Assistant Curator Sarah Harvey looks back at Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, which launched a century ago today.
On this day (8 August) 100 years ago, a ship called the Endurance set sail from Plymouth, bound for Antarctica. The ship carried Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the goal of which was to make the first transcontinental crossing of Antarctica through the South Pole, from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea.
The expedition failed when Endurance became trapped in pack ice and, after 9 months, was eventually crushed and sank, stranding Shackleton and the crew on the ice. Despite this failure the trip became famous as an epic feat of endurance, as Shackleton and his crew made a desperate and heroic bid for escape in three tiny boats, crossing the Southern Ocean to the island of South Georgia. Sadly, three lives were still lost: Victor Hayward, Aeneas Mackintosh and the Rev. Arnold Spencer-Smith from the Endurance’s supply ship the Aurora.
It was the last great expedition of what is known as the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, and for 100 years has provided inspiration for both explorers and artists alike, including author Tony White whose thought provoking and innovative latest novel, Shackleton’s Man Goes South, is the first novel ever to be published by the Science Museum. More information about Shackleton’s expedition and the novel, which is available as a free e-book until April 2015, can be found in the Science Museum’s Atmosphere gallery.
Drawing on tales of adventure from the past and cutting-edge new scientific research into the effects of climate change, White imagines a terrifying future where people are fleeing to Antarctica, instead of escaping from it; in a hot world instead of a cold one.
The author says that he became fascinated not only by Shackleton’s amazing feat of heroism, but the way that the story has been told. “I wondered what new resonances those early tales — and moving images — of Antarctica a century ago might have now when that great continent’s ice sheets are at risk because of climate change, and what kind of Shackleton myth might inspire future generations of migrants to Antarctica. Migration is being seen as a form of adaptation to climate change, and the novel suggests that climate change refugees, setting out in tiny boats on equally desperate and epic voyages, might be the Ernest Shackletons of our day.”
There are zeppelins over South Kensington and boat people in the South Atlantic. Among them are Emily and daughter Jenny, travelling south to safety and a reunion with John who has gone ahead to find work. They travel with Browning, a sailor who has already saved their lives more than once. In the slang of their post-melt world, Emily and Jenny are refugees known as ‘mangoes,’ a corruption of the saying ‘man go south’.
To find out more about the inspiration behind Shackleton’s Man Goes South and download the e-book click here or visit the Science Museum’s Atmosphere gallery.