National Maritime Museum to Host Virtual Talk on Ernest Shackleton
15th February 2021
Shackleton's ship Endurance embedded in the Antarctic ice of the Weddell Sea – one of Frank Hurley's remarkable photos which have done so much to immortalise an extraordinary expedition.
In almost every crisis or period of exceptional and continuing difficulty - such as we're living through now - people will hope to relate to the ultimately successful example of survival to be found in the experiences of Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1916. He may not have achieved his objective of crossing the Antarctic landmass, but he and his crew survived a ten month period ice-embedded in the Weddell Sea in their ship Endurance. And when she was finally crushed, Shackleton successfully led the way in an heroic journey across the ice floes for another five months, and then across the Southern Ocean by small boat such that, in time, all 22 expedition members were brought safely home.