleted by mishaps and illness in the preceding months) were shot on Shackleton's orders, because
2100-445: A line". A journalist inspecting the ship before she sailed reported "Gadgets! Gadgets! Gadgets everywhere!" These included wireless, an electrically heated crow's nest and an "odograph" that could trace and record the ship's route and speed. The heroic era of Antarctic exploration was 'heroic' because it was anachronistic before it began, its goal was as abstract as a pole, its central figures were romantic, manly and flawed, its drama
2240-478: A mystery for nearly 107 years, until the wreckage was discovered on 5 March 2022. The ice was not drifting fast enough to be noticeable, although by late November the speed was up to seven miles (11 km) a day. By 5 December, they had passed 68°S, but the direction was turning slightly east of north. This was taking the transcontinental party to a position from which it would be difficult to reach Snow Hill Island, although Paulet Island, further north, remained
2380-481: A narrow shingle beach. Soon afterwards, the three boats, which had been separated during the previous night, were reunited at this landing place. It was apparent from high tide markings that this beach would not serve as a long-term camp, so the next day Wild and a crew set off in the Stancomb Wills to explore the coast for a safer site. They returned with news of a long spit of land, seven miles (11 km) to
2520-611: A naval crew, and had asked the Admiralty for officers and men, but was turned down. After pressing his case, Shackleton was given one officer from the Royal Marines , Captain Thomas Orde-Lees , who was superintendent of physical training at the marines' training depot. The scientific staff of six accompanying Endurance comprised the two surgeons, Alexander Macklin and James McIlroy ; a geologist, James Wordie ;
2660-459: A possibility. Paulet Island was about 250 miles (400 km) away, and Shackleton was anxious to reduce the length of the lifeboat journey that would be necessary to reach it. Therefore, on 21 December he announced a second march, to begin on 23 December. Conditions, however, had not improved since the earlier attempt. Temperatures had risen and it was uncomfortably warm, with men sinking to their knees in soft snow as they struggled to haul
2800-675: A proposal for a Ross Sea MPA at the September 2012 meeting of the CCAMLR . At this stage, a sustained campaign by various international and national NGOs commenced to accelerate the process. In July 2013, the CCAMLR held a meeting in Bremerhaven in Germany, to decide whether to turn the Ross Sea into an MPA. The deal failed due to Russia voting against it, citing uncertainty about whether
2940-579: A series of supply depots across the Ross Ice Shelf to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier . These depots would be essential for the transcontinental party's survival, as the group would not be able to carry enough provisions for the entire crossing. The expedition required two ships: Endurance under Shackleton for the Weddell Sea party, and Aurora , under Aeneas Mackintosh , for the Ross Sea party. Endurance became beset—trapped in
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#17327724851523080-414: A south-westerly gale with heavy snow, the ice floe began to disintegrate all around the ship, the pressure forcing masses of ice beneath the keel and causing a heavy list to port . The position was perilous; Shackleton wrote: "The effects of the pressure around us was awe-inspiring. Mighty blocks of ice [...] rose slowly till they jumped like cherry-stones gripped between thumb and finger [...] if
3220-701: A stratigraphy for most of the older glacial sequences, which comprise Oligocene and younger sediments. The Ross Sea-wide major unconformity RSU-6 has been proposed to mark a global climate event and the first appearance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Oligocene. During 2018, Expedition 374 of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the latest successor to the DSDP, drilled additional holes (U1521–1525) in
3360-483: Is a relatively warm, salty and nutrient-rich water mass that flows onto the continental shelf at certain locations. The Ross Sea is covered with ice for most of the year. The nutrient-laden water supports an abundance of plankton and this encourages a rich marine fauna. At least ten mammal species, six bird species and 95 fish species are found here, as well as many invertebrates, and the sea remains relatively unaffected by human activities. New Zealand has claimed that
3500-401: Is about 500 meters. It is shallower in the western Ross Sea (east longitudes) than the east (west longitudes). This over-deepened condition is due to cycles of erosion and deposition of sediments from expanding and contracting ice sheets overriding the shelf during Oligocene and later time, and is also found on other locations around Antarctica. Erosion was more focused on the inner parts of
3640-407: Is regarded by marine biologists as having a very high biological diversity and as such has a long history of human exploration and scientific research, with some datasets going back over 150 years. The Ross Sea is home to at least 10 mammal species, half a dozen species of birds, 95 species of fish, and over 1,000 invertebrate species. Some species of birds that nest in and near the Ross Sea include
3780-564: Is restricted to the Victoria Land Basin and Northern Basin. Basement grabens are filled with rift sediments of uncertain character and age. A widespread unconformity has cut into the basement and sedimentary fill of the large basins. Above this major unconformity (named RSU-6 ) are a series of glacial marine sedimentary units deposited during multiple advances and retreats of the Antarctic Ice Sheet across
3920-421: Is usually free of ice during the summer. The southernmost part of the Ross Sea is Gould Coast , which is approximately 200 miles (320 km) from the geographic South Pole . The Ross Sea (and Ross Ice Shelf ) overlies a deep continental shelf . Although the average depth of the world's continental shelves (at the shelf break joining the continental slope) is about 130 meters, the Ross shelf average depth
4060-598: The Adélie penguin , emperor penguin , Antarctic petrel , snow petrel , and south polar skua . Marine mammals in the Ross Sea include the Antarctic minke whale , killer whale , Weddell seal , crabeater seal , and leopard seal . Antarctic toothfish , Antarctic silverfish , Antarctic krill , and crystal krill also swim in the cold Antarctic water of the Ross Sea. The flora and fauna are considered similar to other southern Antarctic marine regions. Particularly in Summer,
4200-799: The Cretaceous suggesting extreme stretching of the Ross Embayment during that time. Marie Byrd Land – Rocks exposed in western Marie Byrd Land on the Edward VII Peninsula and within the Ford Ranges are candidates for basement in the eastern Ross Sea. The oldest rocks are Permian sediments of the Swanson Formation, which is slightly metamorphosed. The Ford granodiorite of Devonian age intrudes these sediments. Cretaceous Byrd Coast granite in turn intrudes
4340-698: The Ferarr volcanic rocks of Jurassic age are separated from the Ross Supergroup by the Kukri Peneplain . Beacon rocks are reported to have been recovered in the drill cores of the Cape Roberts Project at the western edge of the Ross Sea. The Ross Sea circulation, dominated by polynya processes, is in general very slow-moving. Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is a relatively warm, salty and nutrient-rich water mass that flows onto
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4480-676: The International Union for Conservation of Nature definition of a marine protected area , which requires it to be permanent. Beginning in 2005, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) commissioned scientific analysis and planning for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Antarctic. In 2010, the CCAMLR endorsed their Scientific Committee's proposal to develop Antarctic MPAs for conservation purposes. The US State Department submitted
4620-530: The James Caird , Worsley the Dudley Docker , and navigating officer Hubert Hudson was nominally in charge of the Stancomb Wills , though because of his precarious mental state the effective commander was Tom Crean. The boats were surrounded by ice, dependent upon leads of water opening up, and progress was perilous and erratic. Frequently the boats were tied to floes, or dragged up onto them, while
4760-492: The James Caird , improvising tools and materials. Wild was to be left in charge of the Elephant Island party, with instructions to make for Deception Island the following spring should Shackleton not return. Shackleton took supplies for only four weeks, judging that if land had not been reached within that time the boat would be lost. The 22.5-foot (6.9 m) James Caird was launched on 24 April 1916. The success of
4900-583: The Ross Embayment , and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who visited this area in 1841. To the west of the sea lies Ross Island and Victoria Land, to the east Roosevelt Island and Edward VII Peninsula in Marie Byrd Land, while the southernmost part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf , and is about 200 miles (320 km) from
5040-703: The Shackleton–Rowett , or Quest expedition, during which Shackleton died, as the final chapter of the Age. According to Margery and James Fisher, Shackleton's biographers: "If it were possible to draw a distinct dividing line between what has been called the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and the Mechanical Age, the Shackleton–Rowett expedition might make as good a point as any at which to draw such
5180-566: The South Pole . Its boundaries and area have been defined by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research as having an area of 637,000 square kilometres (246,000 sq mi). The circulation of the Ross Sea is dominated by a wind-driven ocean gyre and the flow is strongly influenced by three submarine ridges that run from southwest to northeast. The circumpolar deep water current
5320-504: The Southern Ocean Observing System . The Ross Sea is one of the last stretches of seas on Earth that remains relatively unaffected by human activities. Consequently, the Ross Sea has become a focus of numerous environmentalist groups who have campaigned to make the area a world marine reserve, citing the rare opportunity to protect the Ross Sea from a growing number of threats and destruction. The Ross Sea
5460-601: The Transantarctic Mountains on the western side of the Ross Sea are possible basement rock below the sedimentary cover of the sea floor. The rocks are of upper Precambrian to lower Paleozoic in age, deformed in many places during the Ross Orogeny in the Cambrian . These miogeosyncline metasedimentary rocks are partly composed of calcium carbonate , often including limestone . Groups within
5600-472: The Antarctic (this does not include the significant number who died on active service in the First World War ): Scholars debate exactly when the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration came to an end. Shackleton's Endurance expedition is sometimes referred to as the last Antarctic expedition of the Heroic Age. Other chroniclers extend the era to the date of Shackleton's death, 5 January 1922, treating
5740-580: The Antarctic on the Discovery expedition of 1901–1904 and had led the Nimrod expedition of 1907–1909. In this new venture, he proposed to sail to the Weddell Sea and to land a shore party near Vahsel Bay , in preparation for a transcontinental march via the South Pole to the Ross Sea . A supporting group, the Ross Sea party , would meanwhile establish camp in McMurdo Sound and from there lay
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5880-456: The Antarctic regions. The primary goal of these explorers was to penetrate the vast barriers of sea ice that hid Antarctica proper, beginning with Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev 's circumnavigation of the region in 1819–1821, during which they became the first to sight and therefore officially discover mainland Antarctica, and culminating in Wilkes' discovery of Victoria Land and naming of
6020-650: The Antarctic should be organised to "resolve the outstanding geographical questions still posed in the south". Shortly prior to this, in 1887, the Royal Geographic Society had instated an Antarctic Committee which successfully incited many whalers to explore the southern regions of the world and foregrounded the lecture given by Murray. In August 1895, the Sixth International Geographical Congress in London passed
6160-640: The Antarctic. The performance of the whaling ships was also crucial in the decision to build RRS Discovery in Dundee. Another, particularly British, impetus more closely tied to the period is a lecture given by John Murray titled "The Renewal of Antarctic Exploration" Archived 21 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine , given to the Royal Geographical Society in London, on 27 November 1893. Murray advocated that research into
6300-551: The British government—Shackleton made his plans public in a letter to The Times . 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
6440-706: The Falkland Islands. On reaching Port Stanley, Shackleton informed London by cable of his whereabouts and requested that a suitable vessel be sent south for the rescue operation. He was informed by the Admiralty that nothing was available before October, which in his view was too late. Then, with the help of the British Minister in Montevideo , Shackleton obtained from the Uruguayan government
6580-630: The Poles". Shackleton got support, however, from William Speirs Bruce , leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of 1902–1904, who had harboured plans for an Antarctic crossing since 1908 but had abandoned the project for lack of funds. Bruce generously allowed Shackleton to adopt his plans, although the eventual scheme announced by Shackleton owed little to Bruce. On 29 December 1913, having acquired his first promises of financial backing—a £10,000 grant from
6720-862: The Priestley and Campbell glaciers. For thirty miles along the lower Skelton Glacier are the calcareous greywackes and argillites of the Skelton Group. The region between the lower Beardmore Glacier and the lower Shackelton Glacier sits the Beardmore Group. North of the Nimrod Glacier are four block faulted ranges that make up the Byrd Group. The contents of the Queen Maud Group area are mainly post-tectonic granite . Beacon Sandstone of Devonian - Triassic age and
6860-420: The Ross Sea is dominated by a wind-driven gyre . The flow is strongly influenced by three submarine ridges that run from southwest to northeast. Flow over the shelf below the surface layer consists of two anticyclonic gyres connected by a central cyclonic flow. The flow is considerable in spring and winter, due to influencing tides. The Ross Sea is covered with ice for much of the year and ice concentrations and in
7000-441: The Ross Sea party in Australia. A temporary crewman was Sir Daniel Gooch, grandson of the renowned 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
7140-574: The Ross Sea, and a full complement of crew was in doubt until the last minute. Within the party only Mackintosh and Joyce had any previous Antarctic experience; Mackintosh had lost an eye as the result of an accident during the Nimrod expedition and had gone home early. 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
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#17327724851527280-406: The Ross System include the Robertson Bay Group, Priestley Group, Skelton Group, Beardmore Group, Byrd Group, Queen Maud Group, and Koettlitz Group. The Robertson Bay Group compares closely with other Ross System members. The Priestley Group rocks are similar to those of the Robertson Bay Group and include dark slates, argillites , siltstones , fine sandstones and limestones. They can be found near
7420-500: The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. On 15 January, Endurance came abreast of a great glacier , the edge of which formed a bay which appeared a good landing place. However, Shackleton considered it too far north of Vahsel Bay for a landing, "except under pressure of necessity"—a decision he would later regret. On 17 January, the ship reached a latitude of 76° 27′S, where land was faintly discernible. Shackleton named it Caird Coast , after his principal backer. Bad weather forced
7560-628: The South Pole could lead to more accurate weather predictions. This helps explain German involvement in Antarctic research. Another important precursor to the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration was the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892–93 in which four Dundee whaling ships travelled south to the Antarctic in search of whales instead of their usual Arctic route. The expedition was accompanied by several naturalists (including Williams Speirs Bruce ) and an artist, William Gordon Burn Murdoch . The publications (both scientific and popular) and exhibitions that resulted did much to reignite public interest in
7700-560: The Southern Ocean, to South Georgia. Shackleton had abandoned thoughts of taking the party on the less dangerous journey to Deception Island, because of the poor physical condition of many of his party. Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands was closer than South Georgia but could not be reached, as this would require sailing against the strong prevailing winds. Shackleton selected the boat party: himself, Worsley, Crean, McNish, and sailors John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy . On instructions from Shackleton, McNish immediately set about adapting
7840-547: The amount of ice, there must be a landmass from which the ice originated, but was convinced that if it existed this land was too far south to be either habitable or of any economic value. Subsequently, exploration of the southern regions of the world came to a halt. Interest was renewed again between 1819 and 1843. As Europe settled after a period of war and unrest, explorers Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen , John Biscoe , John Balleny , Charles Wilkes , Jules Dumont d'Urville , and James Clark Ross sought greater knowledge of
7980-447: The boats through the pressure ridges. On 27 December, McNish rebelled and refused to work, arguing that Admiralty law had lapsed since Endurance ' s sinking and that he was no longer under orders. Shackleton's firm remonstrance finally brought the carpenter to heel, but the incident was never forgotten. Two days later, with only seven and a half miles (12.1 km) progress achieved in seven back-breaking days, Shackleton called
8120-447: The break-up of the ice. They gave the name "Ocean Camp" to the flat and solid-looking floe on which their aborted march had ended, and settled down to wait. Parties continued to revisit the Endurance wreck, which was still drifting with the ice a short distance from the camp. More of the abandoned supplies were retrieved until, on 21 November, the ship finally slipped beneath the ice. The final resting place of Endurance would remain
8260-420: The calm. The coastal parts of the sea contain a number of rookeries of Adélie and Emperor penguins, which have been observed at a number of places around the Ross Sea, both towards the coast and outwards in open sea. A 10-metre (32.8 feet) long colossal squid weighing 495 kilograms (1,091 lb) was captured in the Ross Sea on February 22, 2007. In 2010, the Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish fishery
8400-439: The central Ross Sea for determining Neogene and Quaternary ice sheet history. The nature of the basement rocks and the fill within the grabens are known in few locations. Basement rocks have been sampled at DSDP Leg 28 drill site 270 where metamorphic rocks of unknown age were recovered, and in the eastern Ross Sea where a bottom dredge was collected. In both these locations the metamorphic rocks are mylonites deformed in
8540-413: The chance of an opening of the ice, and there was no certainty that Endurance would break free in time to attempt a return to the Vahsel Bay area. Shackleton now considered the possibility of finding an alternative landing ground on the western shores of the Weddell Sea, if that coast could be reached. "In the meantime", he wrote, "we must wait". In the dark winter months of May, June and July, Shackleton
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#17327724851528680-612: The chance we had of reaching it across the broken sea-ice", Shackleton recorded. The party now had land more or less continuously in sight. The peak of Mount Haddington on James Ross Island remained in view as the party drifted slowly by. They were too far north for Snow Hill or Paulet Island to be accessible, and Shackleton's chief hopes were now fixed on two remaining small islands at the northern extremity of Graham Land. These were Clarence Island and Elephant Island , around 100 nautical miles (185 km) due north of their position on 25 March. He then decided Deception Island might be
8820-407: The commission had the authority to establish a marine protected area. In October 2014, the MPA proposal was again defeated at the CCAMLR by votes against from China and Russia. At the October 2015 meeting a revised MPA proposal from the US and New Zealand was expanded with the assistance of China, who however shifted the MPA's priorities from conservation by allowing commercial fishing. The proposal
8960-443: 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,
9100-410: The continent. As a result of all this activity, much of the continent's coastline was discovered and mapped, and significant areas of its interior were explored. The expeditions also generated large quantities of scientific data across a wide range of disciplines, the examination and analysis of which would keep the world's scientific communities busy for decades. Exploration of the southernmost part of
9240-405: The continental shelf at certain locations in the Ross Sea. Through heat flux, this water mass moderates the ice cover. The near-surface water also provides a warm environment for some animals and nutrients to excite primary production. CDW transport onto the shelf is known to be persistent and periodic, and is thought to occur at specific locations influenced by bottom topography. The circulation of
9380-461: The crossing was the only realistic option. After five days, the party took the boat a short distance eastwards, to the head of a deep bay which would be the starting point for the crossing. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean would undertake the land journey, the others remaining at what they christened " Peggotty Camp ", to be picked up later after help had been obtained from the whaling stations. A storm on 18 May delayed their start, but by two o'clock
9520-474: The deaths of Scott and his companions on their return from the South Pole reached London in February 1913. Against this gloomy background Shackleton initiated preparations for his proposed journey. He solicited financial and practical support from, among others, Tryggve Gran of Scott's expedition, and the former prime minister , Lord Rosebery , but received no help from either. Gran was evasive, and Rosebery blunt: "I have never been able to care one farthing about
9660-486: The dogs' requirements for seal meat were excessive. The final two teams were shot on 2 April, by which time their meat was a welcome addition to the rations. Meanwhile, the rate of drift became erratic; after being held at around 67° for several weeks, at the end of January there was a series of rapid north-eastward movements which, by 17 March, brought Patience Camp to the latitude of Paulet Island, but 60 nm (111 km) to its east. "It might have been six hundred for all
9800-474: The end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War ; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages. During the Heroic Age, the Antarctic region became the focus of international efforts that resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration by 17 major Antarctic expeditions launched from ten countries. The common factor in these expeditions
9940-454: 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
10080-456: The experience: a total of 19 expedition members died during this period. Both the geographic and magnetic South Poles were reached for the first time during the Heroic Age. The achievement of being first to the geographical pole was the primary object in many expeditions, as well as the sole rationale for Roald Amundsen 's venture, which became the first to reach it in 1911. Other expeditions aimed for different objectives in different areas of
10220-606: The far south. It has been suggested that Ross' influence, as well as the widely publicized loss of the Franklin expedition in the Arctic in 1848, led to a period of disinterest, or at least an unwillingness to invest significant resources, in polar inquiry, particularly by the Royal Society . In the twenty years following Ross' return, there was a general lull internationally in Antarctic exploration. The initial impetus for
10360-448: The film rights. 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
10500-607: 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 £2,910,000). Shackleton informed the Morning Post that "this magnificent gift relieves me of all anxiety". Shackleton now had
10640-434: The first of several backtrackings that would extend the journey and frustrate the men. At the close of that first day, needing to descend to the valley below them before nightfall, they risked everything by sliding down a mountainside on a makeshift rope sledge. They travelled without rest on by moonlight, moving upwards towards a gap in the next mountainous ridge. Early next morning, 20 May, seeing Husvik Harbour below them,
10780-549: The first people to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. During his address, Borchgrevink outlined plans for a full-scale pioneering Antarctic expedition, to be based at Cape Adare . However, the inauguration of the Heroic Age is now generally considered to be an expedition launched by the Société Royale Belge de Géographie in 1897; Carsten Borchgrevink followed a year later with a privately sponsored expedition. The designation "Heroic Age" only came much later;
10920-568: The first time underscoring how little is known about the species. On 28 October 2016, at its annual meeting in Hobart , a Ross Sea marine park was declared by the CCAMLR, under an agreement signed by 24 countries and the European Union . It protected over 1.5 million square kilometers of sea and was the world's largest protected area at the time. However, a sunset provision of 35 years was part of negotiations, which means it does not meet
11060-423: The floe upon which they were drifting finally broke up. Earlier, the lifeboats had been named after the expedition's three chief financial sponsors: James Caird , Dudley Docker and Stancomb Wills . The end of Patience Camp was signalled on the evening of 8 April, when the floe suddenly split. The camp now found itself on a small triangular raft of ice; a break-up of this would mean disaster, so Shackleton readied
11200-550: The following morning the weather was clear and calm, and an hour later the crossing party set out. The party's destination was the whaling station at Stromness , which had been Endurance ' s last port of call on their outbound journey. This was roughly 26 miles (40 km) away, across the edge of the Allardyce Range . Another whaling station was known to be at Prince Olav Harbour , just six miles (10 km) north of Peggotty Camp over easier terrain, but as far as
11340-474: 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
11480-513: The globe had been an off-and-on area of interest for centuries prior to the Heroic Age, yet the sheer isolation of the region as well as its inhospitable climate and treacherous seas presented enormous practical difficulties for early maritime technology. About a century after the Age of Exploration , British explorer James Cook became one of the first explorers known to have traveled to the region. The discoveries of his second voyage (1772–1775) changed
11620-567: The heroic age of Antarctic exploration, with 50 feet of rope between them, and a carpenter's adze". Notes Twenty-two men died on Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age. Of these, four died of illnesses unrelated to their Antarctic experiences, and two died from accidents in New Zealand, and one in France. The remaining 15 perished during service on or near the Antarctic continent. Another five men died shortly after returning from
11760-459: The ice began to pour into the ship. When the timbers broke they made noises which sailors later described as being similar to the sound of "heavy fireworks and the blasting of guns". The supplies and three lifeboats were transferred to the ice, while the crew attempted to shore up the ship's hull and pump out the incoming sea. However, after a few days, on 27 October 1915, and in freezing temperatures below −15 °F (−26 °C), Shackleton gave
11900-461: The ice of the Weddell Sea—before it was able to reach Vahsel Bay. It drifted northward, held in the pack ice, throughout the Antarctic winter of 1915. Eventually the ice crushed the ship, and it sank, stranding its complement of 28 men on the ice. After months spent in makeshift camps as the ice continued its northwards drift, the party used lifeboats that had been salvaged from the ship to reach
12040-426: The ice with ice-chisels, prickers, saws and picks to try to force a passage, but the labour proved futile. Shackleton did not at this stage abandon all hope of breaking free, but was now contemplating the "possibility of having to spend a winter in the inhospitable arms of the pack". On 22 February 1915, Endurance , still held fast, drifted to her most southerly latitude, 76° 58′S. Thereafter she began moving with
12180-527: The impracticality of this, he neglected to inform Mackintosh and the Ross Sea party of his change of plan. According to the Daily Chronicle ' s correspondent Ernest Perris, a cable intended for Mackintosh was never sent. After a month-long halt in the Grytviken whaling station on South Georgia , Endurance departed for the Antarctic on 5 December. Two days later, Shackleton was disconcerted to encounter pack ice as far north as 57° 26′S, forcing
12320-474: The inhospitable, uninhabited Elephant Island . Shackleton and five other members of the group then made an 800-mile (1,300 km) open-boat journey in the James Caird , and were able to reach South Georgia . From there, Shackleton was eventually able to arrange a rescue of the men who had remained on Elephant Island and to bring them home without loss of life. The remarkably preserved wreck of Endurance
12460-501: The interior of the continent, and their discoveries instead formed a broken line of newly discovered lands along the coastline of Antarctica. What followed this early period of exploration is what historian H. R. Mill called "the age of averted interest". Following James Clark Ross' expedition aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in January 1841, Ross suggested that there were no scientific discoveries worth exploration in
12600-404: The largest waves he had seen in 26 years at sea. On 8 May, South Georgia was sighted, after a 14-day battle with the elements that had driven the boat party to their physical limits. Two days later, after a prolonged struggle with heavy seas and hurricane-force winds to the south of the island, the party struggled ashore at King Haakon Bay . The arrival of the James Caird at King Haakon Bay
12740-422: 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
12880-450: The lifeboats for the party's enforced departure. He had now decided they would try, if possible, to reach the distant Deception Island because a small wooden church had been reportedly erected for the benefit of whalers. This could provide a source of timber that might enable them to construct a seaworthy boat. At 1 p.m. on 9 April, the Dudley Docker was launched, and an hour later all three boats were away. Shackleton himself commanded
13020-462: The loan of a tough trawler, Instituto de Pesca No. 1 , which started south on 10 June. Again the pack thwarted them. In search of another ship, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean travelled to Punta Arenas , where they met Allan MacDonald, the British owner of the schooner Emma . McDonald equipped this vessel for a further rescue attempt, which left on 12 July, but with the same negative result—the pack defeated them yet again. Shackleton later named
13160-403: The men camped and waited for conditions to improve. Shackleton was wavering again between several potential destinations, and on 12 April rejected the various island options and decided on Hope Bay , at the very tip of Graham Land. However, conditions in the boats, in temperatures sometimes as low as −20 °F (−29 °C), with little food and regular soakings in icy seawater, were wearing
13300-430: The men down, physically and mentally. Shackleton therefore decided that Elephant Island, the nearest of the possible refuges, was now the most practical option. On 14 April, the boats lay off the south-east coast of Elephant Island, but could not land as the shore consisted of perpendicular cliffs and glaciers. Next day the James Caird rounded the eastern point of the island to reach the northern lee shore, and discovered
13440-545: The money to proceed. He acquired, for £14,000 (current value £1,700,000), a 300-ton barquentine called Polaris , which had been built for the Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache for an expedition to Spitsbergen . This scheme had collapsed and the ship became available. Shackleton changed her name to Endurance , reflecting his family motto, "By endurance we conquer". For a further £3,200 (current value £388,000), he acquired Douglas Mawson 's expedition ship Aurora , which
13580-450: The nutrient-rich sea water supports an abundant planktonic life in turn providing food for larger species, such as fish , seals , whales , and sea- and shore- birds . Albatrosses rely on wind to travel and cannot get airborne in a calm. The westerlies do not extend as far south as the ice edge and therefore albatrosses do not travel often to the ice-pack. An albatross would be trapped on an ice floe for many days if it landed in
13720-749: The older rocks. The Byrd Coast and older formations have been cut by basalt dikes . Scattered through the Ford Ranges and Fosdick Mountains are late Cenozoic volcanic rocks that are not found to the west on Edward VII Peninsula. Metamorphic rocks, migmatites , are found in the Fosdick Mountains and Alexandra Mountains . These were metamorphosed and deformed in the Cretaceous. The Ross Supergroup system and Beacon Supergroup – Ross System rocks exposed in Victoria Land and in
13860-415: The order to abandon ship. The position at abandonment was 69° 05′S, 51° 30′W. The wreckage remained afloat, and over the following weeks the crew salvaged further supplies and materials, including Hurley's photographs and cameras that had initially been left behind. From around 550 plates, Hurley chose the best 120, the maximum that could be carried, and smashed the rest. With the loss of Endurance
14000-404: The pack in a northerly direction. On 24 February, Shackleton realised that they would be held in the ice throughout the winter and ordered ship's routine abandoned. The dogs were taken off board and housed in ice-kennels or "dogloos", and the ship's interior was converted to suitable winter quarters for the various groups of men—officers, scientists, engineers, and seamen. A wireless apparatus
14140-577: The party knew that they were on the right path. At seven o'clock in the morning, they heard a steam whistle sound from Stromness, "the first sound created by an outside human agency that had come to our ears since we left Stromness Bay in December 1914". After a difficult descent, which involved passage down through a freezing waterfall, they at last reached safety. Shackleton wrote afterwards: "I have no doubt that Providence guided us ... I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over
14280-534: The party was aware, this was only inhabited during the summer months. Shackleton and his men did not know that during their two-year absence in Antarctica, the station's owners had begun year-round operations. Without a map, the route the party chose was largely conjectural. By dawn they had ascended to 3,000 feet (910 m) and could see the northern coast. They were above Possession Bay , which meant they would need to move eastward to reach Stromness. This meant
14420-403: The presence of large icebergs. On 30 September, the ship sustained what Shackleton described as "the worst squeeze we had experienced". Worsley described the pressure as like being "thrown to and fro like a shuttlecock a dozen times". On 24 October, the starboard side was forced against a large floe, increasing the pressure until the hull began to bend and splinter, so that water from below
14560-518: 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
14700-500: The renewed exploration of the Antarctic that became known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration is somewhat contested, as it was a vague and multifarious international movement. George von Neumayer of Hamburg , also an Antarctic explorer, helped to renew Antarctic exploration from 1861 onward while he worked in an observatory in Melbourne . His particular interests were the importance of meteorology and how more information about
14840-435: 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. Shackleton estimated that he would need £50,000 (current value £6,061,000) 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
14980-484: The sea comes under its jurisdiction as part of the Ross Dependency . Marine biologists consider the sea to have a high level of biological diversity and it is the site of much scientific research. It is also the focus of some environmentalist groups who have campaigned to have the area proclaimed as a world marine reserve. In 2016 an international agreement established the region as a marine park . The Ross Sea
15120-594: The sea floor of the Ross Sea during the Oligocene and later. Drill holes have recovered cores of rock from the western edges of the sea. The most ambitious recent efforts are the Cape Roberts Project (CRP) and the ANDRILL project. Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 28 completed several holes (270–273) farther from land in the central and western portions of the sea. These resulted in defining
15260-483: The shelf while deposition of sediment dominated the outer shelf, making the inner shelf deeper than the outer. Seismic studies in the latter half of the twentieth century defined the major features of the geology of the Ross Sea. The deepest or basement rocks, are faulted into four major north trending graben systems, which are basins for sedimentary fill. These basins include the Northern and Victoria Land Basin in
15400-448: The ship broke free, then sailed to South Georgia apparently none the worse for its ordeal. Shackleton thought that a similar experience might allow Endurance to make a second attempt to reach Vahsel Bay in the following Antarctic spring. In February and March, the rate of drift was very slow. At the end of March, Shackleton calculated that the ship had travelled a mere 95 miles (153 km) since 19 January. However, as winter set in
15540-442: The ship to manoeuvre. During the following days there were more tussles with the pack, which, on 14 December, was thick enough to halt the ship for 24 hours. Three days later, the ship was stopped again. Shackleton commented: "I had been prepared for evil conditions in the Weddell Sea, but had hoped that the pack would be loose. What we were encountering was fairly dense pack of a very obstinate character". Endurance ' s progress
15680-565: The ship to shelter in the lee of a stranded iceberg . Endurance was now close to Luitpold Land , discovered by Filchner in 1912, at the southern end of which lay their destination, Vahsel Bay. Next day, the ship was forced north-westward for 14 miles (23 km), resuming in a generally southerly direction before being stopped altogether. The position was 76° 34′S, 31° 30′W. After ten days of inactivity, Endurance ' s fires were banked to save fuel. Strenuous efforts were made to release her; on 14 February, Shackleton ordered men onto
15820-401: The ship was able to approach close to the island in thick fog. At 11:40 a.m. on 30 August, the fog lifted, the camp was spotted and, within an hour, all the Elephant Island party were safely aboard, bound for Punta Arenas. Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at
15960-470: The ship was once gripped firmly her fate would be sealed". This danger passed, and the succeeding weeks were quiet. During this relative lull the ship drifted into the area where, in 1823, Captain Benjamin Morrell of the sealer Wasp reported seeing a coastline which he identified as " New South Greenland ". There was no sign of any such land; Shackleton concluded that Morrell had been deceived by
16100-399: The ship's lifeboats carried on sledges . Problems quickly arose as the condition of the sea ice around them worsened. According to Hurley the surface became "a labyrinth of hummocks and ridges" in which barely a square yard was smooth. In three days, the party managed to travel barely two miles (3.2 km), and on 1 November, Shackleton abandoned the march; they would make camp and await
16240-495: The south-central region little melting occurs. Ice concentrations in the Ross Sea are influenced by winds with ice remaining in the western region throughout the austral spring and generally melting in January due to local heating. This leads to extremely strong stratification and shallow mixed layers in the western Ross Sea. Observation and data access in the region is coordinated by the Ross Sea Working Group of
16380-437: The speed of the drift increased, and the condition of the surrounding ice changed. On 14 April, Shackleton recorded the nearby pack "piling and rafting against the masses of ice"—if the ship was caught in this disturbance "she would be crushed like an eggshell". In May, as the sun set for the winter months, the ship was at 75° 23′S, 42° 14′W, still drifting northwards. It would be at least four months before spring brought
16520-594: The term is not used in any of the early expedition accounts or memoirs, nor in biographies of polar figures involved in the Heroic Age which appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. It is not clear when the term was first coined or adopted generally. It was used in March 1956 by the British explorer Duncan Carse , writing in The Times . Describing the first crossing of South Georgia by Ernest Shackleton 's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1916, Carse wrote of "three men from
16660-527: 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. His first thought was for Paulet Island , where he knew there was a hut containing a substantial food depot, because he had ordered it 12 years earlier while organising relief for Otto Nordenskjöld 's stranded Swedish expedition. Other possibilities were Snow Hill Island , which had been Nordenskjöld's winter quarters and which
16800-470: The unnamed mountains and glaciers it seemed to me often that we were four, not three". This image of a fourth traveller was echoed in the accounts of Worsley and Crean and later influenced T. S. Eliot in the writing of his poem The Waste Land . This phenomenon has been reported by other adventurers and is known as the third man factor . Shackleton's first task, on arriving at the Stromness station,
16940-478: The use of a large whaler, The Southern Sky , which was laid up in Husvik Harbour. Shackleton assembled a volunteer crew, which had it ready to sail by the morning of 22 May. As the vessel approached Elephant Island they saw that an impenetrable barrier of pack ice had formed, some 70 miles (110 km) from their destination. The Southern Sky was not built for ice breaking, and retreated to Port Stanley in
17080-552: The volcanoes now known as Mount Terror and Mount Erebus in 1840. Much early knowledge of the lands south of the Antarctic Circle was also derived from economic pursuits by sealers and whalers, including the probable first landing on mainland Antarctica by an American sealer in 1821, though whether this landing was truly the first is disputed by historians. These explorers, despite their impressive contributions to South Polar exploration, were nonetheless unable to penetrate
17220-452: The voyage depended on the pin-point accuracy of Worsley's navigation, using observations that would have to be made in the most unfavourable of conditions. The prevailing wind was helpfully north-west, but the heavy sea conditions quickly soaked everything in icy water. Soon ice settled thickly on the boat, making her ride sluggishly. On 5 May, a north-westerly gale almost caused the boat's destruction as it faced what Shackleton described as
17360-822: The west, the Central Trough, and the Eastern Basin, which has approximately the same width as the other three. The Coulman High separates the Victoria Land Basin and Central Trough and the Central High separates the Central Trough and Eastern Basin. The majority of the faulting and accompanying graben formation along with crustal extension occurred during the rifting away of the Zealandia microcontinent from Antarctica in Gondwana during Cretaceous time. Paleogene and Neogene -age and faulting and extension
17500-431: The west. With minimum delay the men returned to the boats and transferred to this new location, which they later christened Cape Wild. Elephant Island was remote, uninhabited, and rarely visited by whalers or any other ships. If the party was to return to civilization it would be necessary to summon help. The only realistic way this could be done was to adapt one of the lifeboats for an 800-mile (1,300 km) voyage across
17640-550: The world map forever. Prior to this expedition it was believed that a large continent known as Terra Australis occupied the majority of the Southern Hemisphere. Cook discovered that no such landmass existed, though massive ice floes prevented his reaching Antarctica proper. In the process his expedition became the first recorded voyage to cross the Antarctic Circle . He did hypothesize that, based upon
17780-493: Was believed to contain a stock of emergency supplies, or Robertson Island . Shackleton believed that from one of these islands they would be able to reach and cross Graham Land and get to the whaling outposts in Wilhelmina Bay . He calculated that on the day Endurance was abandoned they were 346 miles (557 km) from Paulet Island. Worsley calculated the distance to Snow Hill Island to be 312 miles (500 km), with
17920-410: Was concerned with maintaining fitness, training and morale. Although the scope for activity was limited, the dogs were exercised (and on occasion raced competitively), men were encouraged to take moonlight walks, and aboard ship there were attempted theatricals. Special occasions such as Empire Day were duly celebrated. The first signs of the ice breaking up occurred on 22 July. On 1 August, in
18060-549: Was discovered by the Ross expedition in 1841. In the west of the Ross Sea is Ross Island with the Mt. Erebus volcano ; in the east is Roosevelt Island . The southern part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf . Roald Amundsen started his South Pole expedition in 1911 from the Bay of Whales , which was located at the shelf. In the western parts of the Ross Sea, McMurdo Sound is a port that
18200-407: 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. To reach them would mean either another boat journey around the island, or a land crossing through its unexplored interior. The condition of the James Caird , and the physical state of the party, particularly Vincent and McNish, meant that
18340-405: Was found on the seafloor in 2022. On the other side of the continent, the Ross Sea party overcame great hardships to fulfill its mission. Aurora was blown from her moorings during a gale and was unable to return, leaving the shore party stranded without proper supplies or equipment. Although the depots were still able to be laid, three people died before the party was eventually rescued. Despite
18480-516: Was frustratingly slow, until, on 22 December, leads opened up and the ship was able to continue steadily southward. This continued for the next two weeks, taking the party deep into the Weddell Sea. Further delays then slowed progress after the turn of the year, before a lengthy run south during 7–10 January 1915 brought them close to the 100-foot (30 m) ice walls which guarded the Antarctic coastal region of Coats Land . This territory had been discovered and named by William Speirs Bruce in 1904 during
18620-638: Was independently certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, and has been rated as a 'Good Alternative' by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program . However, a 2008 document submitted to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) reported significant declines in toothfish populations of McMurdo Sound coinciding with the development of the industrial toothfishing industry since 1996, and other reports have noted
18760-537: Was lying in Hobart , Tasmania . This would act as the Ross Sea party's vessel. How much money Shackleton raised to meet the total costs of the expedition (later estimated by the Daily Mail to be around £80,000) is uncertain, since the size of the Stancomb-Wills donation is not known. Money was a constant problem for Shackleton, who as an economy measure halved the funding allocated to the Ross Sea party,
18900-618: Was moral (for it mattered not only what was done but how it was done), and its ideal was national honour. It was an early testing-ground for the racial virtues of new nations such as Norway and Australia, and it was the site of Europe's last gasp before it tore itself apart in the Great War. Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica , between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within
19040-651: Was one of the Farthest South party in 1909. Wild had just returned from Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition . To captain Endurance Shackleton had wanted John King Davis , who had commanded Aurora during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Davis refused, thinking the enterprise was "foredoomed", so the appointment went to Frank Worsley , who claimed to have applied to the expedition after learning of it in
19180-439: Was rigged, but their location was too remote to receive or transmit signals. Shackleton was aware of the recent example of Filchner's ship, Deutschland , which had become icebound in the same vicinity three years earlier. After Filchner's attempts to establish a land base at Vahsel Bay failed, his ship was trapped on 6 March 1912, about 200 miles (320 km) off the coast of Coats Land. Six months later, at latitude 63° 37',
19320-448: Was the limited nature of the resources available to them before advances in transport and communication technologies revolutionized the work of exploration. Each of these expeditions therefore became a feat of endurance that tested, and sometimes exceeded, the physical and mental limits of its personnel. The "heroic" label, bestowed later, recognized the adversities which had to be overcome by these pioneers, some of whom did not survive
19460-432: Was to arrange for his three companions at Peggotty Camp to be picked up. A whaler was sent round the coast, with Worsley aboard to show the way, and by the evening of 21 May all six of the James Caird party were safe. It took four attempts before Shackleton was able to return to Elephant Island to rescue the party stranded there. He first left South Georgia a mere three days after he had arrived in Stromness, after securing
19600-428: 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
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