The Shackleton Post
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Created on April 7, 2022
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Transcript
Shackelton's crew
Ernest Shalckelton is the Irish captain of The Endurance, the boat of the expedition across the
- The Shackleton Post
This edition of the Shackleton Post magazine is dedicated to the crew members. Indeed, we have used Shackleton's logbook, Miss Capparell's work and have done some researches, to present you articles and illustrations about the leader of this expedition, Ernest Shackleton, but also about the photographer who was on board the boat and who helped to keep a trace
of the Endurance expedition. We also chose to present you the living conditions of the crew, and the famous mascot of the boat, which is the cat, Mrs Chippy. All these members played an important role during this expedition, and had to fight to stay alive for several months. They finally succeeded, thanks to their determination, but also thanks to Shackleton's many leadership qualities.
Antarctic. He was born on February, 15th, 1874. His nickname was « The Boss » and he was considered as one of the best leader of his time. He was an expert of leadership, so his crew had absolute confidence in him. He participated in many expeditions like « Expediton Discovery » in 1901, « Expedition Nimrod » in 1907, but his best known remains the « Expedition Endurance » executed between 1914 and 1917. His goal was to cross the Antarctic but his boat was taken in the icecap. As soon as the boat was released from the ices,
Shackelton noticed that it was unusable. They camped on Elephant island for a few months. After a moment, he was constrained to leave with few men, to search for help in South Georgia. At the end, he succeded by bringing back, alive, the 28 members of the crew, which made him a hero. A lot of them were sent to the front during World War 1 and died there. Following this expedition, which, in spite of its failure, remained really known, Shackelton was preparing a new expedition in Antarctic. He never took the departure because he died just a few hours before leaving, on January, 5th of 1922, at only 47 years old.
The crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to go to Buenos Aires wasn't really cool but it didn’t discourage the crew. The « v » -shape of the ship’s hull wasn’t adapted ; in fact, a big part of the crew thought that it wasn’t done for the « open sea », without any ice. Only some days after the beginning of the expedition from South Georgia, the last stopover before entering the Wedell sea, the travel became complicated. The crew had a non-negligible problem : the ice pack, a big puzzle of ice with flows between each piece. Indeed, while this boat had been built to navigate through this type of sea , the thickness of the ice pack overcame what Ernest Shackleton and Frank Worsley (the captain), had imagined. To clear a path through this ice sea, the crew didn’t have any other choice than using the Endurance as a battering ram. They retreated before starting to form a notch which let the boat pass. For a while, this technic was expensive in time but it turned out to be effective. Only, it was difficult for the crew members to stay positive while the temperatures were freezing, and while the ship was making progress at only 30 miles (around 48 kilometers) a day.
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Mrs.Chippy was the name of the ship's cat during the Endurance expedition. He was bought by the Scottish carpenter Harry « Chippy » McNish. He was nicknamed
James Francis Hurley, also known as Franck Hurley, is an adventurer, photographer and filmmaker from the 20th century. He was born in Australia on October 15th 1885. He was the Australian army’s official photographer during World War I and II. For example, he photographed the battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Franck Hurley participated in a lot of expeditions in the Antarctic, including those of Douglas Mawson, in 1911, and of Ernest Shackleton (the Endurance) between 1914 and 1916. During these expeditions, he photographed everything that happens. The photos he took during Shackleton's expedition allow us to have a lot of informations about the life of adventurers on the island. However, he's not just the photographer, he is also a member of the expedition: for example, he participated
in the dog race, arrived in the 2nd position and forged links with the animals. Thanks to his photos, he released a documentary entitled South, in 1919. Franck Hurley finally died on January 16, 1962, in his country of birth.
after the carpenter. And he was called Mrs.Chippy because he followed its owner all the time, as if he were his wife. Despite his name, the crew discovered a month after the beginning of the expedition that he was a male. His goal was to catch mice and rats and of course to be a source of company for the crew. The tiger-striped tabby had lots of eases on board : he climbed the rigging and could walk in the boat even during a storm ! He was also very provocative : sometimes he walked near the dogs who were locked up in the kennels to provoke them and he was described by the other members as « full of character ». On September 13th 1914, Thomas Orde-Lees wrote in his diary that the cat had survived 10 minutes in the sea ! On October 29th 1915, after the boat was taken in the ice and destroyed, Sir Ernest Schakelton decided to kill Mrs. Chippy and five other sled dogs because he thought that they wouldn't be able to survive. Harry McNish was very sad and angry against Sir Ernest Schakelton but on his tomb in Wellington, there is a statue of his cat, therefore, they can rest together in peace...
- The Shackleton Post