UKC

A stunningly evocative set of photos of Shackleton's epic - one of the great survival stories
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34856379

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and, before I get flamed, apologies for the mis-spelt title!

In reply to pneame:

Cheers for that Pete, Shackleton's adventures have always fascinated me, I am hoping to visit Dulwich College where one of his boats, the James Caird is on display.

In reply to pneame:

I spotted this earlier tonight on the BBC website . Really wonderful images especially the internal shots on the ship.

In reply to pneame:
Wonderful pictures, thanks for putting the link up. My 2 grandfathers were in the trenches all that time....

In reply to colinakmc:

Amused by the chap who stowed away- he got a bit more than he expected, I would guess. I wonder what his plan was?

In reply to pneame:

I read a lot about the explorers during my backpacking days. Shackleton by Roland Huntford is an epic book and a completely enthralling read, Frank Hurley's photos in Shackleton and Endurance are superb. It shows a measure of the man that his crew would do anything he asked as he was held in such high regard. Frank Worsley's navigation to South Georgia must be one of the greatest feats in maritime history, he only made 4 sextant readings in 800 nautical miles.
Everyone remembers the epic Endurance escape, but his 2 previous expeditions had their own stories. Shackleton making the decision to turn back when he was just over 100 miles from the south pole due to lack of supplies, also Amundsen said that if it wasn't for Shackleton's mapping of the terrain he would never have made it to the South Pole.



Chris

In reply to chris fox:
There is an interesting documentary on US Netflix where a group recreates the voyage to South Georgia using a similar boat and the same clothing equipment Shackleton would have used. They are shadowed by a modern boat. They navigate using a sextant and when they are near to South Georgia the boat shadowing them has to warn them about their position. They were a few miles nearer to the coast than the thought and would have ended up being wrecked. In the event they only just manage to get round the headland into the bay where Shackleton landed.

All the crew were physically exhausted and only a small number were able to attempt the crossing of the mountains to the whaling station. When Shackleton crossed the mountains he lost a couple of days trying possible routes that lead nowhere. Even though the modern crew knew where they were going, they are right at the end of their tether when they finally get to the whaling station.

In reply to pneame:

At first I read it as he only keeped the 120 negs.

''Hurley was forced to become more selective with his subject matter as time went on - and in the end he destroyed 400 of his negatives, keeping only 120, of which the Royal Geographical Society now looks after 68''.