1909, ERNEST SHACKLETON & THE MAGNETIC SOUTH POLE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Ernest Shackleton, the Anglo-Irish explorer, whose expedition finds the magnetic South Pole on a day like today in 1909.

Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874-5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic.

He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Born in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton and his Anglo-Irish family moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten.

Shackleton's first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition of 1901-1904, from which he was sent home early on health grounds, after he and his companions Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S.

During the Nimrod expedition of 1907-1909, he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles (180 kilometres) from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Also, members of his team climbed Mount Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home.

After the race to the South Pole ended in December 1911, with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole. To this end, he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917.

More information: Cool Antarctica

Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island, a stormy ocean voyage of 1,330 km and Shackleton's most famous exploit.

In 1921, he returned to the Antarctic with the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request, he was buried there. The wreck of Endurance was discovered just over a century later.

Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In his search for rapid pathways to wealth and security, he launched business ventures which failed to prosper, and he died heavily in debt. Upon his death, he was lauded in the press but was thereafter largely forgotten, while the heroic reputation of his rival Scott was sustained for many decades.

Later in the 20th century, Shackleton was rediscovered, and became a role model for leadership in extreme circumstances.

In his 1956 address to the British Science Association, Sir Raymond Priestley, one of his contemporaries, said Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton, paraphrasing what Apsley Cherry-Garrard had written in a preface to his 1922 memoir The Worst Journey in the World.

In 2002, Shackleton was voted eleventh in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

More information: History

Difficulties are just things to overcome after all.

Ernest Shackleton

ROALD E. AMUNDSEN: EXPEDITION TO THE BOTH POLES

Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (16 July 1872–18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole.

Amundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, to reach both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06) in the Arctic.

Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99) as first mate. This expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. 

More information: Nansen Amunsen

Amundsen next planned to take an expedition to the North Pole and explore the Arctic Basin. Finding it difficult to raise funds, when he heard in 1909 that the Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to reach the North Pole as a result of two different expeditions, he decided to reroute to Antarctica. 

Roald Amundsen

Amundsen left Oslo for the south on 3 June 1910. Nearly six months later, the expedition arrived at the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf , then known as the Great Ice Barrier, at a large inlet called the Bay of Whales, on 14 January 1911. 

Amundsen established his base camp there, calling it Framheim. Amundsen eschewed the heavy wool clothing worn on earlier Antarctic attempts in favour of adopting Inuit-style furred skins.

Using skis and dog sleds for transportation, Amundsen and his men created supply depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South on the Barrier, along a line directly south to the Pole. The painful retreat caused a quarrel within the group, and Amundsen sent Johansen and the other two men to explore King Edward VII Land.

More information: Oceanwide Expeditions

A second attempt, with a team made up of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, and Amundsen, departed base camp on 19 October 1911. They arrived at the edge of the Polar Plateau on 21 November after a four-day climb. 

Roald Amundsen in the Antarctic Peninsula

On 14 December 1911, the team arrived at the Pole (90° 0′ S). Amundsen named their South Pole camp Polheim, meaning Home on the Pole. Amundsen renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII’s Plateau. They left a small tent and letter stating their accomplishment, in case they did not return safely to Framheim.

Amundsen's expedition benefited from his careful preparation, good equipment, appropriate clothing, a simple primary task, an understanding of dogs and their handling, and the effective use of skis. 

More information: Tom Crean Discovery

Amundsen wrote about the expedition in The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the 'Fram,' 1910–12 (1912).

Amundsen disappeared with five crew on 18 June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic. They were seeking missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship Italia had crashed while returning from the North Pole. 

With the Norwegian flag in the South Pole, 1911

Afterward, a wing-float and bottom gasoline tank from Amundsen's French Latham 47 flying boat, which had been adapted as a replacement wing-float, were found near the Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed in fog in the Barents Sea, and that Amundsen and his crew were killed in the crash, or died shortly afterward. 

The search for Amundsen and team was called off in September 1928 by the Norwegian Government and the bodies were never found. 

More information: The Guardian

We must always remember with gratitude and admiration the first sailors who steered their vessels through storms and mists, and increased our knowledge of the lands of ice in the South. 

Roald Amundsen