Preparation
Shackleton began planning his next journey to Antarctica
almost as soon as he returned from the Nimrod expedition of 1907 - 1909.
He felt certain that others would soon succeed in reaching the South Pole where
he had failed having come so close, and so looked to the next goal. This he took
as being the crossing of the Antarctic continent from coast to coast via the
South Pole, a distance of about 1800 miles, a long way certainly, but not so
much further than a "there and back" journey to the pole.
He planned to set out from the Weddell sea region (to the
south of South America) across a completely unexplored region of Antarctica, to
the pole, and then to the Ross sea / McMurdo sound area (to the south of New
Zealand). Typically for such trips, the attention grabbing exploratory part of
the expedition was but a small part of a whole. Other scientific and exploratory
sledging trips were planned for parties setting out from the main base as well
as another party who were to remain at the base and carry out a variety of
scientific work. Another group of men would be required to set out from the Ross
sea region and lay depots for the trans-antarctic party to use on their journey
to the coast from the pole, they would be on a second ship.
The ship used for the journey to the Weddell sea was a
newly constructed and had been intended for tourist cruises in the Arctic in a Norwegian shipyard. She was the Endurance.
The ship to take the Ross Sea party was the Aurora purchased from
Douglas Mawson and used by his 1911 - 1914 Antarctic expedition. The expedition
was inundated with applications from volunteers to join, despite (or maybe
because of) the tragic end of Robert Scott and his team after reaching the South
Pole only two years beforehand.
There is a much publicized, but almost certainly apocryphal
newspaper advertisement supposedly placed by Shackleton (no trace of a copy has
ever been found in any archive).
"MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS
JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT
DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS.
-
SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON"
Funding became a problem and so Shackleton found
himself at once recruiting and preparing for the departure of the Endurance
while also desperately struggling for funds that if not forthcoming might result
in the expedition not taking place at all. Eventually however, funding was
obtained and towards the end of July 1914 preparations were almost complete.
The dark clouds of war were beginning to gather
however. The Endurance was anchored off Southend on August 4th when Shackleton
read in a daily newspaper the order for general mobilization. He immediately returned to the ship, gathered all hands, and told them
that he would send a to telegram the Admiralty offering the ships, stores and
services to the country in the event of war breaking out. Within an hour
after sending the telegram, Shackleton received a reply from the Admiralty with
the single word
"Proceed". Within two hours, another arrived from Winston Churchill in
which he thanked them for their offer but desired that the expedition go on. That night,
at midnight, war broke out.
On August 8th the Endurance
sailed for the Antarctic via Buenos Aires and the sub Antarctic island of South
Georgia where there was a Norwegian whaling station. It was thought that the war
would be over within six months so when it came time to leave for
the south, they left with no regrets.
On November 5th they arrived at
South Georgia. Shackleton learnt
much from the whaling captains about the conditions between there and the
Weddell Sea. The plan had been to spend only a few days collecting stores, but
instead the Endurance remained at South Georgia for a month to allow the ice
further south to disperse. This month was one where bonds of friendship and
mutual respect were formed between the Endurance crew and the Norwegian
whalers. Bonds that were to prove unexpectedly useful some time later to
Shackleton and his men.
The Weddell Sea was known to be particularly ice bound at the best
of times and the Endurance left with a deck-load of coal in addition to normal
stores to help with the extra load on the engines when it came to pushing
through pack ice in the Weddell Sea to the Antarctic continent beyond. Extra
clothing and stores were taken from South Georgia in the event that the
Endurance may have to winter in the ice if caught in the Weddell Sea as it
froze, unable to reach the continent first. They left South Georgia on the 5th
of December 1914.
Next
page, into the pack ice
Historical photographs on this page by
permission of National Library of Australia
