Shackleton and the Antarctic

Tue, Nov 12th 2019 at 6:30 pm -

Guest Speaker was Captain Jerry Purvis


Captain Jerry Purvis was the guest speaker at this week’s meeting, his talk was on Shackleton’s expeditions to Antarctica.

During an expedition 1907–1909 he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home. 

After the race to the South Pole ended on 14 December 1911 with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition planned to follow 1800 miles of which 1600 miles of man haul. Hugely ambitious project.

Huge public interest, over 5000 applications to join the expedition.
8 August 1914 Endurance left Plymouth
25 October 1914 left Buenos Aires
5 November 1914 arrived South Georgia
5 December 1914 sailed from Grytviken, South Georgia
19 January 1915 beset in ice of Weddell Bay
By October 1915 listing to port
27 October 1915 abandoned ship and up Dump camp on the ice about 350 miles from Paulet Island.

Marched over the ice with dog teams and in 3 days had only travelled 2 miles so formed Ocean Camp.Floes that they were drifting on were breaking up.
21st November 1915 Endurance finally sank.
They drifted up to seven miles per day but took them north west.
29 December 1915 halt called and Patience Camp, the third and final was set up.
Here for more than three months

2 February 1916 ice broke up
7 April 1916 Elephant Island and Clarence Island came into view

Boats were floated.

Torrid journey on overloaded boats in temperatures down to minus 29C
Headed for Elephant Island.

15 April 1916 landed at Cape Valentine, first land for 497 days.
Had to go somewhere because if they didn’t get rescued they would all die. So on 24 April 1916 set off for South Georgia on the James Caird. 800 miles through constant storms and on 5 May met a gigantic wave. Worsley navigated with on two sun sights.

8 May sighted South Georgia but hurricane meant they did not make landfall until 10 May at King Haakon Bay. 

Started journey across South Georgia on 19 May hoping to find a whaling station at Stromness Bay.  Crossed  glaciers and crevasses.  A whistle from Stromness, this their first man made sound heard since December 1914.

Arrived at Fortuna Bay whaling station at 3.00pm on 20 May 1916. 

Left 10.00pm that night on Samson to pick up those on left behind on Elephant Island. Four attempts until on 30 August 1916 Elcho reached Elephant Island. Reached Punta Arenas Chile 1916 to a hero’s welcome. Shackleton returned to UK in May 1917.

Quest Expedition 1921-1922

Sept 1921 sailed from the Thames
Intention to call in at Cape Town but needed to go to Rio De Janeiro for repairs.
17 December Shackleton suffered suspected heart attack. 

4 January arrived in South Georgia

On 5 January 1922, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton died.
Buried 5 March on South Georgia.

Quest returned to South Georgia April 1922

Jerry closed with a quote "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 The Worst Journey in the World. 

The vote of thanks on behalf of all those present was proposed by Bill Morrison. 

President Brian Mitchell presented Captain Jerry Purvis with a bottle of Shackleton Whisky.

While the the Antarctic Heritage Trust were refurbishing Shackleton’s Hut on Ross Island in 2007, almost a century after the expedition, three cases of the perfectly preserved whisky were discovered, frozen into the ice beneath Shackleton’s base camp at Cape Royds on Ross Island in Antarctica. 

It took eight months to thaw out before world renowned Master Blender, Richard Paterson, carried out painstaking analysis to re-create this antique whisky, and used this as the foundation to create Shackleton – a modern Blended Malt with ice in its DNA.

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