Tom Crean - Antarctic Explorer
A brief overview of the life of Ireland's greatest Antarctic explorer.
Tag: Shackleton
The Ice Of Antarctica
The Ever Changing Continent
If you have ever wondered as to how the crew of the Endurance, suddenly found themselves completely ensnared in the ice of the Weddell Sea, before they had even made landfall on the Antarctic continent, bearing in mind the prior experience of men like Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean, to mention but two, then take a look at this fascinating video, on the amazing and rapid formation of the regions sea ice.
On This Day – February 28th 1909
Shackleton & Wild Reach Hut Point
Nimrod Expedition 1907-1909
Shackleton Nimrod Expedition
Ernest Shackleton, Frank Wild, Jameson Adams and Eric Marshall reached a new furthest South record of 88° 23′ S, on January 9th 1909, when they surpassed the previous record of 82° 17′ S, reached by Robert Scott, in December 1902. Shackleton who had accompanied Scott and Wilson on that occasion, had hoped to attain the South Pole under his own command, on the Nimrod Expedition, but after the difficult ascent of the Beardmore Glacier, which they had discovered, and named in honour of their chief sponsor, they had laboured in their efforts to traverse the Polar Plateau, and slowly realised that reaching the Pole was beyond them.
Shackleton calculated that there simply would not be enough food to sustain the men, over the distance required to reach the Pole, and the subsequent return march. On the 4th of January, Shackleton finally conceded defeat, and opted instead to target the consolation of getting to within 100 miles of the South Pole.
Endurance Photo Gallery – Colour Images by Frank Hurley.
Colour Photographs Of The Endurance Expedition
Images by Frank Hurley
Click on any image to view the gallery in a lightbox.
Frank Hurley colour Paget plates of Ernest Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’ expedition to Antartica, 1915